"Where we’re situated in the auto industry it’s fairly backwards in terms of technology, although it’s actually catching up now," says Etheridge Ford IT manager Simon Logan.
While upgrading its old dumb terminals to a proper Windows LAN environment, the company decided that there had to be a better way to manage the high volumes of printing both internally and for customers in its busy showrooms.
Etheridge’s existing printing systems were outmoded to say the least, consisting of archaic continuous, perforated paper and pre-printed, carbonised documents running on old inkjet printers and connected to dusty proprietary software.
Driving the upgrade, Logan says, was the tendency for invoices and other documents to be printed out of alignment, which the company decided was becoming a bit tacky, especially for customers.
It was also becoming expensive because most of the documents staff needed to print are done in triplicate. "Those pre-printed, carbonised documents are fairly expensive," Logan says. "And the old inkjet printers are fairly noisy as well."
Operations were far from streamlined, but most important was scrubbing up the look and feel of the company’s internal documentation as well as receipts, order forms and material presented to what in the car business are usually fairly impressionable customers.
| The problem |
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"With two new dealerships, one being 18 months old and the other being four years old, we felt that we had a point of difference from the other dealerships when it came to appearance; however, when it came to the forms and documents that the customers were receiving we were in the same boat as everyone else," Logan says. "We had a need to stand out from the crowd."
It is one of the key points often overlooked in the printing market. While interaction with PCs and software systems is of course crucial, ultimately what the client wants is to look more professional to its customers. And in an industry that markets style and performance, Etheridge understood that look and feel can translate into competitive advantage.
"If you go into a business and get and invoice or some proof of purchase, you don’t take a lot of notice, but we wanted our products and presentation to be of a higher quality. It’s the little things that make the difference.
"If you get a nice looking invoice, as opposed to something where it isn’t in the right box or it’s overflowing, it gives a good impression."
The old system was provided by automotive technology solutions company Reynolds and Reynolds and included the company’s own proprietary software and OKI Microline printers.
Things had pretty much chugged on for about 15 years without much change. That was until about five years ago when Logan was charged with overseeing the company’s long overdue migration from dumb terminals to the comparatively complex world of PCs and Windows. Driving this need naturally was the new dealerships.
"Over the past 18 months we have updated our IT infrastructure by purchasing 68 new computers, and installing an internet server. However, when it came to printing, we were still using the same methods as we were 15 years ago."
But developing a new printing solution that would take the internet, PCs and Windows into account for the first time, was trickier than expected.
"What started out as pretty simple, ended up getting pretty complicated," Logan says. "In my role on the IT side of things I saw a pretty big gap as the internet was becoming more heavily used for work...We had this old tech and there was an increasing need to upgrade our computers but printers were getting left behind."
After shopping around, the company finally settled on a Fuji Xerox solution supplied by Victorian company Solution Printing. It invested in 12 240ADocuPrints and two 205-DocuPrints. "The decision was made easy, as both these printers are flexible, especially as they come standard with two trays, which means the staff don’t constantly have to change the paper," Logan says.
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| The Fuji Xerox 240A-Docuprints were flexible enough for Etheridge's requirements |
"The stand-out benefit with Fuji Xerox is the low cost per page printing that we are able to achieve with the DocuPrint range."
He adds that overall the transition from dot-matrix printing to using the Xerox printers has been a relatively easy one, and Etheridge is more than happy with not only the quality of documents that are being produced, but also the savings. "We estimate that without having to carry a large amount of pre-printed stock we are able to save around $40,000 per year," Logan says.
Contributing to this saving, he explains, is overall reduced spending on consumables. "For a home user to have their $90 deskjet printer cartridge is fine -- but I was finding that we were spending a lot on consumables for the products we already had."
In fact Etheridge Ford had vast numbers of deskjet printers that were being used inefficiently and at times inappropriately, with staff often printing in colour mode unnecessarily. The decision was made to invest in a much smaller number of laser printers shared between multiple users across the LAN.
"The requirement was to invest in laser printers which were not only able to print documents quicker than the current printers, but it also meant that we could remove a large number of deskjets and instead share the laser printers over the network."
But while it was the simple answer, it was not as simple a task.
"The more complex side of things is something you don’t take into consideration with printing -- especially going from little inkjets plugged into the PC."
| The solution |
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Logan naturally had to shift from this mind-set to one whereby single printers must be configured and supported to perform multiple tasks for larger work groups throughout the organisation.
"People often focus more on the PC and the desktop but printing is obviously a key thing. You take it for granted how fortunate you are to hit one button and have a document print where it’s supposed to. It’s definitely something you don’t take into consideration."
One of the benefits of working with Solution Printing, Logan says, was that they were able to quickly and easily provide a way to consolidate Etheridge’s printing needs while having the whole lot networked.
"Instead of five people having a deskjet each they could share a laser printer."
Logan says that having printers networked over the LAN has made his and everybody else’s jobs much easier.
For starters, Etheridge used to rely almost entirely on handwritten order forms. Since installing the Fuji Xerox laser printers they are all done on PC, meaning that sales staff simply go through and select the relevant order forms electronically and print them from their PCs.
"This is definitely a lot more efficient for staff," Logan says, adding that he is able to make changes to them within just a few minutes if necessary.
Further, management of the printers themselves is made much easier by the fact that they can be connected to the internet and receive patches or other software immediately without the need for expensive maintenance visits.
As the Fuji Xerox products have web browsing capabilities, the status of each printer -- from paper levels, toner, errors etc. -- can be detected online simply by typing in its IP address. "Once they are set up they definitely run themselves -- there’s no maintenance that needs to be involved. You get an instant fix and your downtime is fairly minimal," Logan says.
Naturally this is of great importance to Solution Printing.
"Servicing is done mostly via the phone -- before the internet there were more onsite calls -- now we do it online," Solution Printing managing director Sue Bailey says, adding that this has led to software playing a more important role in printing generally.
Crucially for the client, however, being able to quickly identify and fix problems can play a big role in raising customer service levels.
"Redundancy is very important," Bailey adds. "If a customer is waiting and can’t get their invoice they’d be pretty cheesed. Etheridge staff can now print to anything."
In an effort to further contain spending on consumables, Logan decided to buy only black printers, choosing to have colour logos and other graphics preprinted on paper and stationery.
"Having black laser printers and A4 paper pre-printed with colour worked out to be cheaper than the way we were doing things. To me that was pretty surprising."
The challenge for Solution Printing, aside from the fact that it had no previous dealings with the auto industry, was helping Etheridge identify what needed to go while also taking on the role of sprucing up the company’s image. In Etheridge Ford’s case they were using all this hard-to-use pre-printed stationery, Bailey says. "We went in and made the right changes -- the cost savings alone were enormous."
The other obstacle facing Solution Printing -- and one that is common in the auto industry -- was carefully navigating around Etheridge’s proprietary systems so as to not cause too much disruption to existing processes and ideas.
"It makes it hard for an outsider to come and say we can help you without integrating with existing proprietary systems," Bailey says.
Solution Printing provided software from Paris Printing Solutions for which it is the exclusive southern regional distributor. This solution integrates with parts of the original application from Reynolds and Reynolds. "For the past 15 years all dealers have been utilising the old dot-matrix style of printing, which not only cost a fortune in ribbons and parts, but also in pre-printed forms which were often three-part," Logan says.
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| Solution Printing's Bailey: Software is playing a more important role in printing generally |
"This meant a great deal of wear and tear on the printer as it had to print high volumes whilst pulling through up to 240 gsm paper."
What really clinched the deal for Solutions Printing in Logan’s view was the heavy solutions flavour of their offering, strong support from Fuji Xerox and the fact that both companies understood both the industry that Etheridge is in as well as the company’s particular nuances.
As Bailey says, there is a tendency in the channel for companies to simply dump the hardware and/or software and basically leave. "We find a lot of distributors out there don’t sell a service or a solution -- they sell the hardware and walk away, or they just sell the software and walk away."
A long-time channel partner of Fuji Xerox, Bailey believes that key to her company’s success over the past 10 years has been its attention to its customers’ special needs.
Logan says that he and Etheridge were swayed by the amount of thought and energy Solution Printing put into its pitch.
The solution involved revamping the company’s parts, service and administration departments to print on laser printers, allowing staff to not only print out forms as normal, but with previously undreamt additional functions such as using the printers to print emails and other documents.
It was clearly the right solution and, importantly, it meant major cost savings. But taking it further, Logan says, "Fuji Xerox met with us on a number of occasions, and even went as far to introduce someone from the head office in Sydney". That’s service for you.
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