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Blake Schaper and Eric Casteel, Marco Technology Advisors, introduced Jason to a document productivity planning process to help Coughlan Companies manage and control their document environment. The plan – called iLink – is a four step process that helped them assess, plan, measure, and manage their document output and distribution.
Blake and Eric worked with Jason to review and analyze all of their service and supply invoices from the past year to determine their actual costs and services provided. Through this process, Jason found that each department was working with and ordering supplies from a different vendor. In addition, he realized the high costs associated with maintaining and servicing older equipment that was in need of an upgrade.
The next step was to identify where all of their current equipment was located. Together Blake, Eric, and Jason reviewed the floor plans of Coughlan Companies’ building and labeled the locations of all of their current color and black-and-white copiers, printers, faxes, and scanners.
Blake and Jason then identified the document output needs of each of their departments. Jason explained, “We did a walk-through of the building so we could solidify what we needed for each area.” They identified centralized areas where new multifunction devices could be placed for easy access by their employees. “When consolidating units, we determined the maximum walking distance for an employee to access their equipment to be 20-25 ft.”, said Jason. “We wanted to keep the ease of getting to the units, but we also wanted to save money in not having as many units to maintain.”
Marco’s iLink process helped Jason define the company’s current document environment and his goals for managing that environment. “Our goals were to save money, simplify the process in taking care of printer issues, and consolidate our supply ordering,” said Jason.
After analyzing and reviewing the information gathered, Blake made recommendations on how they could eliminate some older units and personal printers and centralize color and multifunction devices with added features such as scan to email throughout the building.
Marco installed six new Konica color units and three black and white HP multifunction printers at their Mankato location. Two Konica color units and one HP multifunction unit was installed at their Bloomington office. Coughlan Companies’ publishing companies use their Konica color devices for proofing the color and content of their educational childrens’ books. Some of their current HP printers were relocated throughout the building as well. Jason explained, “Some of our printers were already nine years old and were not easy to maintain. We kept some of our existing HP units because Marco could service them for us and added some new ones with additional features. We now have a nice mix of new and existing equipment throughout our buildings.”
He went on, “Marco’s iLink process helped us evaluate what we had and how we could better organize and upgrade our output devices. Without a doubt, I think the process is worth checking out because you start to see things you didn’t see before and understand things about your document environment that you didn’t know.”
Some of Coughlan Companies’ previous devices required a high quality Xerox paper which was costly to purchase. They can now standardize on a quality paper for their HP units that is less expensive. In calculating the costs they have saved in streamlining their service, supply, and paper costs. Jason said they now save up to $2,000 per month in document distribution and output costs.
When it came to the installation and training of the new units, Blake and Jason sat down and reviewed the building maps so they could visualize the big picture of the devices. Jason said, “The multiple levels in our building made it a little more challenging to remove equipment and install new units without disrupting our employees’ workflow. We reviewed our floor plans with Marco and set up the schedule and it was so organized. Blake’s communication has been absolutely fantastic! I just give him a call and he finds a solution for us.”
Jason feels good about the overall reorganization of the company’s document environment and his relationship with Marco. “I worry about next to nothing,” He said. “I like that I don’t have to figure out who I’m going to call to get something fixed. If we can’t fix the problem internally, we just call Marco. They make my job easier.”
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