Case Study: Educational Testing Service (ETS)
How Ricoh helped Educational Testing Service reduce hundreds of unnecessary print devices, lower costs and advance green initiatives.
About the customer
Nonprofit Educational Testing Service (ETS) advances quality and equity in education for all people worldwide. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, ETS' team of education experts, researchers and assessment developers believe that people can improve their situations in life and make incredible contributions to the world through learning. The organization employs more than 3,200 people at 11 locations throughout the U.S and has developed, administered and scored more than 50 million tests in 180-plus countries.
"Ricoh was instrumental and a very good partner for us in streamlining our footprint from an equipment perspective."
Kim McCauley
Director of Operations
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Challenge
Fleet of 900+ under-utilized print devices
Lack of transparency into printer fleet
Risk of confidential information left in open spaces
Inability to print when devices are down
ETS had an overgrown print fleet consisting of more than 900 devices — a mix of small desktop printers, medium-sized and larger units — that weren't being used to capacity. Yet they didn't have in-house resources to assess the print environment and procurement leaders were concerned that removing devices could negatively impact the company's established workflow.
The company also had growing concerns that the confidential information it handles could be left unattended at printers and MFPs if employees didn't retrieve output quickly. While there was tight security to access the multitude of buildings at its campus headquarters, there was no security built into its print devices.
When devices were down for service or toner replacement, they could be down for up to five days — seriously impeding workflow and employees' ability to do their jobs. And each department purchased its own consumables — and were reluctant to share because they had paid for them.
Solution
"Our print output was triple what we're doing today."
Kim McCauley
Director of Operations
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Conducted in-depth print fleet assessment
Implemented badge authentication, document management software
Dedicated onsite manager to oversee printers and consumables
Provided AV equipment for conference rooms
Though Ricoh had a couple of print devices at ETS' headquarters, the bulk of the print fleet came from another provider. As our relationship with the director of operations strengthened over several years, we suggested conducting an in-depth assessment to determine the exact size of the printing fleet and if it was meeting current needs. We walked through all of the buildings to assess each print device, took photos of outdated supplies, and noted abandoned prints at various devices. In the end, we showed ETS they could reduce the fleet size by hundreds of devices and still maintain their workflow and productivity.
We implemented badge authentication technology at the devices to make printing more secure — as jobs can only be released after authentication at the device. We installed print management software to track printer usage down to each employee. We enabled Follow-You printing and also demonstrated to IT how new printers could be on-boarded from one building to another when printers went down. In addition, we structured pricing on a cost-per-copy basis that included toner replacement so each ETS department no longer had to order consumables.
After right-sizing the print environment and achieving significant improvements, our relationship with ETS has continued to grow. We recently provided AV equipment for two large executive conference rooms. We're also talking to ETS about ways to digitize its paper-based records and host its voluminous information in the cloud to free up office space. ETS is also interested in our solutions that could help them move to computer-based testing. In addition, we are discussing ETS' persistent IT network issues to better control its servers and point-of-sale technology in the conference rooms.
Results
Eliminated more than 500 unnecessary print devices
$8,000 monthly paper savings from secured print
Reduced print output by 3X
Lowered consumables and electrical costs with print output management program
After the assessment of ETS' existing print fleet, we were able to eliminate more than 500 print devices that weren't being used to capacity — while maintaining ETS' workflow and productivity levels. Badge authentication at the devices has virtually eliminated unattended print output and led to $8,000 in monthly paper savings from previously abandoned prints. Before implementing our print output management program, ETS' print output was triple what it was after our solution went live. The program, in combination with the right-sized fleet, has also led to lowered electricity usage and supports ETS' green initiatives.
With our technology solutions and onsite resource managing the fleet at ETS, printing is now aligned with the needs of the company. And ETS' employees are no longer over-ordering print supplies — which has significantly lowered consumables costs.