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MAKE US AN OFFER
CONNECTIVITY
TCO
SERVICING ACROSS AUSTRALIA
SUSTAINABILITY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
Is it possible to achieve a significant cost reduction and make an environmental contribution at the same time? Boral Limited has achieved just that, through printer rationalisation, digital connectivity and a company-wide environmental initiative.
Boral Limited, a leading Australian business with operations in building products and construction materials, was due to upgrade its entire copier fleet in late 2001. Boral previously used 500 analogue copiers and several hundred laser printers in its 450 offices across Australia. In upgrading its printer and copier equipment, Boral was looking to address a number of issues. First, the company was looking for an improvement in service and maintenance across the country. Being a large national organisation with many offices distributed in regional areas, Boral needed a partner with the reach to service all offices and address any maintenance issues quickly.
Boral was also looking for a complete digital upgrade, turning its attention to digital multifunction devices (MFDs) incorporating printing and copying functions as well as scanning and faxing. For Boral, efficient network connectivity was a big issue.
Brian Jefferys, IT Procurement Manager at Boral Limited, said capitalising on digital technology advances was a significant part of the company 's strategy.
"Many corporates have digital printer/copiers that stand alone, unconnected to the network. This shows the understanding of digital benefits hasn 't quite caught on through many organisations. "
"We were looking to make the most of these digital advances, and by linking the devices to the network and centralising the administration of the MFDs we have been able to combine user satisfaction with smarter printer rationalisation. We knew by doing this we could achieve direct and measurable cost savings, and that was our objective."
MAKE US AN OFFER
Boral Limited put a tender out to the market, inviting major printer/copier vendors to quote for the project. Following the extensive tender process, Boral chose Canon to fulfil its complete printer/copier requirements, favouring a leasing arrangement. Initially 200 Canon imageRUNNER multi-function devices were rolled out across 190 Boral locations. Several hundred more units will be phased in as the leases on existing analogue devices expire over the next year and a half.
Mr Jefferys said the business benefits to Boral are many and varied, including cost savings, productivity gains and a commitment to an environmental agenda.
CONNECTIVITY
"Canon gave us great assistance during the evaluation and boosted our confidence for achieving digital connectivity and printer rationalisation. In a two month evaluation process we connected each vendor's digital printer/copier to our network to see which would be the easiest to operate and most useful in a networked environment.
"Canon is right up there with understanding network connectivity issues in the corporate environment," said Mr Jefferys.
TCO
After appointment, Canon performed a total cost of ownership (TCO)analysis on the major Boral locations. This quickly proved the value and cost benefits that would come from the Canon MFD adoption. With the Canon roll out, Boral has been able to achieve very significant reductions in operating costs from the seven cents per page its older laser printers were costing.
"As far as a return on investment goes, this initiative marks the first time Boral has adopted multi-function devices. We are enthusiastic about them because it fits perfectly with our networking strategy and printer rationalisation plan. Boral expects this appointment of Canon imageRUNNER technology to produce higher user satisfaction and reduce total company print costs by 30 percent. Our laser printer running costs were just uncontrollable, " said Mr Jefferys.
Because each Boral location manages its own cost centre, the lower operating costs have produced a very positive reaction, as have the improvements in better service support and increased functionality.
SERVICING ACROSS AUSTRALIA
Mr Jefferys said Canon 's Business Imaging Solutions Group stood out from the crowd in terms of service. "Canon 's service was number one over all other vendors. They were able to demonstrate the advantages of network connectivity and proved to us they could support our nation-wide servicing needs as an ongoing partner to Boral," he said.
Canon were able to demonstrate the company 's unique ability to service every Australian Boral office.
The adoption of Canon printer/copiers has eliminated a lot of frustration that users were experiencing with the older printers and copiers. Boral has reported that the post sale training from Canon has been helpful and of a high standard.
Other benefits for Boral include desktop finishing. Boral staff have embraced the added convenience of stapling, hole-punching and other document planning directly from their desktop via the intuitive printer driver software. Canon 's MFDs allow for six steps to become one step -which has meant a great increase in productivity for Boral nation-wide.
SUSTAINABILITY
The Boral Environmental Services division has made double sided printing and copying the company wide default.
Canon's imageRUNNER document finishing features cater to this initiative well, with many people taking advantage of image size reduction to fit twice as much information on a page.
The imageRUNNER products which Boral has installed are the result of an environmentally sound manufacturing process, as well as being environmentally friendly to operate. Here are just some of the environmental credentials that appealed to Boral about the imageRUNNER iR2200, iR2800 and iR3300.
ENERGY CONSERVATION
Canon's proprietary On-Demand fixing technology achieves ultra-low power consumption and high performance.
"REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE"
 Use of sandwich moulding technology that enables the use of recycled materials (such as the plastic exterior panels)
Use of components recovered from existing models
Designed specifically to maximise ease of recycling and reuse
Compact design reduces the quantity of materials used in construction
PAPER CONSERVATION
100%recycled papers are acceptable
Double-sided printing and copying capability
ELIMINATION OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
Use of Canon's exclusive ozone-free electrical charging technology
Use of plastics free from halogen flame retardant
Use of lead-free components and materials (lenses, solder and wiring)
Use of chromate-free steel plates
BEYOND 2002
In the future, Boral will aim for a totally managed print environment as a long-term strategy. This means the company will simply specify a desired speed of pages per minute, desired finishing options over a desired number of users and engage a partner to supply the appropriate devices and charge one small and simple charge per page as a cross board leasing arrangement.
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