Case Studies

How do you find the low hanging fruit? Start with your output.

Today's output devices (printers and multifuncial systems) are an integral part of the information work dominating today's business environment. But too often they are overlooked and under-managed. That should raise a giant, lost-productivity red flag to CIOs and IT managers, especially in light of the new scan-to-workflow capabilities of these new devices, which can be used to automate and streamline important do cuemnt-intenisve business processes.

Then there's the whole cost-side of the equation. Let's do some simple math. According to InfoTrend's, if you're a medium-size business doing $10 millian a year, you could be spending anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000 a year on document and document related issues.

We know from experience with our clients that if you do a good job actively managing your nfleet, you could save as much as 30 percent in costs. In our example ab ove, that would be as much as $90,000 returned to the bottom line. If you're a large business, just add the appropriate number of zieroes at the end. In other wordes, a $1 billion-a-year company could save up to $9 million! That's real money added to bottom-line profit.

Conducting business in more than 200 countries, the Ricoh Group generates more than half of its sales from outside Japan. The company provides a wide variety of electronic products and services ranging from copiers, cameras and printers to IT solutions. Ricoh has become a highly trusted name by helping customers improve productivity and create knowledge. It aims to continue growing and seeks at least 25 percent of its fiscal year 2013 sales from new business areas.

Improving Ricoh solution scope, quality and time to market

Since its founding in 1936, Ricoh has been an industry leader in the fields
of optics and office equipment. Today, the company seeks to expand its
range of business offerings into document solutions and other corporate
solutions and services. The company’s Business Development Center
(BDC) plans, develops and markets these solutions and services.
It communicates with Ricoh Japan and four other global Ricoh sales
companies—covering the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region
and China—to provide sales and support activities closely tailored to each
region’s needs.

Because Ricoh started as a hardware manufacturer, it already had processes for maintaining high product quality. However, the BDC faced
challenges in developing solutions and services. “The old rules used for hardware development resulted in unwieldy processes, making it difficult
to compete against more nimble software service vendors. We looked
to rebuild work processes designed for the things we were developing,
such as software and services. When providing solutions to clients, we
wanted to propose total solutions tailored to the client’s environment and
operations,” says Takao Fujii, specialist, Business Management Section,
Service Business Planning Department, BDC, Global Marketing
Division, Ricoh Group.

The Challenge

Lindner Hotels AG owns 34 city and resort hotels throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Like many established hotel chains, they are aware that travelers have a wide range of choices. To set themselves apart, Lindner Hotels was looking to add new, innovative communications solutions—specifically for business travelers.

One area that they knew could be improved was making it more convenient for guests to print documents. As things stood, printing documents could only be done by connecting a USB memory device directly to a printer or a networked laptop/desktop. Without one, guests weren’t able to easily print, which led to problems and customer dissatisfaction.

The Solution

While replacing their old multifunction printers with Xerox® MFPs, Lindner Hotels decided to implement the Xerox® Mobile Print Solution. This innovative technology made it easy for guests to print documents from mobile devices, without having to physically connect to a printer.

This solution works on any of the hotels’ Xerox® WorkCentre® 7775,  Xerox® WorkCentre 7545 or Xerox® ColorQube® Multifunction Printers. What’s more, since many Lindner Hotels employees work in different locations, this made printing more flexible for their workforce. To date, the Xerox® Mobile Print Solution is available at the Lindner Hotels headquarters in Düsseldorf and in their Nuremberg hotel. The other 27 hotels are scheduled to receive the installation over the next few months.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Comfort and service are among the most important features that make a hotel stay enjoyable for guests. The hospitality industry is intently focused on this and strives to develop new and unique amenities for their patrons. Whether a small bed and breakfast or a grand-scale international resort, such details can make all the difference in fostering loyalty. In fact, ancillary sales of in-room products have become vital to the bottom line for nearly any facility.

In-Room Plus is the top manufacturer and distributor of snacks, custom logo products, and convenience items dedicated to the hotel minibar market. For 25 years, the company, based in Buffalo, New York, maintains a global presence, with over 350 of the largest and most respected names in hospitality. Quality, innovation, and responsiveness top the list of its enviable clientele, and the company’s ability to fulfill any size order within days has been the hallmark of its success.

CUSTOMER ISSUES

In-Room Plus is continually coming up with new packaging designs for its clients and prospects. Much of its success in creating eye-popping materials has been attributed to the use of glossy spot varnish, which instantly appeals to guests. While long a part of traditional offset printing, such treatment isn’t cost effective for short runs or prepress proofs. To overcome this, the company’s design team would attempt to simulate the effect of a glossy varnish prior to print runs by using varying tints of color and outputting them on color printers in-house. But in the end, the noticeable absence of sheen resulted in lackluster enthusiasm among its customers.