Why do small businesses, schools, and large corporations all turn to Managed Print Services (MPS)? Because with MPS, you outsource the management of your printing environment to a reputable third party provider like Orion , putting the day-to-day responsibilities that come along with your fleet in the hands of our trained professionals.
Through MPS, you’ll:
Eliminate service and supply headaches through automatic printer supply ordering and routine device servicing.
Experience lower costs and predictable monthly billing by removing unnecessary, redundant, inefficient, or obsolete devices and eliminating wasteful printing.
Increase document security through rules-based printing, firmware updates, and system monitoring.
Managed Print Services allows organizations of any size to achieve more with less.
If you have travelled anywhere in Australia by plane since 2010 you probably have visited a WHSmith store. Their first store opened in 2010 in Melbourne Airport and within a short period of time they have grown to over 50 stores operating in Australia and over 500 employees.
WH Smith is a leading global retailer with a presence in over 25 countries, serving its customers from over 1,300 stores across the globe. With such an extensive presence worldwide, WHSmith was proud to open their first store in Australia back in 2010. Their first store opened its doors in Melbourne Airport and within a short period of time, the business has grown substantially – and it continues to grow – with stores now open in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.
Their goal is to be the leading retailer in convenience, books and news for the world’s travelling customer. They understand our customers and know that in the locations in which they operate people have less time to browse and their focus on instore design and excellent customer service reflects this. Early in 2012 the business acquired the brand Fresh+ – a hospital café business, serving fresh food and refreshments to visitors and patients.
As they have continued to grow the business, innovation has been at the heart of everything they do. Their aim is to move at the same pace as their customers, always ensuring they are at the forefront of everything they do
The Challenge
Challenge WH Smith had two major challenges when it came to their printing requirements – their multiple locations and where they were placed, along with a busy customer-facing environment where uptime was of prime importance. The challenge for every WHSmith was that the device was either in a regional, or difficult-to-get-to, location (such as a hospital or Airport).Epson’s Heat-Free print technology means less moving parts so more reliable printing and increased up time. The high-yield inks (up to 8 times longer than comparative lasers) gave staff less disruptions and more time to attend to their customers needs..
The Solution, The Benefits
With minimal interventions – both service and consumables replacement – as one of their buying criteria, along with price-performance, WH Smith was keen to understand the benefits Epson could bring to the table.
Epson excelled on both counts, the reliability of their Heat-Free technology not only improved staff morale but also customer service capability. The Epson high-yield ink consumables for both the A4 (up to 50,000 pages) and A3 (up to 100,000 pages) models not only provided WHSmith with the minimal disruptions they were looking for, it also enabled them to dramatically reduce their overall running costs. In fact Orion Print Management, Epson’s Premier Partner, quantified the total cost savings over the contract period to be just over 80% in power and running cost.
The Return-on-Investment
As much as WHSmith appreciated the cost savings of the Epson devices, the real return-on-investment here was the extra time staff could spend with their customers. And with Orion Print Management proactively and professionally managing their fleet, the WHSmith IT Management team could now focus their time on key IT projects.
Orion is Epson Australia’s Premier Partners. We improve organisational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management, accelerating shared business processes by facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. The measure of their company is reflected in the testimony of their customers, and WHSmith is an excellent example of what positive impact they can bring to your business.
While online job sites are an efficient and cost-effective platform for recruiting new staff to a small business, it is not as simple as just posting a few quick lines about the role. For the best outcome, it is important to invest some time in crafting a well-structured and targeted job advertisement.
As part of our series of small business tips, recruitment and careers expert Maria Borg provides advice on how to create job advertisements that attract valuable and appropriate candidates.
So you are looking to hire…
The first thing you need to remember is that an effective job ad is not just a job description. It:
Is a professionally written message that generates an appropriate response
Attracts the best quality talent and does not leave you inundated with inappropriate candidates
Is the start of the recruitment relationship between you, your organisation and your candidate
You need to know your target audience and be able to offer them what they want in a language they understand.
Writing a good job advertisement is not difficult if you follow a clear structure (outlined below) and think hard about the qualities and abilities you want your ideal candidate to possess.
A good job advertisement consists of several equally important elements:
an effective headline
key benefits (usually 3 bullet points)
a brief company profile
a summary of the job itself
a profile of the ideal candidate
any rewards or incentives
your contact details
application closing date (optional)
Here are some tips to sharpen the focus of your ad:
Be very specific.
Be very specific with requirements to allow candidates to compare what is required with their own skills and experience and discourage those with limited skills and experience from applying.
Provide a clear job title (headline) and salary range.
Clearly articulate what skills and experience are essential or desirable.
Describe your company – but not in too much detail.
Take a look at Google search results to discover other commonly used terms that describe the job you’re hiring for and adjust the position title to accurately reflect what a potential candidate is looking for.
Speak directly to the reader.
Avoid phrases like “the successful candidate” or “the ideal applicant” and simply use the word “you”. Also, use colloquial terms common to your candidate’s demographic
Nail the short description.
On average, four times as many people read the short description than actually click through to the ad itself. So put some thought and effort into what you write (using the structure provided).
Ask for a cover letter.
This can provide useful clues to character, education level, and communication style.
In this digital age it’s important to stand out from the competition. Producing high quality printing helps your company get the professional edge and win more business. First impressions count! Presenting material you can be proud of is definitely going to get you noticed but outsourcing production is time consuming and an expensive chore.
So if outsourcing is not a desirable option the answer must lie in-house. Or does it? SME’s often express that an A3 and/or a colour printer is just too expensive to purchase for the average office and in-house printing is therefore not an option. These days though, it is possible to find an affordable colour printer that can meet your professional needs in house.
The cost verses benefits of in-house A4 and A3 colour printing, are not obvious until we look a little closer so in this article we will explore the possibility of printing professional quality A4 AND A3 colour prints in-house to generate more business.
Contrary to popular belief, printing in house is very likely to not only save you money but in most cases also generate more business to so in turn it makes you money.
Consider These 5 Benefits:
1. STAND OUT from your competition
Professional quality brochures, presentations and other documents will help to grow your business.
2. Brand Awareness
First impressions count. When customers see your marketing and other printed material, you are introducing yourself to them and showing them what to expect from you. The quality of your printed materials should reflect the quality of your business, product or service. It will continue to “sell” your company long after your sales person has left your customers (or prospective customers) premises.
3. Gain Control
By taking printing in-house, you can control when and how you print rather than waiting at the end of the queue for a printing house to get to your job. Another benefit is that you also don’t have to order large quantities of pre-printed stock (and risk redundancy of information) to keep unit costs down.
4. Cost
A major consideration in taking the step to produce your own professional quality prints is that the cost of printing in-house can be as low as $5.00 per day. This is a considerable saving when compared with engaging the services of a professional printer.
5. Increase In Productivity
Imagine how much more work can be completed, if high quality prints were available from a mobile device your graphic artist has just emailed the final proof to.
The key though is to ensure the device you are printing from allows your staff flexibility and mobility. Your members of staff will want to be able to set their print jobs to their specific needs and pick it up from a convenient spot. Finding a compact printing solution that provides these benefits AND produces professional quality output will allow your office to enjoy the best of both worlds.
Over the last 20 years, the way we work has changed dramatically. The internet is now a significant part of our every day home and working life. We live in a mobile world of immediacy and we are used to getting things we want now.
Working on the go can be adapted to mobile printing on the go now too. With Google Cloud Print, you can safely print anything, from almost any device, to any cloud-connected printer.
The benefits of mobile printing for SMEs include:
Quick printing access from a computer, mobile phone or tablet making life easier for all staff on the go and back in the office.
Time saving for both staff and your clients.
You can make your printers accessible to anyone you choose either at home or work.
Specifically, Google Cloud Print works on your phone, tablet, Chromebook, PC, and any other web-connected device you want to print from. This means that those who rely on a smartphone or tablet as their main point of communication, can print directly from it wherever they are. Not only is this groundbreaking, it’s surprisingly easy too.
In today’s article we have broken down the steps for you to start printing from just about any mobile device.
6 Steps To Mobile Printing With Google Cloud Print:
Find a computer in your existing network (desktop or laptop is fine) already connected to a Google Cloud Print enabled printer. Many modern printers are Cloud Print ready but if you are unsure about this you can find an excellent source to connect both classic and Cloud Print ready machines here.
Sign into your Chrome browser. If you don’t use Chrome as your browser, you will need to set it up and you can find quick and simple instructions here.
Go to the Cloud Print page to add mobile devices to the printer so they match your preferences.
On your mobile device, select and download the appropriate app (both Android and IOS devices have them) but for the purpose of this article, we are looking at Cloud Print which is free.
Cloud Print allows you to open your documents, pictures and emails in Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Calendar and Mail.
Simply send the desired document to the printer that’s linked to your desktop or laptop. Once you’ve submitted a print job, use the Google Cloud Print management page to track it.
To watch the video on how to print from a mobile device with Google’s Cloud Print step by step in full click here.
Google Cloud Print is completely secure. Your file is sent safely over the web and Google Cloud Print works from wherever you are. This could be in the same room or even in a different country thanks to the internet.
