Out with the old
In with the new
A team approach
A popular choice
The service difference
Toorak-based St Kevin's College finds a team approach pays off when it comes to upgrading printing technology.
Founded in 1918 by the Christian Brothers, St Kevin's was, in its early years, the Matriculation centre for all Brothers' schools in Melbourne. With its early academic success, however, the enrolment soon outgrew its buildings in East Melbourne and the College moved to Toorak in 1932. Here it grew to a full primary and secondary school.
Since that time St Kevin's has grown further, and it now has almost 1,400 students from preparatory to year 12 and over 100 staff.
A strong academic tradition remains at the school's heart. Each boy is encouraged to take responsibility for his own learning in an environment that values knowledge and scholarship. The school strives for the development of the whole person, integrating spiritual development, academic success, cultural awareness and sporting participation in the context of the Catholic tradition.
Out with the old
As you would expect, St Kevin's is a ravenous consumer of printed material. In addition to day-to-day material like class notes, weekly newsletters to parents and report cards throughout the year, bound material, such as exam booklets and notes for key events, is becoming an increasingly important part of the print workload.
The problem for the school was that its ageing fleet of single function printers and copiers simply weren't effectively coping with a printing and copying volume that averages around 75,000 pages per fortnight.
In with the new
Office Manager at St Kevin's, Carmen Camileri, says the school had been happy with the service from its existing Canon printers and copiers for several years. So when it was decided that the school would be upgrading its equipment, the Canon showroom at Burwood was one of Ms Camileri's first stops.
"When I went to the showroom, I was shown a number of machines that could do booklets," said Ms Camileri. "This was ideal because there's always a need for a lot of booklets to be done here. I was impressed by the machines I was shown, and a decision was made quite quickly."
A team approach
With the school's diverse printing requirements, it simply wasn't possible to meet all of them with a single model of multifunction printer. Ms Camilieri found that a team of three Canon models - the imageRUNNER iR8500, iR7200 and iR6020 - would fulfil their needs with the necessary speed, quality and binding options.
Given the amount of bound material to be produced, the iR8500 impressed with the fact that it could print 85 A4 pages per minute and, unlike competitors' devices, it can perform advanced functions, such as duplexing, stapling and hole-punching without slowing down.
The more compact iR7200, with an output speed of 72 A4 pages per minute, was selected to provide support during large print runs.
With an output of 60 A4 pages per minute, the iR6020 was also chosen for its combination of affordability and MEAP functionality, which enables it to be customised for easy integration with the school's existing systems.
Staff training was another important consideration. To this end, Canon provided detailed training to all of the College's more than 100 staff as part of the package.
A popular choice
"There was an absolutely measurable improvement in the new machines from the previous models," said Ms Camileri. "The facility to create booklets has been incredibly popular with staff. Our teachers find booklets very good; particularly for exams, because it keeps all the papers together, and the output is just so neat & compact."
The service difference
"I've been associated with Canon for 10 years," said Ms Camileri. "During that time, other companies have tried to get their machines in here and I've always recommended that the school doesn't, because I'm very happy with the service from Canon. We've always had a very good relationship."
"There are many benefits to our relationship with Canon," said Ms Camileri. "For example, there have been times when we were doing a big print job and one of the Canon sales managers has come down to the school to help us out. For me, things like this make me feel that I'm getting a very special service indeed."
Ms Camileri also appreciates that the same technical representative, with whom she has built quite a rapport, generally services the College.
"I enjoy working with Canon - the staff are always very smart and polite," said Ms Camileri. "I actually have a personal interest in learning as much as I can about the devices and when the support engineers are here they always take the time to show me things and now I feel very confident using the products, knowing that I can solve any small issues that might arise."
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