Long-standing partner and specialist document management provider The Zero Group, help Leek Building Society upgrade their printing estate to reduce cost and improve internal efficiencies.
Leek Building Society is strong, independent and deeply committed to its members that are served across Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. They are fiercely proud of their heritage, built on mutual values which have stood the test of time for 160 years. The 12 branches and dedicated Customer Service Centre are focused on delivering an exceptional service whilst meeting customers’ day to day mortgage, savings and insurance needs.
They are also committed to investing in the communities that they serve by supporting a broad range of charities and worthy causes in the heartland. Last year they raised over £60,000 through the wonderful generosity of their colleagues and members, and are now proud to have launched the Leek Building Society Charitable Foundation.
Flexibility to support members
For Leek Building Society, printing and scanning is an integral part of the activities that help colleagues to support their members, and being able to do this as quickly and effectively, helps them to provide the best customer service possible. Proud of their mission and values, they look to work with like-minded companies, where they can develop a partnership that supports the importance of putting their members first. For their printing fleet, software and overall management, Leek Building Society has been working with The Zero Group for over 20 years, a company with the same beliefs, committed to providing quality personal service, starting from the first engagement and continuing throughout the life of the partnership.
Tim Hands, IT Operations Manager commented on the relationship, “As an independent business, we look to work with organisations that have the same core values and an overall mission to deliver exceptional service. The Zero Group have been looking after our printer estate for many years, always advising us on the right products and solutions, and recommending enhancements to help us evolve. When we refreshed our Customer Service Centre a couple of years ago, they proposed the latest Toshiba MFPs combined with PaperCut software, so we could have better visibility on our printing usage, improve security with follow me printing and lower our overall lease costs.”
The route to agile working
The business was able to see immediate improvements at the Customer Service Centre, with a reduction in overall printing, better flexibility for staff and faster printing and scanning for processing of member documentation.
Following the success of this transition, Leek Building Society sought the advice of The Zero Group to roll-out across all sites. Peter Thompson, Owner of The Zero Group, talked about the migration project, “Through our understanding of how the Building Society operates, we could see that the branches would benefit from utilising the new hardware and software, giving colleagues better agility for working between sites, and saving time for the IT team managing temporary user requests. Due to the level of security and nature of the business, we worked really closely with the IT team, within the scope of the ITIL framework and guidelines, for the smoothest transition. We piloted at one of the smaller quieter branches and ensured all kit was pre-configured prior to install, for a seamless upgrade process.”
Simplifying the process
Leek Building Society colleagues can now simply and securely print and collect on any device in any branch by fob or PIN release, the ideal solution where many staff members work between different branches on a daily basis. They also have better functionality on the MFPs with dual-sided scan, and scan to file, which has significantly improved the speed of processing customer transactions and removed many manual paper based processes. Tim Hands spoke about the benefits, “We had already seen a massive reduction in paper usage, in the Customer Service Centre alone, with a saving of 2500 unprinted documents in the last 12 months, we now have the potential to make similar reductions at a branch level. As well as the financial and environmental implications, we have enabled our colleagues to easily work between branches, which gives us so much flexibility.
We’ve also improved the security of printing in general, which is particularly important at branches which may operate in an open plan environment. A predominantly cloud based solution with one server and one print queue can manage the entire infrastructure, it really simplifies the whole IT process helping us to effectively manage and trouble shoot at a device level.”
Leek Building Society now has a future proofed solution that can grow with the needs of the business, with the tools and reporting to fully manage printing across the organisation. By developing a long-term supplier relationship they have the reassurance of a partner that understands their approach and will recommend hardware and software solutions that will reduce costs and improve overall efficiency.
Some of the best services that we manage are those that we don’t frequently have to attend to. The Service doesn’t just work by chance, it works because it is a good solution. The Service is built on reliable, robust hardware, the latest functionality and environmental credentials. It is managed and supported by a customer focused supplier who provides exceptional service and always goes the extra mile. We hope we continue to collaborate well into the future. Tim Hands, IT Operations Manager, Leek Building Society
