Because Oak Hills Living Center’s existing copier was over five years old, they were looking to replace the equipment with a faster unit with more options to increase productivity in their copy room.

As a long time customer of Marco’s, Tom Pelzel, Environmental Services Supervisor of Oak Hills Living Center, counted on Blake Schaper, Marco technology advisor, to assist them in the selection process. “When we started looking, we weren’t really sure what our needs were,” explained Tom. “Blake helped us understand our needs and the available features required to make a good decision. He did a nice job presenting our options and gave us competitive pricing.”

Marco recommended the Sharp AR-M550 digital copier/printer for their copy room with an output speed of 55 copies per minute and features including stapling, collating, and three-hole punching. The unit also allows them to scan documents to their PCs. Marco installed the unit at Oak Hills Living Center in 2004 and connected it to their network to allow their staff to print directly from selected PCs. Tom said, “This works great when we have a large document or need to make a large amount of copies.” An example of this is when they produce information packets for yearly in-service training sessions for their 140 employees. Tom explained, “We sometimes have 20 pages to copy per staff member. Having a fast copier makes it very efficient for us, especially because some of it is last minute.”

Marco also installed three Sharp AR-M160 multifunction printers (MFPs) with faxing capabilities at each of Oak Hills Living Center’s nursing stations. According to Tom, “This gives our nursing staff more flexibility and saves them time when they need to fax information to the doctors or clinics.” Because of privacy rules, Marco set the MFPs up to only send faxes and not receive them.

Although Tom said that they have not had many service issues, he feels Marco is responsive when they do request service. “Marco’s service has been great. We make a phone call and Kevin Date (Marco technical representative) is always here that day and most times within hours of placing the call. He is in our area often. Kevin has gone out of his way to help us out.”

Tom feels Marco’s breadth of technology services is a plus for their organization. “We need to update our phone system and Marco has some very talented people in that department as well,” said Tom. “Randy Lindstedt (Marco communications specialist) came out to evaluate our needs and made recommendations for a new system. He was very knowledgeable and it was informational.

Tom added, “Marco is a full service technology provider. All around we have been very happy with Marco and have a good working relationship with everyone. Whenever I need something, I just call Blake’s cell phone and he’s always been there for me.”

Oak Hills Living Center in New Ulm is a 94-bed skilled nursing facility with 32 assisted living apartment units utilizing 170 staff members. They built a new facility in 1995 to fill a growing need for additional space.