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"It has been a full year since we moved to a predominantly Kyocera environment, and we are now able to calculate the savings that have been made. Although we had been expecting to see a difference, even we were surprised when we discovered that we had reduced our consumables
and supplies bill by more than 50%!" |
| Simon Wilkin |
| Client Services Manager |
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Basingstoke and Deane council opts for lean green printing network with Kyocera
Simon Wilkin from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council explains how he reduced print costs and enhanced efficiency by choosing Kyocera products...
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| Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is an "Excellent" rated local authority with an ambitious approach to providing the highest quality local council services for the region's 160,000 residents. The council has approximately 600 employees based in its offices in Basingstoke town centre. The council's printing requirements are many and varied, from standard letters and reports to multi-part forms. Simon Wilkin decided in 2001 that the council's incumbent printer supplier could no longer respond effectively to the organisation's needs, and that it was time a new supplier was selected: "We had been using the same supplier for more than a decade, but had had trouble with unreliable technical support and spiralling consumables costs. It was essential that we deploy more cost-efficient and reliable printers as soon as possible." |
| Having read about Kyocera in various publications and having noted the company's unique and environmentally friendly technology, Simon decided to include Kyocera printers in his evaluation: "We were looking for a supplier that could deliver a real advantage over the competition. The other products that we evaluated were effectively the same as those of our incumbent supplier, with the same problems of high cost of ownership and environmentally unfriendly consumables." Once Simon and his team had evaluated all the potential suppliers, Kyocera printers came out favourite: “We found that the Kyocera printers had all of the technological benefits that we needed without the high TCO. The council is very conscious of the environmental impact of what we buy and Kyocera fitted the bill very well. We were also impressed with how easy the printers were to maintain, their small footprint and good customer reputation." |
| Kyocera’s range of ECOSYS laser printers are uniquely designed to minimise total cost of ownership in an environmentally responsible product. Kyocera's drums and developer have been designed to last up to thirty-three times longer than those of competitor's printers. They do not need replacing every time the toner runs out, therefore the user need only replace the toner cassette, hence reducing cost and waste. |
| Other manufacturers, with their cartridge-based laser printers, include the drum, developer and cleaning system within each and every cartridge. Each time the toner runs out, all of these components have to be replaced, increasing the cost of consumables for the user. By rejecting this outdated approach, ECOSYS technology not only keeps running costs to an absolute minimum, it also goes a long way towards reducing the environmental damage caused by consigning used cartridges to landfill sites. |
As well as changing all the print hardware, the council had some significant challenges to meet with regard to the software and networking support for the print system, as Simon explains: "Having used one supplier for such a long time we had become very accustomed to their software and networking solutions. We also had a number of specialist multi-copy printers, which were not compatible with other makes. Our technicians and users were also accustomed to the printers and the switch required us to change macros and embedded print commands, all of which looked like it might be very hard work. Fortunately, we were able to resolve the software and macro problem very quickly; there were no issues with the change of hardware - everyone preferred the Kyocera printers!" |
| Dealing with the issue of the multi-bin printers took slightly longer, but eventually Simon and his team found a solution involving adding additional paper trays. One of the council's specialist software suppliers created print software to overcome the multipart printing problem, which Simon believes now works better than it did before. |
The council now uses the full range of Kyocera printers, fromdesktop mono laser printers with standard duplex, right up to the departmental machines, which deliver crisp and rapid output. All printers are equipped with duplex units to enable doublesided printing, which also helps the council to reduce paper consumption. "Since carrying out our comprehensive print audit and moving more users onto network printing, our system has been much more streamlined." Says Simon, "We've saved paper too, by setting all of the printers to duplex as default." |
| Since the council has started using Kyocera printers, the advantages have been clear, as Simon Wilkin explains: "The Kyocera printers have certainly had an impact in reducing our toner bill and the benefits in efficiency have been extensive. The machines are reliable and the toners last a long time. We have had to place very few calls with the Kyocera helpdesk, but on the few occasions we have they were excellent and the response times were impressive." |
"It has been a full year since we moved to a predominantly Kyocera environment, and we are now able to calculate the savings that have been made. Although we had been expecting to see a difference, even we were surprised when we discovered that we had reduced our consumables and supplies bill by more than 50%!" Basingstoke and Deane Borough council plans to work in partnership with Kyocera to ensure that its savings continue: "We will continue to use Kyocera as our preferred supplier, particularly exploiting savings in colour printing and possibly high volume printing." Concludes Simon Wilkin. |
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- Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is an "Excellent" rated local authority with an ambitious approach to providing the highest quality local council services for the region's 160,000 residents. The council has approximately 600 employees based in its offices in Basingstoke town centre.
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- The council's printing requirements are many and varied, including multi-part forms. Client Services manager Simon Wilkin wanted to find a printer supplier that could help the council cut its printing costs and provide efficient printing services with reliable technical support.
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- After evaluating several suppliers, the council opted for the unbeatably low running costs of the Kyocera range. Simon was also impressed by the small footprint of the printers and their ease of maintenance.
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- The council's toner bill has reduced considerably since its adoption of Kyocera printers.
- Efficiency gains have been extensive with reliable machines and long lasting toners.
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