No More Waste or Waiting

The Challenge

Inefficient, wasteful and unaccounted for printing practices are a commonality in many offices around the world. Picture this common scene: An employee waits in line at a copier for a document to print. The document is queued between two massive HR print jobs containing the company’s annual tax documents. The employee does not know how long he will wait for his document to print, but soon realizes he would have had time for a restroom visit and a coffee refill. Unfortunately, the document has confidential financial projections that cannot be left unattended. And so, a wait ensues. Once his print job is finally completed, he needs HR’s help to sort through the stack and find his document, losing even more time. While he waits, he notices pages left unclaimed on top of the printer from mistakenly printed documents and wonders how long they’ve sat abandoned, creating a potential security concern. 

Slumberland Furniture saw similar scenarios playing out at their corporate offices and took steps to fix them. They learned it was possible to gain control of their printing environment with software that streamlines, reduces and tracks office printing and scanning. 

The Solution

Slumberland’s copiers were due for an upgrade, so they seized the opportunity to take control of their printing environment. uniFLOW, a leading device management software that provides controls to a printer, multifunction device (MFD) and scanner fleet, was identified as the best fit for Slumberland. In addition to meeting their needs, uniFLOW offered cost savings, increased security and allowed one company to assist with all their printing needs. “uniFLOW had a lot of features that we had always dreamed about, which our old solution couldn’t handle,” said Christopher Hoskins, Coordinator, Systems Administration at Slumberland Furniture. 

Badge authentication reduces wasteful printing. uniFLOW tracks print usage per employee, rather than allowing anonymous printing and scanning, by requiring credentials or a badge to be scanned at the machine before releasing a print job. “Everything is integrated with our Active Directory,” said Christopher Hughes, Senior Client Device Specialist at Slumberland Furniture, “so everyone that uses a printer is logged in and responsible for what they print and what they send to other associates and to customers.” 

Secure scan integrates with Accounting Department. Associates at Slumberland stores can securely scan customer receipts and financing contracts to the Accounting Department, eliminating the need for couriers. Everything remains digital, allowing for quick responses on any type of financing issues. All scanning is tracked to ensure security of customer data. 

Implementation 

Test devices were deployed at Slumberland, so that by the time the purchase decision was made, they were confident uniFLOW was a good fit for them. Including the test phase, implementation took place over four-to-five weeks. 

Slumberland has over 1,000 uniFLOW users. This includes three corporate offices and numerous stores across 12 states. Currently they have over 80 devices secured by their uniFLOW system. 

The Results

In the first three months of uniFLOW use, Slumberland saw a 13% reduction in print volumes. The decrease can be attributed to how everyone has to retrieve their print jobs by entering credentials or swiping a badge. “It eliminates double printing and possibly sensitive documents being tossed in the recycle bin for anyone to see,” Hughes said. Employees feel good, too, about not wasting a lot of paper. Now they have the second verification that they truly need their documents when they walk up to a printer. 

The IT team at Slumberland has benefited from uniFLOW because of the print management and resource tracking workload it has taken off their shoulders. uniFLOW has proven to need little attention for Hoskins and his team, allowing them to move the company forward in other areas, rather than worry about printing. “I haven’t gone into the uniFLOW configuration side in two to three weeks,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have to come in and go, ‘OK, is this server down? Are people able to scan, able to print?’ It’s just rock solid. Prior to uniFLOW, I was having to do those tasks sometimes daily.” 

Slumberland employees adjusted quickly to the uniFLOW solution. The new badge authentication, secure scan and print from anywhere functionalities offered by uniFLOW have now become mainstream. The ability to print to any device has also reduced wait times at the printers; if one is busy, a user can walk to another to release their documents. 

After training on and transitioning to the new system, end users love uniFLOW. “They don’t understand how they lived without it,” Hoskins said. “Our print landscape has changed quite significantly. Users are happier; it’s more responsive. With the new system, it’s almost 100% uptime.” 

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