Case Study - King Edward VII

Established in 1910, King Edward VII School is one of the largest schools in Leicestershire, with 2,000 students aged between 11 and 19.

Technology is at the heart of the school curriculum, with 450 workstations and 700 laptops across the network. A third phase specialist technology college, Microsoft partner school and CISCO academy, the school has received a range of awards for its work including the CISCO award for innovative use of ICT and the British Council International School Award in 2003. King Edward VII School also looks after the IT requirements of 20 feeder schools, who also utilise their reprographics facilities.

Our Challenge
Complete Imaging plc had won a tender to replace the printers in the reprographics centre, all the school's photocopiers and several printers across the network with multifunctional devices (MFDs). The school also needed print management software that would work with all the printers in the new fleet.

Jim Mackintosh, Curriculum Support Services Manager, had been here before and knew precisely what they wanted: ‘‘Our existing print management software did not provide us with the control, cost reductions, improvements in processes or reduce our impact on the environment we had hoped for’.

The Solution
Lance Netherton, Account Manager at Complete Imaging analysed the situation and recommended Print Audit 5, a comprehensive print management and tracking solution. “I looked at other solutions in the market; only the Print Audit solution ticked all the boxes,” Jim explained. “We took advantage of a full system, 60 day free trial to make sure that Print Audit could deliver the reduction in costs and improvements in processes that the customer urgently needed.”

“Before the trial only 50% of work was sent to the print room, that has now increased to 80%. Print Audit was easy to install and use.”

Cost savings
Following in-depth discussions with King Edward VII School to understand their requirements, Complete Imaging introduced a new strategy and set up each student with a notional £5 print credit and staff with a department code, ensuring accurate charging and management information. “Complete Imaging quickly installed Print Audit across the network and ensured all MFDs defaulted to doublesided printing,” explained Jim. “Work can now be sent to any machine across the network and because of the accurate reporting, staff are motivated to send larger jobs to the lower-priced print room devices by the budget-holding department heads.”

“Print Audit tracks all the printers and collates all management data to our SQL server in real time, a great improvement.”

The Benefits
The school is now taking advantage of the many benefits that Print Audit has brought them.

Staff and students are utilising the full functionality of the MFDs and the school is now using considerably less paper, down by 100,000 sheets per year. The set-up costs for Print Audit have been recovered within 14 months and they now produce monthly reports for department heads, helping them to be more accountable and ensure the print room – particularly its less expensive machines – is used more effectively.

Final word to Jim Mackintosh: “We have achieved our objectives of reducing costs significantly, gaining a greater control of our resources and having far less impact on the environment”.