DOTS have looked after one of the UK's largest Colleges. As the leading agricultural college their range of courses cover Agriculture, Horticulture, Floristry, Greenkeeping, Hard Landscaping, Equine, Agricultural and Horticultural Machinery, Metalsmithing, Animal Care and Veterinary Nursing, Countryside Management, Forestry and Arboriculture, Sports (Outdoor Education), Wine and Viticulture, and Rural Business Management. They even have their own vineyard!

Current Scenario

The current supplier, of their copiers, was uninterested and unreliable. Their relationship had suffered due to no account management and the only advancements made were on the supplier's terms.

They had two large print room copiers plus machinery in the outbuildings which included standalone mono copiers supported by Dell colour printers.

DOTS visited this site and suggested a print audit of their current equipment, staff use review, current costs and future requirements.

The review uncovered poor administration and invoicing issues to which DOTS recovered £ 5200.00 from the current supplier immediately.

After looking closely at the work flow and discussing the requirements (both current and future) with the teaching staff, principal and print room manager DOTS made their recommendations.

The college had allowed the costs of printing, especially colour to spiral out of control. The equipment used was overused and gave poor quality prints. In the event of an issue the kit was thrown away.

New Solution

The new solution delivered all of the college's goals: Reliability, speed, ease of use and total support.

The new installation of two new high speed colour units and High Volume mono machinery supported by Ricoh's own service team proved to be a winner.

The new machinery prints high quality colour and enable each member of staff to scan documents to aid distribution. The equipment provided booklet making and hole punch facilities ensuring teaching materials could be provided that looked professional but more importantly, was easy to understand.

The HV mono had the same control panel as the other machines, allowing users to get jobs printed quickly and easily via a simple PIN code.

Summary

DOTS delivered a solution which has substantially improved the way the college works.

The Print Room manager commented "the new machinery from DOTS enabled us the save money over the old machinery, which amazed us. I was sceptical at first but the both the colour MFD and the work horse have proven to be very reliable."

The Service team chosen by DOTS now numbers over 900 field based technicians have been responsible for ensuring their ongoing satisfaction. They add "they do not often go wrong, but when they do DOTS ensure a technician is here quickly. So far they have fixed all break down calls first time – we are very happy indeed"