A Customized Approach from a Vendor Small Enough to Listen

“We had no good way to keep track of our printer units or our cost per print. Our locations had no technical or repair support when a printer failed, forcing us to keep extras at each location at a significant cost. We were purchasing printers from four different vendors depending on the lowest cost at the time, which created more work for our Accounts Payable team as well,” explained Brian Dullea, Factory Motors Parts Technical Solutions Specialist, who was instrumental in choosing and implementing a PrintVision program. “We needed team members at all our locations to focus on selling and moving parts, not on keeping the printers working.”

The Solution

Loffler’s PrintVision team conducted a detailed analysis of FMP’s printing environment, costs and processes, and offered a cost per copy solution that included toner, technical support, service and maintenance for every location. Quarterly reviews provide print volumes and total fleet management reports, producing total cost of print ownership records.

Almost 550 printers were replaced with just under 400 in a right-sizing adjustment. Invoicing from five different vendors was consolidated to one. All maintenance is now conducted onsite at each location, with an average four-hour response time from dedicated local repair technicians. 

Loffler’s PrintVision team monitors supply use and automatically ship supplies when needed. An online customer portal provides a pro-active line of sight into all service activity with live, real-time data for the Factory Motor Parts team.

Managed Print Services (MPS) helps organizations cut print costs, reduce their carbon footprint, and improve basic business processes. This unified approach to the management of hard copy print devices such as printers, scanners, copiers, and fax machines includes an assessment, right-sizing, pro-active management, and on-going optimization of the printing and imaging environment.

Our solution includes:

• Nation-wide service & support
• 24-hour online customer service portal
• Automated supply fulfillment
• Automated meter readings
• All parts and labor
• Live reporting of service and printer activity
• Right-sizing recommendations
• On-going review of program benefits
• Toner recycling
• Web-based data collection tool

Implementation

Loffler configured, shipped and installed 386 printers at 125 locations across the United States in two weeks. Before the printers were shipped from Loffler’s warehouse they were prepared and equipped with processes that included: 

• Updated firmware
• Configured passwords
• Changed font pitch
• Turned off banner page(s)
• Added a Loffler tag
• Changed carriage return

Factory Motors Parts has a busy technical solutions team of five people supporting their locations, so having every printer ready to “plug and play” was a tremendous help. Since the installation of new printers, help desk calls have decreased significantly, and are seldom related to printer issues.

The Results

In addition to a reduced cost of ownership for hardware, maintenance, supplies and support reaching more than $75,000 per year, the benefits of PrintVision save time and make work processes more efficient. Usage is monitored and toner auto-shipped when supplies are low so locations no longer have to manage toner inventory. “We had no idea how much was being kept in stock and whether it was being managed well,” Dullea commented. “We don’t have money sitting on shelves in toner and backup printer inventory all across the country anymore.”

Quarterly reports detail exact costs per page to print as well as the level of usage on each device, allowing for ongoing right-sizing and usage analysis. 

Service calls from any location are made directly to Loffler, freeing up the IT team to focus on higher-value projects. Workflow and work load processes for Purchasing Agents and Accounts Payable workers were streamlined with one payment to one vendor.

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