Snap Sydney, Clarence Streetand Ricoh

... the service we get from Ricoh is nothing short of superb.

Technicians arrive on site in a very short time and know

precisely what they’re doing, which ensures that any

service is carried out extremely quickly and the machine

is back online and performing faultlessly.

Nisan Krimhand, Owner and Managing Director”

”

For over a hundred years Snap (previously Snap Printing)

has been delivering print services to Australian businesses,

maintaining a leadership position in what has become one of

Australia’s more competitive industries – on-demand

print production.

In Sydney’s Central Business District, Snap Sydney, Clarence Street,

epitomises that success, providing a broad range of print and

marketing support services to a growing number of some of the

city’s most high profile businesses.

Challenge: A complete mono production solutionOver the past several years, Snap Sydney, Clarence Street, has

evolved to the point where its services encompass design, branding,

direct mail, copywriting and, of course, its core business of printing.

In monochrome prints alone, the company’s production output is

approximately 700,000 A4 pages per month.

With such an enormous workload, the company is steadfastly

committed to maintaining a print production environment that

supports nothing short of best-practice.

As a result of that commitment, Snap went out to the high volume

print market in early 2010 to source a product intended initially as

a back-up for its existing monochrome print technology. That initial

intent, though, was soon to be turned around.

The Answer: A complete Ricoh monochrome solutionFor the owner and managing director of Snap Sydney, Clarence Street,

Nisan Krimhand, success in the on-demand print market requires an

open mind to the consideration of new products, technologies and

solutions. So, even though his company had typically been a single

vendor site, a demonstration of the Ricoh Pro 1107EX at the Ricoh

Printing Innovation Centre was enough to change the mix.

“Interestingly, one of Ricoh’s account managers had maintained

contact with me for several years,” Nisan says. “During that time, my

production manager and I had seen demonstrations and were more

than just a bit impressed. But the main issue I had, though, was a

somewhat negative perception of Ricoh’s service and support; and it’s

a perception that I quickly discovered was totally wrong.”

A professional approachAccording to Snap Sydney, Clarence Street production manager,

Anthony Col, the value of Ricoh’s service and support became evident

even before the company’s Pro 1107EX was installed. “A fortnight

before installation, we had Ricoh specialists on site conducting a full

inspection,” he relates.

“That encompassed ensuring we had sufficient power, identifying

the best location for the printer, and, importantly, gaining a better

understanding of how we would be using it, so they could customise

the solution and the training.

“When it came time for the installation,” Anthony continues,

“the Ricoh team knew precisely where the unit was to be installed,

how to get it in there and what was required to bring it on-line

with our other system. The result was that the installation had

virtually no negative impact on our production, and the

Pro 1107EX was actually up and running within just a couple

of hours of it being delivered.”

The mono production workhorseWith the Pro 1107EX installed, it was only a matter of weeks before

any thoughts of utilising it as a backup printer disappeared, and, as

the company’s mono print production workhorse, it is generating

around half-a-million prints every month.

Underpinning the sudden change in the Pro 1107EX’s role is the unit’s

consistent performance reliability across all of its key operational uses

– printing, scanning, stapling and hole drilling. All of which contribute

to significant savings in time and cost, not least of those is a saving of

approximately eight hours a week in finishing alone.

To appreciate such a large saving, Anthony explains that a sizeable

percentage of Snap’s monochrome production work is undertaken for

many of Sydney’s leading independent corporate training organisations.

“Most of those jobs require the prints to be hole drilled so they

can be inserted into training manual binders,” he says.

Snap Sydney, Clarence Street:

Outstanding mono print production

... the installation had virtually no negative impact on our production,

and the Pro 1107EX was actually up and running within just a couple

of hours of it being delivered.

”‘‘

Anthony Col, Production Manager

to general maintenance and replacement of drums, developer units

and paper feed rollers,” he says. “With the Pro 1107EX we’re able

to replace those – and more – ourselves without having to rely on a

service technician.”

On the rare occasions a Ricoh service technician is required – and

more often than not it’s a scheduled preventative maintenance

service – the rapid response and minimal system downtime have

further confirmed Nisan’s re-evaluation of Ricoh’s service capabilities.

“Regardless of what I may have previously thought,” he says, “the

service we get from Ricoh is nothing short of superb.

“Technicians arrive on site in a very short time and know precisely

what they’re doing, which ensures that any service is carried

out extremely quickly and the machine is back online and

performing faultlessly.

“It’s the excellent service and support we receive from Ricoh,” Nisan

continues, “along with the high levels of efficiency and reliability of

the system that has opened our business well and truly to the future

implementation of additional Ricoh-based solutions.”

Scan-to-print excellenceWhile the majority of Snap’s work is generated directly from

digital files, there remains quite a large demand for prints to be

generated from original hard copies. With the ability to scan and

print simultaneously, those jobs, which previously required

separate scan and print processes, are now achieved in a

single workflow through use of the use of Pro 1107EX’s inbuilt

scan-to-print functionality.

“The quality of the Pro 1107EX’s scan-to-print eliminates one of the

industry’s biggest problems when it comes to printing from originals,”

Anthony says. “And that’s ensuring the copies are exactly the same

as the originals. The scanned prints we get from the Pro 1107EX are

virtually indistinguishable from the originals, which is precisely what

our clients expect.”

In summing up the impact the Ricoh Pro 1107EX has had on his

business, Nisan states: “All the efficiencies we’ve now gained – time

savings, print quality, integrated scan-to-print workflow and ease of

management – are being passed on directly to our clients. And those

are efficiencies that any operator in the on-demand print business

must deliver.”

Prior to the introduction of the Pro 1107EX, hole drilling was the

responsibility of the finishing department, where it was easily

consuming a full day every week. With the Pro 1107EX’s inline hole

punching, that labour intensive component of the workflow has

now been totally eliminated.

Service and support: “nothing short of superb”Adding further to the rationale behind Snap’s decision to promote the

Pro 1107EX to the primary mono production system is its reliability,

ease of maintenance and rapid service response from Ricoh, all of

which contribute to an almost 100 per cent up time rating.

According to Anthony, it’s also the training provided by Ricoh and

the large number of Trained Customer Replaceable Units (TCRUs)

in the Pro 1107EX that play a major role in reliability and uptime.

“With the majority of other high volume print production systems on

the market, there’s very little operators are able to do when it comes

Ricoh Australia Pty. Ltd. 8 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone: 1800 181 002 Fax: 02 8977 1100 Web: ricoh.com.auRicoh New Zealand Pty. 60 Stanley Street, Parnell, Auckland New Zealand. Phone 0800 2 Ricoh (0800 2 74264) Fax: 09 915 1401 Web: ricoh.co.nz

Product code: B950528Printed on a Ricoh colour production device

Taking control of production with the Ricoh Pro 1107EX

All the efficiencies we’ve now gained – time savings, print quality, integrated scan-to-print workflow and ease of management – are being passed on directly to our clients. And those are efficiencies that any operator in the on-demand print business must deliver.

‘‘

‘‘Nisan Krimhand, Owner and Managing Director