The Royal College of Surgeons of England rationalise Multi-Functional Printers for hybrid working with Toshiba Managed Print Services
The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is a professional membership organisation and registered charity, which exists to advance patient care. They provide education and assessment, set professional standards, facilitate research and support 30,000 surgeons, dental surgeons and members of the wider surgical and dental teams at all stages of their career.
A change in the way of working
Having embarked on a two and a half year refurbishment project, developed to support a new way of working, with open plan spaces, hot desks and a direction for more flexible hybrid working arrangements for staff members, the College needed a refreshed print infrastructure with the flexibility to support this new centralised approach. Walter Hand, Facilities Manager, commented on the transition, "We had approximately 120 different printers across the buildings, with a high level of print and toner usage. The refurbishment has given us the opportunity to review our working practices and look at how we could adopt a centralised approach, with the aim of reducing our overall hardware and printing cost, increasing our scan to file work processes and ultimately minimise the amount of waste and recycling."
Confidence in the NEPA2 framework
With the building project work almost complete and the re-opening date looming, the College needed to act quickly to tender for their Managed Print Services (MPS) supplier. Walter commented on the process, "We would normally go to tender for our large contracts, but with the short timescales for installation and as a member of the LUPC (London Universities Purchasing Consortium), we looked at the NEPA2 (National Education Printer Agreement 2) framework and selected the top scoring supplier, which was Toshiba. The benefit of being part of the LUPC is that the framework gives you the confidence the groundwork has already been done in reviewing the supplier’s products, and they are only recommending a quality and reliable solution with the functionality to meet the needs of the business. There is a scoring process for each category including elements like green credentials and sustainability, a factor that is so important to our working practices, especially with our Sustainability in Surgery Strategy, launched in April 2021, which outlines how we plan to embed financial, environmental and social sustainability with ethical purchasing into everything we do."
Once the contract was awarded, a full survey and audit of RCS England’s current working processes was completed. David Seymour, Business Development Manager at Toshiba noted on the contract, "It was great to be selected by RCS England as a result of our work with LUPC and the NEPA2 framework, we are proud to be ranked as the number one supplier. We were fully aware of the tight timescales for the project but confident that our experienced team could work in partnership with Walter to recommend an MPS solution that would allow for the centralised working arrangements and to be installed in time for the office re-opening."
Planning for an opening date
Following the extensive and in-depth audit, Toshiba were able to rationalise the 120 printers to six large A4 devices, in one central location on every floor, each with the functionality for staff to print as and when required using their security passes to access the machine. With only a four-week period from the initial awarding of the contract to installation, the Toshiba team worked to ensure that everything was up and running ready for the first staff back in the building on 17 May 2021.
Walter remarked on the installation process, "The Toshiba team were absolutely fantastic, they took the time to understand how we wanted the business to operate moving forward, and recommended a solution that would not only fit our new way of working, but would enable us to work more efficiently, reduce waste and ultimately provide a huge saving on our print costs. I was very concerned about the timescales, especially as parts the building were still being worked on by the contractors, but the team, through constant communication and a partnership approach provided a seamless installation process with everything ready and functional in time for the critical opening date."
Flexible and adaptable for hybrid working
RCS England has begun the process of transitioning staff back into the office, and now have the flexibility to manage a hybrid working arrangement. The MFP’s will enable tracking, control and secure print release directly from the device’s panel. They now have the functionality to easily manage the devices, collect usage data by location and identify inefficiency, eliminate waste and encourage responsible behaviour and making users and departments accountable for their print usage.
Walter concluded about the project, "I really can’t praise the Toshiba team enough, they ensured the project ran smoothly at a really busy time, taking the pain out of the process for me. I was even invited to their offices in London during COVID to see the MFP’s in action, and they made me feel safe and re-assured. Not only do we now have a fully managed print solution that will reduce the amount of paper we use and enable us to optimise scanning of batch documents to file, but they have also taken the burden of recycling the toner cartridges away from us. I would recommend the Toshiba team to other organisations and I’m very much looking forward to continue working together in the future."
