Car dealer gets behind the wheel of a new printing solution

"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.

"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."