Government-owned company almost halves printing costs by migrating to uniFLOW Narodne novine d.d.Print management - Case Study

Publisher optimizes costs and improves employee productivity

Print management - Case Study

Narodne novine d.d. is a government-owned company with 530 employees working on three core activities: manufacturing/print, retail and publishing. Narodne novine started out as the company, established for publishing the Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia and printing official publications. Printing – their core business – is supplemented by retail operations. The company currently operate 43 own stores and ensures availability of printed products and school and office supplies across Croatia. They are among the largest publishers in Croatia. In addition to publishing the Official gazette in its digital and printed forms, they also publish all approved legislative documents and international agreements of the Republic of Croatia as well as all public tenders in electronic form. The annual revenue of the company is HRK 400 million.

Situation In their office environment, Narodne novine was facing extremely high cost of printing and copying with wasteful usage of small desktop printers and lack of control over who is printing what. According to available data, monthly print volume was 150,000 pages, of which 20,000 were in color. Individual offices used one or two desktop printers and in total

the company had 120 devices by five different manufacturers. In addition to the high cost of maintaining this many devices – the company used 15 different models – Narodne novine estimates that 70 percent of their output infrastructure was older than four years.

“We realized that we needed a solution to reduce and more effectively manage output and costs, streamline our printing infrastructure, route more demanding print jobs to more capable devices, reduce the number of devices and optimize the usage of supplies,” explained Petar Piskač, president of the Management board of Narodne novine d.d. “By selecting a suitable solution, we were planning on cutting costs by up to 20 or 30 percent. We also realized that we will need to substantially change the way our employees work.”

Four suppliers submitted their tenders and the offer by Oganj, which was prepared with close support from Canon, was chosen as the most suitable, in large part because of the proven quality of Canon devices. Oganj is also a long-term partner of Narodne novine and the companies have successfully worked together for more than 20 years.

Solution In the first stage, Oganj signed an agreement to implement a pilot project. For the period of one year, Oganj implemented its own devices for which Narodne novine paid a flat fee. uniFLOW print management software is owned by Narodne novine as the company expects to recoup their investment through savings within a year.

“The initial assessment has shown that by installing one or two MFPs in the halls on individual floors, we can achieve the lowest output cost and provide optimal access to ensure employee productivity,” explained Anđelko Škeva, General Manager, Oganj.

They’ve installed 12 Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE C2020L and 6055, iR 3225N and 6 desktop Canon printers. During this stage of the project, the client retained 80 printers of other brands at the company’s headquarters and 50 printers in subsidiaries across Croatia. The solution was designed to handle 220,000 pages per month.

uniFLOW software was implemented to manage the entire infrastructure and to measure costs and optimize document processes. “We were surprised by how much data we got and how accurate it was even during the initial stage of the project,” said Piskač.

The system is used daily by 400 employees and uniFLOW ensures that the majority of jobs are printed on more cost-effective Canon MFPs so that these devices are optimally utilized. The system is set up to prioritize duplex printing and only provides color printing when needed.

Employees use their access cards to authenticate on devices. The company uses secure print options more often and the volume of duplex printing and scanning jobs has increased. To a great extent, the new solution reduced the volume of color

The system is used daily by 400 employees and uniFLOW ensures that the majority of jobs are printed on more cost-effective Canon MFPs so that these devices are optimally utilized. The system is set up to prioritize duplex printing and only provides color printing when needed.

Due to the achieved benefits and success of the pilot project, the system is now operational. Print optimization - based on uniFLOW analyses - enabled Narodne novine to further reduce the total number of devices to 40 devices by 3 manufacturers and the number of models decreased to 9.

in costs per page – we are forecasting the reduction of 60 percent within three years. Annual savings are approximately HRK 313,000, including the investment.”

Due to the achieved benefits and success of the pilot project, the system is now operational. Print optimization - based on uniFLOW analyses - enabled Narodne novine to further reduce the total number of devices to 40 devices by 3 manufacturers and the number of models decreased to 9. The age of the infrastructure was also reduced as a result.

Narodne novine is also continuing its partnership with Oganj by offering uniFLOW implementations to other Narodne novine partners, who recognized the solution’s potential. Their uniFLOW project thus became a reference for further implementations of the print management system. Recently, Oganj installed Canon imagePRESS 1135 monochrome production engine in Narodne novine printing house, which will expand their offering of variable printing for larger runs.

prints and color printing is used only when actually necessary. To maintain and manage the infrastructure, the company uses the E-maintenance system that provides print statistics and enables administrators to monitor the operation of each individual device.

Benefits Benefits of the solution were already realized in the pilot stage. In addition to measurable reduction in costs the company also noticed changes in the habits of employees. They are using follow-me print options and more often rely on scanning documents and sending them by e-mail. With the option of routing jobs to devices that are already operational, the company has also reduced the time required to print. The use of duplex printing was increased by 100 percent.

“Devices are better utilized and their use is more rational. We are also taking advantage of the new features,” emphasized Piskač. “By using devices with lower cost per page and lower costs of toners and service, we were able to generate substantial reductions

Print management - Case Study

»Devices are better utilized and their use is more rational. We are also taking advantage of the new features. By using devices with lower cost per page and lower costs of toners and service, we were able to generate substantial reductions in costs per page – we are forecasting the reduction of 60 percent within three years.«Dr. Petar Piskač, president of the Management board of Narodne novine d.d.

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