Retailer Edcon saves R81 million with MPS

Retailer Edcon saves
R81 million with MPS
Managed solution improves reliability and
productivity across 1,400 stores
THE CHALLENGES
THE SOLUTION
Ageing printers
Managed solution
Edcon is the largest non-food retailer
in South Africa, and also has branches
in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia,
Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia and
Zimbabwe. It operates more than 1,400
stores, with annual sales of R27 billion.
Nashua reviewed Edcon’s printing fleet,
including visiting 20 stores to evaluate
exactly how the machines were used in
practice. Based on this analysis, Nashua
proposed a complete Managed Print
Services (MPS) solution to replace the
printers at all of Edcon’s 1,400 locations.
Until recently, Edcon was buying its
printing devices outright from Nashua,
with a service agreement to maintain the
machines. Since many printers were five
to seven years old, Edcon was finding
maintenance and reliability were starting
to become problems – but replacing
all the hardware would have been
prohibitively expensive.
Under the terms of the MPS contract,
Nashua replaced all the printers at Edcon’s
stores – a total of more than 3,000
devices. Now the rollout is complete,
Nashua is also providing equipment to
new sites as Edcon opens them, at a rate
of 10 to 15 shops per month.
“By moving to an
MPS Solution, we
have been able to
refresh our entire
fleet across 1,400
stores – without a
single rand in
capital expenditure.”
Martin Visser, Integration Manager,
Edcon Group
By moving to an MPS contract, Edcon now
pays Nashua the same each month in
service charges as it did previously. But
by choosing the right devices for each
location, and by reducing maintenance
costs with newer machines, Nashua has
been able to include the complete cost
of the replacement hardware within the
same monthly charge.
This saves Edcon more than R81 million
from its total cost of ownership (TCO),
which it would otherwise have had to
spend on new equipment. With an MPS
contract, Edcon will also be able to replace
hardware after three or four years, instead
of having to keep printers for five to seven
years as at present.
Simpler management,
improved reliability
All of the new devices are connected
to Edcon’s network, and Nashua ProAct
software helps manage the fleet. This
means that Nashua can log in, check the
current status of all devices, and generate
reports as required.
With the newer machines, reliability has
improved and there are around 10 per
cent fewer breakdowns and service calls.
Nashua has standardised Edcon’s fleet
to only 5 different models, as opposed
to 30 previously. Management is
therefore now simpler, for example
updating drivers.
The new machines also help improve
productivity, because in many cases
printers have been replaced with
Multifunctional Printers (MFPs) that can
also be used for scanning and copying.
With MFPs on site, the stores have
been able to save money by scanning
documents onto the network, instead
of faxing them. For the future, Edcon
and Nashua are planning on adding
Equitrac print management software to
the MPS solution. This will enable Edcon
to analyse its document output in more
detail, and to reduce costs further by
driving down print volumes.
CHALLENGES
33
Refresh ageing fleet of printers
across 1,400 stores, while
minimising costs
SOLUTION
33
Managed Print Services (MPS)
solution based around five
printer models
33
Nashua ProAct print
management software
BENEFITS
33
Saved R81 million in capital
expenditure on new equipment
33
Improved reliability and cut
downtime, with around 10 per
cent fewer service calls
33
Simplified management by
reducing number of different
printer models from thirty to five
PRODUCT LIST
33
Nashua ProAct software
33
Range of MFPs and printers
Calls logged by Edcon’s helpdesk also go
directly to Nashua’s central IT systems,
enabling it to respond faster to problems
and to manage Edcon’s Service Level
Agreement (SLA) more effectively.
CUSTOMER SUMMARY
Customer Name: Edcon
Customer URL: www.edcon.co.za
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 45,000
For more information please visit
www.nashua.co.za