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THE ORGANISATION

Halton Borough Council (HBC) have selected M2 as its managed print partner. The contract will deliver substantial cost savings through purchasing less machines and consumables, reduced paper usage and energy consumption and help the Council achieve its environmental aims of reducing its carbon footprint.

 

THE BRIEF

HBC's Corporate Procurement Board identified an area of unaccounted spend with regards to the printing and copying of documents across the council estate.  They wanted to explore opportunities to reduce environmental impact reduce waste, cost and also explore possible environmental benefits.  HBC also wanted to improve the uptake and utilisation of the print unit.


THE PROCESS


HBC advertised a requirement for a Print Strategy Partner (PSP) in local press and tendering websites. As a minimum requirement any potential suppliers had to have access to be part of a framework agreement. HBC included a profile document which outlined their current estate, contract status and known requirements.

Interested suppliers who satisfied the minimum requirements were asked to compile a response to the profile document. M2 submitted a response and were later contacted by the HBC to arrange a time to present. Following a pilot print audit of selected buildings a proposed new solution was presented outlining key benefits, timelines and methods of deployment.
From this pilot M2 was selected as the PSP.

 

  

THE SOLUTION

HBC's new managed print solution includes the replacement of the current print and copy infrastructure with a new rationalised Hewlett Packard (HP) hardware fleet of Multifunctional Devices (MFDs) and single function printers. Utilising a balanced deployment approach has ensured that M2 delivered a fully managed service including:

  • Reduced costs (currently standing at around 23% on previous spend)
  • Improved functionality (standard duplex printing reducing paper consumption by 26.4%)
  • Elimination of consumable waste and stock
  • Reduction in power consumption for devices (circa 37%)
  • Standard scanning platform allowing electronic information circulation; again reducing paper usage
  •  Return value of outgoing assets previously purchased by the council
  • Impending refresh of print room equipment
  • Implementation of electronic job submission tool allowing for greater and easier access the cheaper print room facility.

 

THE FUTURE

  • Full deployment to all council buildings.
  • Use of Equitrac monitoring software allowing granular user data reports and 100% secure job management and retrieval for all users.
  • Further rationalisation following assessment of granular user data.
  • Conversion of paper archives to electronic storage via document management scanning solution.
  • This will reduce space needed for council records and provide an auditable and searchable information trail/inventory.

 

"HBC has selected M2 as their managed print strategy partner for the next 5 years. The project is now underway to replace all of the current printer fleet and to implement cost analysis software throughout the council’s estate.”