PaperCut Print Management for Fitness Chain

PaperCut Print Management for Fitness Chain

Stockport-based registered charity Life Leisure is enjoying a massive reduction in running costs…with PaperCut MF print management software. Coupled with Midshire’s innovative managed print services, and by consolidating devices with modern technology, Life Leisure staff can focus efforts on providing an affordable array of services that encourage excellent physical health in the local community.

The Problem: Ageing Hardware Complicating Print Management

Problem 1: Ageing hardware with limited functionality
Problem 2: Increased breakdowns due to ageing devices
Problem 3: Staff printing not monitored causing spiralling costs

Life Leisure’s first problem was limited functionality. The black and white machines they were using were getting tired, and at the pace of technological change, the devices were being greatly outperformed by the most basic modern printers.

As an existing managed print service customer, Midshire closely monitored Life Leisure’s activity. It was starting to become apparent that Life Leisure’s downtime was increasing, stemming from the ageing hardware needing more repairs. As a result, a mounting backlog of prints was taking reception staff away from customer service, and office staff away from management.

Another problem was waste paper. Budgets are usually tight for any organisation, but as a charity Life Leisure needs every penny to count, and with no insight into where waste was taking place, there was no strategy set to tackle the financial burden, which if left unchecked may have hindered the expansion of organisation.

The Solution: Print Management and much needed Modernisation

Solution 1: Increase functionality with modern devices
Solution 2: Managed print services to reduce downtime
Solution 3: PaperCut software to manage print spend

With the machines coming to the end of their lease life Midshire decided the first solution was to modernise the fleet. Seven full-colour Sharp multifunction printers and six Sharp desktop devices were proposed, all fully capable of scanning to email or folder, and document feeders would allow piles of member documents to be scanned at once. Furthermore, the innovative upgraded devices would allow staff to print colour posters in-house, without the need to outsource.

Lastly by installing PaperCut MF on the new Sharp printers, Life Leisure’s management team would have sight of their print fleet across all twelve centres. This was proposed to provide valuable information on who was printing, how they were printing, and where waste was mounting.

“This installation was unique because the centres demanding 7-day schedule meant we had to get each site up and running in a short window of time. We preconfigured all of the machines beforehand so that the devices simply had to be plugged in, with no need for on-site networking. They’re quicker and much more affordable, and with the addition of PaperCut, we’ve forecast a further 30% saving on their annual print spend which will be so valuable for them.

“Our partnership with Life Leisure goes far beyond business. We worked closely with them in 2015 to deliver a fitness scheme to all of our staff in Stockport, and we have a coast-to-coast charity cycle planned in August for the British Heart Foundation, so it’s a really exciting time for both companies!” Stuart Carruthers, IT Sales Manager, Midshire

The Outcome: Simplified Multisite Printing

Completed over one weekend in April 2018, all twelve Life Leisure centres now have functionality like never before. Entirely new scanning features allow any member of the team to scan directly to a company-wide shared server, making work streamlined and collaboration easier.

The biggest benefits continue to come from the installation of PaperCut MF. Secure follow me print release functions built into the software let staff print to a single print queue, which in turn has brought the charity in line with the General Data Protection Regulation by only letting employees print out and see their own prints.

Now that PaperCut has given the management team sight of who is printing, it has encouraged responsible behaviours from all staff and reduced the amount of waste. The financial savings made from that reduction in waste continue to be reinvested into the local Stockport community, and has contributed to Life Leisure’s growth further afield, with the company looking to expand into Cumbria.

“In the entire 7 years that we’ve known Stuart and worked with Midshire there has never been any disappointment in the service. When Stuart told me Midshire wanted to save us even more money by reducing the number of printers we had, with more efficient higher spec ones I was obviously thrilled. Their engineers will proactively maintain the machines too, so we’re never unable to print!” Adelle Izzard, Systems Manager, Life Leisure