A School Striving for Excellence

St. Crispin’s saves £2,000 in six months with Epson business inkjet printer

St. Crispin’s School is a medium sized school with 1,100 students and 150 staff. The school strives to bring out the greatest potential in all its students no matter the individual abilities or interests. St. Crispin’s mission statement is ‘Excellence for All’ which truly encapsulates the school’s vision. They have a dedicated roster of staff that offers constant support, knowledge, and skills, which continually helps every student on their road to success.

In order for the staff to offer their continued expertise, they must be able to function in an administratively efficient and cost-effective environment. The school initially had a mixed printer fleet, with every department using a different type and brand of printer.

With a range of printers across the school and print costs escalating year on year, the school was finding it ‘unmanageable’. It was time to look for a solution. Since the main office had the highest concentration of costs, it was decided that this would be the first area to look for improvement. Andy Turner, ICT Technician, began to review the process of replacing the main office printers.

The school contacted several resellers and chose BDS to help with the process. BDS representative, Bob Panting, explained:, ‘At BDS we truly care about the customer and make sure we provide a really great service all across the country.’ Bob Panting visited the school to assess the current situation. The staff perceived that inkjet printers meant high costs from ink refills and high maintenance from ink nozzle clogs. As a result they were initially reluctant about making the switch from laser to inkjet.

There has been a common misconception that laser printers perform the best in business-like environments. The reality is though that inkjet offers numerous advantages over lasers. Much of this can be credited to PrecisionCore, which is a scalable technology that enhances reliability of the printer while reducing waste and the environmental footprint.

Bob Panting was adamant that Epson printers would be the perfect solution for their needs.  He explained to the school the advancements that Epson has made with its inkjet technology, and the costs savings and energy efficiencies that can be delivered.  Bob Panting’s number one priority at BDS is ‘getting the customer what they needed’ and at the same time, ‘saving them money’.

Over the course of the next several months, BDS continued to build the relationship and highlight the benefits of inkjet over laser printing. They specifically emphasised the performance of the WorkForce Pro series, operating at up to 96% lower energy consumption and 94% less waste then lasers.

Finally, Bob Panting arranged a loan for St. Crispin’s of a WorkForce Pro WF-R8590DWF for one month. The WorkForce Pro WF-R8590DWF is the ideal A3+ multifunction printer. It is ecological using 80% less power than colour lasers and enhances productivity by automatic double-sided printing, scanning, copying and faxing.

BDS also utilised the Print 365 lease scheme for St. Crispin’s. Print 365 is a hassle-free managed service that provides a combination print package, automatic supply delivery, and print management portal all for simple fixed fees. St. Crispin’s decided on a package that allowed them 2.2p per page for colour and 0.3 for monochrome per month. It is an ideal cost effective and interruption-free solution for the school.

St. Crispin’s was very pleased with the difference that the WorkForce Pro and Print365 bundle had already made. Before the month was even over, Andy Turner contacted BDS and decided that they were going to extend the agreement and signed for a three year lease.

The printer has continued to improve the main office functionalities. Andy Turner said that St. Crispin’s ‘have been absolutely thrilled with the printer’s performance’. Their preliminary hesitations have faded away as well. The staff have not experienced any high maintenance issues and in fact the low cost per page has been a significant factor in their savings.

Overall, St. Crispin’s are currently paying less than 10% on ink costs and has saved an impressive £2,000 in toner and maintenance costs in just six months. The WF-R8590DWF yields up to 75,000 copies before an ink refill is needed*, and Andy Turner says that in their particular case that may even be an underestimation, saying, ‘the printer far exceeded what we ever expected’.

St. Crispin’s is only halfway through their lease and they fully expect the savings to continue. As a school, they have been so impressed by the printer that they are now considering a roll out of a variety of Epson devices across the school.

The school was looking for a cost effective, time saving, efficiency boosting solution and were able to find their answer in the WF-R8590DWF, because of its cleaner technology, higher durability and quality and reliability certifications.

BDS and Epson have been able to implement a cost-saving solution that allows St. Crispin’s to spend less time worrying about ink costs and more time focusing on developing their students. Adhering to St. Crispin’s School’s vision statement, in this case, the Epson solution truly provided ‘Excellence for All’.