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Canon's R&D centre in Sydney creates a world-first solution to address Ernst & Young's unique print security needs
At a glance
New Environment, new needs
Unique problem, new solution
The software decision
At a glance
Ernst & Young
Industry
Professional services, including assurance and advisory business services, tax, transaction advisory services and law.
Geographies
Nine offices across Australia
Canon Products Used
Secure Print; a fleet of MFDs
Ernst & Young is a leading global provider of professional services in areas including assurance, tax and law. In Australia, the company employs more than 4000 people across nine offices. In order to place a new layer of security around its confidential printed documents, the company turned to Canon software developers, who created a unique solution for Ernst & Young's specific needs.
New Environment, new needs
When Ernst & Young moved to new premises in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in 2005, company Partners found that the new buildings were visually striking, completely secure, and far more energy efficient than mainstream best-practice. These structures had a contemporary design that encouraged partners to share spaces and facilities rather than isolating them in locked offices, with their own thoughts and their "personal" desktop printers.
The logic behind moving to shared, networked Canon multifunctional devices (MFDs) for printing, scanning and faxing was compelling ? they're cheaper, all their costs are visible and measurable, they provide a superior print solution and can form the hub of a document management solution. However, Partners were concerned that if they printed confidential documents on a shared MFD, someone else might accidentally pick up their work before they had the time to collect it.
Around this time, Ernst & Young CIO Stephen Arnold was touring Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CISRA), which is Canon's largest research and development centre outside of Japan, and one of Australia's largest private R&D facilities.
"One of the technologies CISRA demonstrated was proximity card readers, primarily for helping us to charge the costs of printing and faxing back to our clients, which is not one of our needs" recalls Mr Arnold. "It occurred to me that we all walk around with these building access cards. I asked myself: 'How can we link them into the printing environment so that people could release their print jobs in the same way using their proximity cards?'"
Unique problem, new solution
"We approached Canon and said we liked their technology, but the initial purpose really didn't suit any of these needs," said Mr Arnold. "Could you apply this technology in a new way to meet this need I do have?," he asked.
Fortunately, the system that CISRA had been demonstrating was created using a platform that allows software applications to run inside a Canon MFD, changing the way it behaves to suit a business purpose. This platform, called MEAP (Multifunctional Embedded Application Platform), meant that Canon's software developers could potentially create a new application that would meet Ernst & Young's specific needs. No hardware changes would be required; it could all be achieved with software.
Ernst & Young prepared an overview of what the company required and then worked closely with Canon developers to revise and add detail to the specification. Then came a prototyping process, software development, testing and the roll-out.
Today, Ernst & Young's custom Canon solution is installed right across the enterprise. It involves more than 4000 seats and controls 229 of the company's 239 Canon MFDs. (Canon includes MEAP free-of-charge in almost every enterprise MFD.)
Now when an Ernst & Young Partner prints a document, their PC sends it to a MFD which stores it in a format that can be printed instantly. When the partner or their assistant swipes their building access card at the MFD, the device confirms their identity by checking the Active Directory that manages access to every secure service within Ernst & Young. The MFD then immediately prints their documents ? and no one else's. If they do not go to the MFD and swipe their card, the job is never printed, guaranteeing security and saving on wasted paper at the same time.
Similarly, when staff swipe their business access card before they use the MFDs' built-in scanners, and the scanned documents are automatically sent to their secure email addresses.
And as Ernst & Young continues to revise its business needs, Canon is there to continue developing the product, as it has already done several times. For example, in the future, this system could automatically send colour jobs exceeding 200 pages to Ernst & Young's central printroom, which can print them more cost-effectively, at a higher quality, and without tying up shared MFDs.
The software decision
Mr Arnold recommends a cautious approach to commissioning software, but he's delighted with the results of this development project.
"Our initial approach is always to look at an off-the-shelf solution if one is available because that reduces the initial costs as well as the cost of supporting, maintaining and evolving the product. It's only when we've exhausted those opportunities that we'll start looking at customisation," he says.
From there, preparation is the key: "You need to make sure the company you're dealing with is going to be around to continue to provide support and to adapt the software as your needs change and other products evolve," Mr Arnold says. "Otherwise, you're wasting money."
Mr Arnold believes that custom software development was definitely the right decision in this case. Ernst & Young's print security needs have been completely answered, and Mr Arnold estimates that the company is saving 5% of its total cost of print from reduced wastage. "If you walk around the premises, there's absolutely no wasted paper sitting in the output trays," he says.
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