G4S South Africa, the local subsidiary of the world’s second largest private sector employer, has chosen Itec Connect to be its managed print services (MPS) partner in line with its drive to reduce costs and boost operational efficiency.
Under the terms of the deal, Itec will be managing a print infrastructure that generates 1,5-million pages per month and that spans some 300 devices.
G4S – which employs around 111 000 people in Africa alone – is one of the world’s leading security services firms. The company last year called for tenders for a new document output service provider with the goal of driving wastage out of its print environment, maximising productivity and achieving a cost-saving of at least 30% a year.
Leonard Martins, national procurement manager at G4S South Africa’s Cash Solutions division, says that the company decided to implement an MPS model because it believed that it could achieve substantial cost savings by eliminating unnecessary printing, wasteful colour printing and other abuses of company print resources.
The company chose Itec as its service provider based on a strong relationship between the companies that dates back many years as well as the professionalism of Itec’s presales process and its proposal, he adds. The transition towards MPS with Itec in October last year and progress has been smooth so far, says Martins.
MPS is a model where a service provider like Itec takes full responsibility for a company’s print and copy infrastructure, including all services, support, and supplies. The MPS provider should be able to guarantee cost-savings, backed by a predictable per-page cost.
In the case of this deal, Itec is aiming to help G4S South Africa achieve savings of around 35% on its printing and copying costs. In the first six months of the contract, G4S has already realised a 22% saving on printing and copying expenditure, says Gavin Meyer, MD of the Itec Connect Group. The process started with an extensive audit of G4S’s costs and the identification of fast ways to reduce expenditure.
Savings are accrued as a result of better controls over G4S’s direct and hidden printing and copying costs – among them support, consumables, and hardware rental or amortisation costs, as well as from reduced support costs. Other efficiencies come from rationalising print infrastructure, streamlining workflows with electronic data management software, and vendor consolidation.
One of the most important aspects of Itec’s MPS solution is that it brings transparency to the client’s document output environment, adds Meyer. With Itec’s software tools and processes in place, G4S has an accurate view of exactly how much it spends on printing and copying, and where the costs come from.
Itec’s Print Director, for example, allows G4S to track, audit and control all printing and photocopying. In addition to helping the company to keep tabs on people using company resources for personal printing and overusing colour printing, it offers features such as a follow-me-printing.
This functionality forces users to release the print job at the printer before it will print. Sentry, Itec’s remote multi-functional product (MFP) management solution, meanwhile, automates the entire device fault management process to reduce downtime and streamline fault management.
Included in the contract is the impactChoice carbon offset solution, which enables G4S to neutralise the environmental impact of its MFPs, printers, copiers and faxes by offsetting carbon emissions against micro-certificates.
ImpactChoice’s offering is auditable and makes it simple to offset the relatively small amount of carbon emissions from office automation equipment against credits from the voluntary and formal carbon exchanges. The impactChoice programme is a value-add built into all Itec MPS solutions and offers companies a quick win in their green IT strategies.
Under the terms of the deal, Itec will be managing a print infrastructure that generates 1,5-million pages per month and that spans some 300 devices.
G4S – which employs around 111 000 people in Africa alone – is one of the world’s leading security services firms. The company last year called for tenders for a new document output service provider with the goal of driving wastage out of its print environment, maximising productivity and achieving a cost-saving of at least 30% a year.
Leonard Martins, national procurement manager at G4S South Africa’s Cash Solutions division, says that the company decided to implement an MPS model because it believed that it could achieve substantial cost savings by eliminating unnecessary printing, wasteful colour printing and other abuses of company print resources.
The company chose Itec as its service provider based on a strong relationship between the companies that dates back many years as well as the professionalism of Itec’s presales process and its proposal, he adds. The transition towards MPS with Itec in October last year and progress has been smooth so far, says Martins.
MPS is a model where a service provider like Itec takes full responsibility for a company’s print and copy infrastructure, including all services, support, and supplies. The MPS provider should be able to guarantee cost-savings, backed by a predictable per-page cost.
In the case of this deal, Itec is aiming to help G4S South Africa achieve savings of around 35% on its printing and copying costs. In the first six months of the contract, G4S has already realised a 22% saving on printing and copying expenditure, says Gavin Meyer, MD of the Itec Connect Group. The process started with an extensive audit of G4S’s costs and the identification of fast ways to reduce expenditure.
Savings are accrued as a result of better controls over G4S’s direct and hidden printing and copying costs – among them support, consumables, and hardware rental or amortisation costs, as well as from reduced support costs. Other efficiencies come from rationalising print infrastructure, streamlining workflows with electronic data management software, and vendor consolidation.
One of the most important aspects of Itec’s MPS solution is that it brings transparency to the client’s document output environment, adds Meyer. With Itec’s software tools and processes in place, G4S has an accurate view of exactly how much it spends on printing and copying, and where the costs come from.
Itec’s Print Director, for example, allows G4S to track, audit and control all printing and photocopying. In addition to helping the company to keep tabs on people using company resources for personal printing and overusing colour printing, it offers features such as a follow-me-printing.
This functionality forces users to release the print job at the printer before it will print. Sentry, Itec’s remote multi-functional product (MFP) management solution, meanwhile, automates the entire device fault management process to reduce downtime and streamline fault management.
Included in the contract is the impactChoice carbon offset solution, which enables G4S to neutralise the environmental impact of its MFPs, printers, copiers and faxes by offsetting carbon emissions against micro-certificates.
ImpactChoice’s offering is auditable and makes it simple to offset the relatively small amount of carbon emissions from office automation equipment against credits from the voluntary and formal carbon exchanges. The impactChoice programme is a value-add built into all Itec MPS solutions and offers companies a quick win in their green IT strategies.