Founded in 1921, NG Bailey has grown from a small electrical contractor to a leading corporation operating across the building and infrastructure industry. Today, the company has over 3,000 employees, 15 nationwide offices, and over 170 remote managed sites, all requiring access to print. Unfortunately, their previous provider was not delivering, and staff regularly reported breakdowns which threatened to impact time-sensitive processes. NG Bailey management also had no sight of who was printing, in what quantities, and where waste was mounting, so Sharp was called in.
No oversight and poor service
One of NG Bailey’s primary challenges was the poor service offered by their previous supplier. Service Delivery Analyst at NG Bailey, Jenny Smith says: “We decided that we didn’t want to stay with our existing provider of Managed Print Services (MPS), we wanted something more reliable and easy for us to manage because they simply weren’t delivering.”
Exasperating the issue, the printers “were slow, breaking down and constantly faulting” says Jenny. “Often we got calls from staff because they weren’t working or toners weren’t delivered on time. Our industry is incredibly fast paced, if someone needs to print, they need to be able to print, they can’t wait for printers to be fixed, which could even halt construction site schedules.”
The need for print variety was another challenge. Jenny says: “We have over 3,000 employees at NG Bailey, all requiring different things from printers. In our offices they need high volume, or high quality documents that they might present to clients or use for bids. On our remote sites, which can vary from a construction site or building we’re managing to somebody’s basement, our colleagues need access to print things like manuals, site maps or invoices so nothing stalls.”
Lastly, management had no sight of the print process, making it hard to keep track of annual spend. Jenny says: “Sustainability is a massive part of our industry, so not having sight of print waste was a big issue, we just had no idea.” She continues: “We had problems around accurate numbers on prints and estimated bills, we wanted more control and accuracy to help us drive down volume and colour print, but we didn’t previously have the means to do that.”
A Managed Print Service that delivers
To tackle NG Bailey’s previously poor print service, Sharp’s first solution was to roll out its comprehensive Managed Print Service. With regular maintenance visits as standard, Sharp’s MPS has been designed to proactively prevent breakdowns, greatly reducing the likelihood of downtime. Furthermore, OneStop software built into Sharp’s MPS would automate toner dispatch and delivery, ensuring that devices were constantly operational and available for use.
Additionally, in the unlikely event that one of the devices did have an issue, Sharp’s dedicated service team would be on hand to provide support for self-help over the phone, or to remote into the device and correct any errors. If a fault could not be corrected remotely, then Sharp’s nationwide fleet of engineers, with a targeted response time of under 4 hours, would be on-hand to service and fix the machines on-site, ensuring disruption was at an absolute minimum.
The second part of Sharp’s solution was to install a right-sized fleet of 152 print devices. To ensure that staff were able to print from any of NG Bailey’s 15 offices, multifunction (MFP) machines were proposed. Capable of printing high quality jobs at pace, these devices would give staff access to be able to print a variety of documents, from full colour posters and notices, to professional client-facing bids. Sharp solution for NG Bailey’s remote sites was slightly different, proposing a mixture of multifunction devices and compact desktop printers. MFP’s were suggested for managed offices, whilst smaller machines would be installed at construction sites, enabling contractors to print site maps, machinery manuals, or purchase orders.
Lastly, to reduce waste, save money, and give management oversight of print, Sharp proposed the installation of PaperCut print management software. PaperCut would keep track of what documents are being printed and who is printing them, allowing staff to pin point where waste was coming from and make those responsible accountable.
Greatly reduced waste, cost, and downtime
Since migrating across to Sharp’s Managed Print Service, NG Bailey continues to reap benefits. Jenny says: “Something we were blown away by was Sharp’s speed. We were in a difficult contractual situation and had to move our existing machines out and get the new ones in quickly. Sharp managed that very effectively for us, we just needed someone that could come in and take complete care of it and Sharp did that!”
When talking about the new devices, Jenny says: “Sharp’s machines are a lot more reliable than what we were using prior, print has gone from being a common complaint right around the business to something we rarely hear about now. On the off chance that we do have an issue then Sharp are a phone call away and can fix it by talking it through with us or sending someone out, they’re fantastic.”
Furthermore, now each department and site managed by NG Bailey has the right printers for the jobs they’re printing. Jenny says: “The devices print beautifully, from the bid team and marketing right through to site managers we’ve not once had a complaint about speed or quality, Sharp have really delivered.”
Finally, PaperCut has revolutionised how NG Bailey manages print. Jenny says: “We now have access to the information we need. We found that we were printing four times as many colour jobs than mono, and lots of it was totally unnecessary. So Sharp worked closely with us to drive down colour prints and cost. We can also see who is printing what and have worked with our internal communications team to raise awareness about waste; it has reduced dramatically.”
If you would like to know more about Sharp solutions and how we can help improve your business reach, please Get In Touch for a demonstration.
