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Homepage | Why use Leemic? | Case studies

Case studies

Case Study #1: A Manchester SME

Current Situation

Employing over 200 staff, split across several departments. The firm was producing in excess of 1.5 million mono prints per annum, at a cost of approximately of £15,000. A total of 20 printers, located in various areas, from different manufactures, requiring different consumables were utilised.
In addition to toner costs, routine maintenance was charged at £1,200 per year.

A statement run of 1,700 sheets produced overnight was disrupted due to machine failure or paper miss feed and regularly had to be reproduced causing workflow disruption and increased workload for the IT department.

The requirement

The firm was relocating to purpose built offices, due to an anticipated increase in staff to approximately 500. The offices will have two designated print areas strategically located.
The firm required a facility capable of producing both colour and mono copies/prints along with network scanning. The equipment supplied had to provide a sufficient a level of redundancy to facilitate a slight increase in throughput.

The solution

Multifunctional Sharp systems with a combined output of 135 pages per minute were supplied and located in the two print centres. In addition to the hardware, Callisto managed print was supplied to enable print re-direction should any machine become redundant. This was particularly beneficial in ensuring the smooth production of the statement run.

The client will make a projected saving in excess of £9,000.00 against current running costs.

Case Study #2: Chess Plc, A Leading Telecoms Provider

One of the UK's leading business telecoms providers, Chess supplies smart cost effective communication solutions to a rapidly expanding customer base. The company partners leading technology vendors and data carriers to deliver integrated voice and data solutions at low cost. By switching to Chess, business customers can improve the effectiveness of their telecommunication services and save money.

Chess applies the same rigorous selection criteria to companies supplying systems for internal use as it does to the selection of the partner products and services that it offers to customers. New technology is expected to integrate with existing systems to improve processes and minimise cost. Chess has recently introduced an imaging solution from Sharp which has added new print functionality, automated document capture and reduced costs.

Stephen Dracup, technology director at Chess, explained that the business had relied on a single black and white print device to produce mission critical documents like invoices and meet everyday print and copy needs. “To add resilience to the invoice production process, we needed a second printer; preferably one with colour capability that could add impact to invoices and improve the appearance and effectiveness of other printed material.”

Local office equipment specialist, Leemic, recommended the latest Sharp colour multifunctional products. Stephen Dracup joined Leemic in Sharp's Warrington Showroom to see the Sharp equipment put through its paces. The Sharp device, which could print and copy at high speed in both colour and black and white, also offered sophisticated document capture and document transfer capabilities; a feature which proved central to the purchase decision.

Stephen explained: “We were looking for a means to capture hard copy documents and drop them into our data management system. Paper based records take up space. They are vulnerable to loss and searching for information can take time. We wanted a scanning solution that would integrate directly with our data management system and allow us to save hard copy documents effortlessly for later retrieval.”

Sharp multifunctional products boast open architecture technology. Many leading software vendors have developed applications that can be accessed directly from Sharp devices. Callisto Managed Scan is one such solution. The scanning interface is accessed from the operation panel of the Sharp machine. Incredibly easy to use, it allows users to scan documents directly from the Sharp device into any electronic document management system.

The customisable interface allows users to select information that will be associated with the scanned file. Documents are saved in pdf format with xml tags that might include a client name, customer number or project code. Compatible with leading connectors like SharePoint, Exchange and Invu, tagged files are dropped straight into the electronic document management system from where they can be searched, viewed and actioned.

A new Sharp colour multifunctional product was duly installed in the marketing suite at Chess's head office. The device is used to add high impact colour messages to invoices and make documents such as staff briefing notes and customer presentations more visually appealing. Another Callisto application, Managed Print, provides control over print costs, restricting access to then colour facility and providing management with an overview of use.

With the high speed colour device available for shared use on the company's network, Chess has been able to 'retire' a number of desktop printers which were proving to be expensive to run or which required high levels of support. According to Stephen Dracup, “The Sharp device is more reliable and has a much lower cost of ownership. Removing desktop printers has enabled us to save space and reduce print costs.”

The Sharp device has been configured with Callisto Managed Scan, enabling users to capture hard copy data like customer correspondence at the press of a button. Information is saved to the company's data management system which as well as acting as a central repository for data, automates some related processes. Customer correspondence is for example automatically forwarded to customer services for attention.  

Fax communication is also routed via the Sharp multifunctional product. A fax card enables the machine to connect to a standard telephone line and act as a high speed, high volume communication centre. Faxes can be sent from the control panel of the MFP or, using PC fax technology, directly from the desktop. Rather than printing inbound fax messages, the Sharp multifunctional product forwards faxes by email to customer services.

Stephen Dracup is more than happy with the contribution that Leemic's solution is making to the business. “Our invoices go out on time and marketing messages printed on the invoices have new impact. The scanning solution is easy to use and has helped us automate several key business processes. We expect our investments to deliver a payback within twelve months and Leemic's solution has certainly achieved that.”

Download PDF (300k) of the Chess PLC Case Study