YOUR BUSINESS
Case Studies
Ridgemill Case Study 1
Overview
At Ridgemill we listen hard to what our customers tell us,
then we work out how to give them the best and most
cost-effective solution. That doesn’t always mean putting
significant amounts of hardware on site. In the case of this
law firm it meant devising a solution that was part hardware
and part software...
The Problem we were given…
Most solicitor’s firms create extremely high volumes of paperwork
in their day to day business. Our client, who handled mainly
accident and industrial injury compensation cases, was
no exception.
Because of the daily need for court paperwork that either
came directly from their own computer system, or indirectly
from copying evidence from other sources, their printing costs
were very high.
The system in place, however, was both ineffective and
unreliable. Two older model photocopiers were frequently
non-operational, while dozens of small laser and ink jet printers,
using dozens of different software platforms (not all installed
on all computers) made for haphazard working conditions
and high costs.
In addition the firm’s fee-earners, who were frequently
printing documents of a highly sensitive nature, had taken
to running their own, totally separate, printers.
The Solution we came up with...
The first step Ridgemill took, as with any project of this
complicated nature, was to sit down with the office managers
and precisely establish the current situation.
Having established that the bulk of the work throughput came
from 50 users and 14 fee-earners an innovative and
money-saving solution became clearer and was then presented
to the firm. In effect this was to replace dozens of low speed,
low volume, single function machines with a single high speed,
high volume, multifunctional copier-printer-scanner.
This state of the art machine was able to bear almost the
entire workload of the printing, and was supplemented by a
pair of medium volume multifunctional copier-printer-scanners.
Although there are 50 users the speed of the machine we have
installed means it easily handles demand. Just as importantly
reliability is now guaranteed and the solution is highly
cost-effective.
However, we still had to solve the problem of confidentiality
and printflow (when fee–earners needed a document to print
for their eyes only). We solved it not through hardware but
through software. The installation of Equitrack Professional
enabled us to install a “Follow Me” printing option.
This meant Fee Earners and other staff could send confidential
documents to the printer, which held it in a secure print server.
The user then either entered a code or used their swipe card
to instantly print the documents waiting for them on the server.
The software also automatically directed large print runs to the
main, and far more efficient, 90 page per minute machine
and shorter runs to the medium volume machines.
So by thinking about the problem creatively we reduced print
costs, increased efficiency and productivity, ensured reliability
and introduced complete document production control.
