The Business Need: Planning for the opening of ICON’s significantly expanded headquarters in South County Business Park identified the existing print infrastructure and print processes as being inefficient and insufficient to deal with the expected increase in demand and print volumes. Ergo were selected as a service provider who could match their requirement for a state of the art printing solution which could keep pace with their fast growing business.
The Solution: Ergo introduced new features and efficiencies with a print management solution that delivers continual improvement.
The Benefits: At the basic level of technical support ICON receives a better service while at a more strategic level new features are changing the way the company goes about its business.
The Business Need
ICON specialises in the strategic development, management and analysis of programmes that support clinical development to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Working across all major therapeutic areas it helps its clients’ complete complex clinical trials operating from 71 locations in 38 countries.
The Dublin HQ in South County Business Park employs 420 staff and handles much of the documentation that supports its outsource services. As the company grew more successful the print and output requirement increased. Every month it produces 315,000 black and white impressions and 23,000 colour.
EU Procurement Manager Anne Carty had moved to a print managed service four years ago following a review of internal processes. "Historically we had printers all over the place and the infrastructure was difficult to control,” she said. “This is something we needed to address with any new solution."
The decision was taken to use a managed service. Ergo was invited to submit a tender and won a five year contract worth €600,000.
The Solution
ICON was impressed at reference sites supplied by Ergo that demonstrated its ability to quickly scale a solution and deliver savings of up to 30 per cent. Speed was important to a fast-growing company. The contract was agreed at the start of June and by the end of the month Ergo had fitted out two departments with a new range of HP printers. ICON had already standardised its hardware with HP printers, which Ergo was able to support and develop as an HP Gold Preferred Partner.
The rollout was accompanied by an extensive training programme to help users familiarise themselves with the new hardware that included a fleet of multi-function printers as well as black and white devices. One of the advantages of a managed service is that it allows an organisation access to the latest technologies without the need for capital investment. For ICON, the deployment of the SafeCom solution was identified as a major potential benefit.
"I am interested in any new developments that can help the business save money," said Carty. "We wanted SafeCom to track and manage printer usage patterns in the company. Now I get regular reports from Ergo and can see if there are issues with heavy print volumes."
The Benefits
With SafeCom Ergo brings pull printing functionality to the company’s print environment, with users having to identify themselves with a swipe card at the printer prior to receiving documents. Not only does this make printing more secure it helps avoid waste by eradicating uncollected print jobs. Documents that are not collected by users are automatically deleted after a configurable time.
For ICON such features cut down on excess waste and contribute to the company’s goals around corporate social responsibility. "We have a lot of policies in place, like recycling toners, to make the business more eco-friendly," said Carty.
Going forward Carty sees another big benefit. The plan is to use SafeCom data to allocate precise print costs to each job so that they can be accurately charged back to the user. This reflects a core part of Ergo’s managed service which is based on a partnership approach and the pursuit of continual improvement. "Currently we have colour printers in seven locations but it’s something we continually review," said Carty. "Ergo supplies me with the volume reports so I can decide who gets what and if there is anything we can do that will increase efficiencies."
John Purdy, managing director of Ergo, said that this is a big differentiator in its managed service proposition. "We partner with our clients and help them turn their print environment into a strategic asset that continually improves processes and benefits the business."
This includes more routine engagements. Ergo provides an on-site engineer who is responsible for the break/fix service, changing cartridges and ensuring that the printers are running to maximum efficiency. The transition to Ergo has been so smooth that the engineer now works just three half days a week – a half day less than with the previous provider.
"We have been very happy with Ergo and look forward to other efficiencies they can bring to the business," said Carty. "There are many areas we want to explore such as duplex print and the possibility of rolling the service out to our European offices."