WaterLinx, the national swimming pool, spa, koi, and solar products supplier, has cut costs significantly in its document environment, reduced IT support calls by 30% and gained ease-of-use and improved employee use of its document environment by employing Ricoh SA’s managed document services (MDS).
The business, which has eight branches around the country, manufactures its own solar heating equipment and supplies South African businesses and exports to Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Europe and South America, had numerous requirements related to its print environment.
It sought to reduce print costs, have a single, unified driver for ease of use, have remote management, simplify its document infrastructure, minimise support requirements, and have a single vendor supplying its needs.
“We had numerous problems with our document environment as a result of allowing it to grow organically and acquisitively alongside our overall business expansion,” says Bennie Kriegler, IT manager at WaterLinx.
The business was originally called Waterlines and began operations 15 years ago as a distributor. It acquired similar-sized wholesalers throughout the country to create a national distributor with a broad range of products and suppliers.
Further acquisitions brought Investec Bank aboard as an equity partner in 2002 and a management buyout in 2005 saw further change and Investec retain its significant minority stake. The group is today a focused swimming pool and spa business with four divisions: WaterLinx Pool & Spa, Quality Pool & Spa, WaterLinx Trading, and Sharmark Plastics.
The resultant document environment serving 160 people left WaterLinx with different supplier contracts at its various branches, no central control, different types of contracts, some with minimum billing, some without, lack of control over consumables, out-dated technology in need of replacement.
In some cases contracts had expired and that resulted in service issues. It also resulted in a high total cost of ownership (TCO) of the environment, old equipment, out-dated drivers that resulted in spooling issues and increased IT support overheads.
“We realised that our document environment was a cost centre that was doing more to inhibit our operations than promote them and ensure good customer service,” says Kriegler. “When we investigated remedying the situation we realised we had a number of requirements: We needed a single contract for the entire group, a competitive rental agreement, reduced cost-per-page, no minimum billing across the group, a single driver for ease of use and integration, and remote management for remotely ordering toner.”
Maeve Hartzenberg, sales consultant at Ricoh SA, says: “That’s a very typical scenario for many companies of that size that have either developed organically, through acquisitions or both. They end up with a document environment that incorporates a number of different devices, some new, some old, that don’t always work well together.
The numerous supplier contracts complicate the environment and it can become prohibitively expensive and confusing to operate. Centralising control, supply and servicing not only gives them the control they need to ensure that people always have the capabilities they require to do their job but also gives them the ability to extract greater value from the available infrastructure.
They gain clear visibility into needs and use to ensure that equipment is deployed appropriate to the requirements of a given division, business unit or role within the company. They also gain the ability to manage the environment better for cost and productivity benefits.”
Ricoh deployed a solution based on numerous devices and its @Remote remote service software. @Remote is an Internet-based remote management tool that automatically alerts Ricoh’s service control division about any technical issues that occur with the connected device and defines the problem so that a technician with the correct spare parts can be immediately dispatched.
It’s a proactive approach that reduces downtime. It also automatically reads meters and orders toner when consumables run low. In addition, it logs clicks per month, which is used to automate the billing process.
The solution is based on numerous devices that include the SP 3400, the MP C305, the MP C3002, the MP C2501 and the MP C300.
“With those devices they get a range of features that support their business processes,” says Davy Khozani, marketing product manager at Ricoh SA.
“They include high-yield toner cartridge to reduce cost-per-page factors, multifunction features, print job allocation, automatic metering, multiple device management, security features such as multi-level authentication, document distribution from the scanner, and IP faxing, which reduces costs, energy and paper-saving modes, large document production such as booklets, brochures and oversized pages.
“They can also print from smartphones and tablets through a downloaded app, schedule print jobs, distribute documents from the scanner, access IP faxing and a full range of management features. They can also integrate the devices with all workflows in the business.”
“Both managers and employees are extremely happy with the solution compared with our previous environment,” says Kriegler. “And who wouldn’t be with the benefits we’ve gained?”