Lewes Old Grammar School in Lewes, East Sussex, is an independent co-educational day school. An educational trust was established in the will of Agnes Morley who died in 1512; Lewes Old Grammar School has some historical links to that trust and as such might be described as ‘the 38th oldest school in England.’ The Junior School, for ages 4–11, is housed in its own building, Morley House in King Henry’s Road. The Senior School is situated in the centre of Lewes, occupying three former townhouses, Mead House, Tyne House and St. Clair House, all of which are grade II listed buildings.

Lewes Old Grammar School prides itself on being a community which is moulded by the individual pupil’s aspirations and needs, believing that co-education is the most natural way for pupils to learn, and that pupils have the right to think for themselves and express their views. Central to their vision is the conviction that each child is an individual who has valuable capabilities.

The importance of local support

Situated in the heart of the county town of East Sussex, Lewes Old Grammar School is unusual in occupying multiple small buildings in the high street to accommodate its 150 pupils aged from 3-18 years. Ed Baigent, IT Manager, commented on the layout and structure,

“We are very different from most schools, being spread over multiple historic buildings that date back to the 16th Century. Our sites are small and unique and often create challenges in terms of implementation and usage of technology, especially large printing devices being housed into very tight spaces.”

Lewes Old Grammar School have a long-term partnership with specialist printing solutions provider Premier Managed Technologies, who have been managing their estate for over 10 years and chose to continue to work with this local and trusted supplier when their lease was due to expire on their desktop devices earlier in the year.

Ed talked about the importance of reliable support,

“Our relationship with Premier spans over a decade, they understand the unusual layout and structure of our departments, and can recommend the right products that will fit within the buildings. Over the period of our contracts, they have always proposed robust and reliable Toshiba products, with the functionality needed for a busy educational environment. We have the added peace of mind of knowing that they are just down the road, should we have any problems or issues, which is actually very rare.”

A fit for the environment

Premier Managed Technologies recommended smaller and more compact Toshiba desktop printers, a better fit to replace the schools cumbersome legacy devices. Greg Payne, Director at Premier Managed Technologies spoke about the challenges of implementing products into a 16th Century building,

“Through our long-standing relationship with Lewes Old Grammar School, we understand fully the constraints of the various sites. We take the time to appreciate how the MFD’s and printers are used in each area and help the IT department to relocate and repurpose to get the best usage. With their lower running costs and reduced footprint, we knew the Toshiba desktop printers would be a perfect upgrade for the schools requirements.”

Following a successful and seamless transition, Lewes Grammar School now have a printing fleet that is reliable, secure and future-proofed to grow with the needs of the staff, teachers and pupils. The PaperCut software installed, enables them to set up rules and queues for release at each device, helping to manage and reduce print usage. And the full suite of reporting allows the Bursar to assign costs by department and query areas of heavy printing, to keep control of the budget.

The Partnership is a leading independent legal provider focussing on the first-time buyer market in London and the south east. The award-winning company is widely recognised as the thought leader in technology innovation and its modern approach to service, security and legal expertise.

Peace of mind

It might be in the name, but The Partnership understand the importance of working with suppliers who offer exceptional service and those where they can develop long-term relationships, built on trust and experience. Premier Managed Technologies is proof –The Partnership engaged with the local company over 5 years ago to support them with their office printing requirements and they have been providing a fully managed print service ever since.

Nikki Owen, Head of Operations, commented on the Premier Team,

“They are brilliant, they are just about the customer, not about themselves, that’s what makes them unique. They never try to sell me something that I don’t need, just recommend solutions that they believe will work best for our business. Throughout our time of working with Premier, they have delivered fantastic service, for the best price.”

With both their offices being totally paperless, and all files scanned directly to their case management software, when their existing MFD’s were due to be upgraded, Premier proposed a faster and more efficient Toshiba solution that would improve The Partnerships scanning workflows. Sam Lay, Director at Premier, talked about client relationships,

“Our philosophy is to really understand the customers’ objectives before proposing something to work for their business, whether it is looking to reduce paper wastage, improve document security or simply an efficient print set-up that just works, we can recommend the right hardware and software to help with the challenges. For The Partnership something quicker and more reliable, like Toshiba MFD’s, was a perfect fit.”

Smooth transition

The transition to the new Toshiba MFD’s was seamless for staff members, with Premier on-hand to provide full training and help with any issues as they arose. The Partnership now have a faster more efficient print and scan solution with a lower overall cost of ownership and have been able to make time savings and process improvements across the business.

Nikki talked about some of the benefits of the new devices,

“We didn’t appreciate how clunky and slow our old equipment was until we started using the new Toshiba products, the quality of the print is so much better, we also have additional laboursaving functionality within the scan option. Previously we would have to manually remove blank pages on double sided scanning, by editing the PDF, but now we just put the document in the feeder, press the button and it does it for you.”

A fully managed service

The fully managed print service also means The Partnership have their consumables on-hand as and when they need them. For additional peace of mind, with Premier managing issues and alerts, when IT had a recent loss of connection, they were able to let them know immediately, to quickly resolve the problem.

Nikki concluded on the relationship,

“How we interact with our suppliers is so important to us, we would pay more for a better service. With Premier we don’t need to do that, we have a long-term partnership, with a like-minded company that has taken the time to look at how we could improve our business operation whilst at the same time reducing our overall costs.”

Coole Bevis LLP is one of Sussex’s leading law firms. With offices in Brighton, Hove, Worthing and Horsham, they are the product of the merger in 2016 of two of the most highly regarded and longest standing law firms in Sussex, Coole & Haddock and Woolley Bevis Diplock LLP. Both firms were over 100 years old, and their combined expertise and experience has truly stood the test of time.

For over a century, they have provided legal services to the families and businesses of Sussex and beyond, meeting the challenge of change and successfully blending modern legal practices with traditional, long-standing values.

A local approach

Coole Bevis LLP is an organisation that values it’s links with the local community and staff are often found fund-raising for their charity of the year and other worthwhile causes.  

In the same way, they take their responsibility to the environment seriously, trying to minimise waste and recycle used resources wherever possible.  So, when they were looking to reduce printing across their four busy offices in Sussex, they sought the advice of local supplier Premier Managed Technologies. 

Michaela Lemon, IT Manager, commented on the process, “As part of the renewal of our managed print service contract we knew that one of our key drivers was to reduce the number of desktop printers, moving away from staff members having their own devices.  We had been really impressed with Premier and the service they had provided to date.  For us it’s not just about the cost of the contract, we want to work with local companies, like Premier, where you can develop a long-term relationship, someone who understands your business and what the core objectives are.”

Impressed by their innovative recommendations to rationalise the estate and improve efficiency, the Executive Committee selected Premier to manage the new Coole Bevis LLP printing solutions contract.  Greg Payne, Director at Premier, talked about their approach, “With over thirty years’ experience in the industry, we have the knowledge to identify a print and document management strategy that works for our clients.  We always take the time to fully understand the customer’s workflows so that we can recommend the right solution for their business objectives.  For Coole Bevis LLP, the goals were clear, they wanted to minimise the number of desktop devices being used, reduce paper consumption and create centralised printing hubs at each of their offices.”

A more manageable fleet

In place of the desktop devices, Premier proposed the installation of robust and reliable Toshiba MFDs at the Coole Bevis LLP Sussex sites, to facilitate significant cost savings and help the company take the next steps towards lowering their paper consumption. They also recommended PaperCut – a print management software, with card activated printing at each of the MFD hubs, to help the business improve security and provide essential reporting to further manage print volumes across the estate.  The software is currently being trialled at Worthing, before a full roll out for the whole business.

A company that was using around 40 desktop printers, has been able to operate more efficiently with 16 MFDs. Michaela talked about the new print structure and the benefits, 

“Thanks to Premier’s experience and expertise the fleet is so much easier to manage, we’ve already begun to notice substantial savings on print and paper, which we should be able to quantify once we’ve rolled out the PaperCut software across all our sites.  As we were already using Toshiba MFDs in certain areas, the transition has been simple for staff, the devices being fast, easy to use, with the functionality we need for our day to day activities.”

Adaptable for the future

Coole Bevis LLP has a future proofed print solution that can grow with their needs.  Plans are already in process to look at how they can incorporate the software with their case management system, for file scanning.   

 Case Study: Zehnder Group (UK), Camberley

A Breath of Fresh Air: Increased Print Security and Lower Costs at Zehnder Group

For indoor climate specialists, Zehnder, delivering innovative, reliable and efficient solutions is what they do. So when they identified challenges in their printing security and higher than desired printing costs, they knew an innovative and efficient solution must be found. 

As major partners of Ricoh UK Ltd, the UK’s market leaders for office equipment, we were able to identify and deliver a solution for Zehnder that increased security, reduced costs and integrated with their existing systems.

Here’s what happened:

Problems with Existing Print Facilities

From the outset, Zehnder Group (UK) wanted to find a more efficient way of controlling its printing and copying services whilst adding features to increase the security of confidential documents. The challenges faced included:

•       A variety of over 15 printers, copiers and fax machines being used across different departments.
•       Lack of security for printing, providing a challenge when printing confidential documents.
•       No understanding of who was printing what, or ability to control or manage print usage.
•       The need for a system that integrated with their existing SAP system and door access proximity cards.

A Secure Print Solution:

The solution we supplied and installed for Zehnder included:

•       5 multi-functional devices (MFD’s) strategically located across the business.
•       Ricoh’s Universal Print Driver installed for uniformity across the network.
•       Digital card readers installed on each device to read authentication provided by existing door access cards.
•       Card Authentication Package (CAP) to improve security by tracking of confidential documents and ‘swipe and go’ authentication to release printing only when the document owner has swiped their card at their chosen printer.
•       Enhanced Locked Print to allow users to pick up prints from another Ricoh device on the network.
•       FlexRelease Servers which allows users to simply press ‘Print’, then select which device to collect from later – ideal for users who tend to be out of the office or for when people need quick, queue-free printing when they’re in a meeting.

Business benefits of Managed Printing and CAP :

With new multi-functional devices and software to help manage and control printing at Zehnder’s Camberley office, they were able to:

•       Reduce unnecessary printing and print wastage as print jobs are confirmed and printed only when the owner uses their swipe card.
•       Increase security by ensuring that confidential documents are only printed when the document owner is present and able to authenticate the action using their swipe card.
•       Create added security without any additional log-ins, passwords or access cards with print access enabled via existing door access cards.
•       Eliminate the need for fax machines, using secure scan-to-email functions instead.
•       Reduce office equipment by 66%.
•       Visibility over print usage in the business enabling increased control and management of printing costs.

In summary, now that the software has been successfully implemented, users can login to any of the five devices across the network and collect their print jobs, copy documents or scan to their email address. This has added important security to all the features of the MFD’s – and in particular printing and scanning. With cost savings in printing, the solution provided is a cost-effective way to improve printing practices across the Camberley office.

 “The real challenge was to find us a solution that not only provided the security and cost savings we sought – but that worked with our existing door cards.   Premier Managed Technologies have delivered on all counts. ”

Group IT Director, Zehnder Group

Managed Print Case Study: The Marist School

An Education in Managed Print Solutions at The Marist School

The Marist School Independent Catholic Day School is a renowned centre of excellence for teaching and education in Berkshire. At a time when school budgets are being squeezed and time is so precious, having an efficient use of resources is imperative. Yet their amalgamation of outdated printing services meant that their IT support team were constantly challenged with helpdesk requests, printing downtime was becoming a major inconvenience for staff and costs were high and unmanageable.

At U.K. Office Systems, we believe that printing facilities should make teachers’ lives easier – not harder; that by reducing the costs associated with print wastage, schools will have more money to spend on the things that matter. So, we delivered a solution to The Marist School that was reliable, cost effective, and ultimately reduced print wastage to less than 1% of total print volume.  

Here’s what happened:

Problems with Existing Printing Facilities

When we first met with The Marist School, we identified several problems:

•       Existing hardware consisted of many brands of predominantly desktop, unsupported Wax technology printers across the school.
•       Printers were unreliable, demanding constant support from their onsite IT support team, taking them away from core IT tasks.
•       Only one Multi-Functional colour device was available with limited access and expensive to maintain.
•       High amount of print wastage and unnecessary colour printing.
•       A need for increased document security for confidence in printing staff and pupil data.

The Managed Print Solution

The school was looking for a cost-effective and controllable solution with first class service and support. This is what we delivered:

•       9 Multifunctional devices strategically located across the school campus.
•       Pro-active support from the Premier Managed Technologies team, to identify potential issues before they arise plus reactive support from our locally based technical support team.
•     PaperCut MF Software managing all printers to track and control print usage. This provides visibility of who is printing what but also allows the school to put controls in place to encourage double sided printing or limit user behaviour.
•       Find-me printing through PaperCut means that users have to log-in to release their printing, increasing security and reducing paper wastage. 

The Results of a Managed Print Solution

The changes to the printing facilities at The Marist School have had some incredible results, including:

•       Colour printing reduced from 50% of total pages to 15%.
•       Print wastage reduced to less than 1% of total print volume.
•       Reduced printing and print wastage have reduced teaching costs, relieving pressure on school budgets.
•       Teachers are more satisfied, with less time dealing with broken printers and more time to teach!
•       Visibility of printer usage means staff can manage their own costs and budget for their printing, encouraging a ‘think before you print strategy’.
•       Less IT calls logged for printing issues due to the pro-active maintenance provided by the Premier Managed Technologies team.

School Principal Karl McCloskey summarised the impact of these changes perfectly, explaining, “In times when School budgets are being challenged and significantly compressed, efficiencies and cost saving measures are being actively sought across all areas of the school. This engagement with Premier Managed Technologies for a Managed Print Solution has enabled the Marist to achieve print output targets, reduce wastage and consequently drive down overheads in this area and exercise greater financial control of projected costs by determining print costs in advance.”