How Ricoh helps Ireo slash printing costs by 25 percent

Raking in over Rs 686 crore, and employing over 1000 people, Ireo is a leading property developer in India.

Since its establishment in 2004, Ireo has assembled one of the largest property portfolios in India, with a focus on Delhi NCR, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Goa regions.

Given the scale of operations, Ireo’s printing requirements are massive. As stated by Anil Goyal, the Deputy Vice President–Administration at Ireo, the construction giant’s billing ranges between Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per month. This equates to an impressive 66 lakh prints per month.

Stringent SLAs, but Ricoh cracks it

Throwing light on Ricoh’s range of operations and reach, Goyal said that Ireo has sites in Gurgaon, Punjab, Chandigarh and Chennai, and Ricoh is servicing all these locations within the stipulated SLA.

Earlier Ireo had to buy printers on its own. But now the company has entered into an agreement with Ricoh on a service model where it takes the printer on rent and pays the click charges.

“Our operations require a lot of data, and there’s a lot of compliance we need to adhere to. In terms of service agreements, we agreed upon an SLA of four hours in the event of a printer going out of action,” said Goyal.

Expressing his satisfaction with the service delivered by the printing ace, he said: “I’m pretty happy with the service level Ricoh is delivering at this moment.”

After three to four years of the lease, Ricoh changes the printer, and this arrangement has worked out quite well. Although the condition of the printer after three years is still quite good, Ireo now has the provision of replacing them with brand new printers.

“We’re benefitted because we get good quality work in addition to good service. And what we’re really happy about is the fact that the printer downtime is quite low,” he added.

How Ricoh’s Managed Document Services (MDS) makes the cut

Quite recently, Ireo entered into an agreement with Ricoh for their Managed Document Services. Among its advantages, one that particularly benefits Ireo is the security feature in the printer. The security feature ensures that a printer can only be operated when a user activates the printing with his or her ID card.

Now by stitching in this security feature, Ricoh ensures that there’s no unauthorized printing. In addition to this, Ireo was benefitted by reducing paper wastage, and therefore cut down printing costs.

This feature also enables Ireo get data and the MIS on a monthly basis, and derive insights into what’s being printed, and the user operating the printer. This data is then shared with the reporting managers to control the cost.

“We found this feature to help us immensely in cutting down printing costs. We’ve been able to reduce our printing costs by almost 25 percent by using this facility,” revealed Goyal.

Ricoh’s automated printing solution, and what it brings to the table

The Ricoh printers deployed at Ireo have an in-built capability to send an automatic alert to the admins if the toner levels in the printer are depleting or if the print quality is deteriorating.

“This feature ensures that we get automated updates about toner levels in the printer, and we can take appropriate action in time,” explained Goyal.

The ability to forewarn the user eliminates manual intervention and increases the uptime of printers.

“Time to time, Ricoh gives us an update and explains the services and the upgradations going on in the market, and based on our requirement, we keep looking for IT-enabled services from Ricoh,” he added.

Goyal added that the customer support from Ricoh has been excellent. “Whenever I’ve encountered a problem, I’ve contacted the account manager at Ricoh, and they facilitate the support within an hour. They’re quite prompt, and I’m happy with their services,” he said.