Theatre Royal Stratford East

PaperCut print software delivers cost savings

The Company

Opening in 1884, the Theatre Royal Stratford East was Stratford’s first permanent playhouse. Although the landscape around it has changed considerably, particularly since the 2012 Olympic Games, the Theatre Royal Stratford East continues to showcase work inspired by its local community as well as the world today.

EBM first met with Theatre Royal Stratford East in July 2012. Their service provider at the time had gone into administration and they needed help with servicing the machines they were left with. EBM serviced their machines on a time and material basis and, in the process, identified that they would benefit from a print audit.

The Challenge

Theatre Royal Stratford East was running Olivetti and Toshiba multifunctional printers, and seven HP desktop printers. This meant they had to order many different consumables, which was not cost effective. The devices were also becoming unreliable, causing service problems.

One of the MFPs, with an expensive lease, had a lengthy term remaining on the contract, which included the maintenance fee. When the original supplier went into administration, Theatre Royal Stratford East received no maintenance, but was still obligated to pay the lease.

Theatre Royal Stratford East also felt it was wasting paper with print outs not being collected and colour print being used to excess.

The Solution

EBM advised Theatre Royal Stratford East to allow the leased machine’s contract to expire while continuing to maintain the device on a time and material basis. This was the quickest way of reducing the outstanding debt of the lease without settling completely.

After conducting a print audit to identify issues with the current print strategy, the HP desktop printers were replaced with a single high-performance refurbished Lexmark MFP that could be accessed by the entire network.

In 2015, EBM performed a further print audit, as the leased machine was due to expire. With an aim to reduce the amount of paper being used, EBM proposed three new Ricoh machines, as well as PaperCut print management software.

The Benefits

Costs were reduced significantly once the incumbent fleet of desktop devices was replaced. When the remaining leases expired, and the new Ricoh devices had been implemented, one year on Theatre Royal Stratford East has saved £237.08 per month on average. This will save them more than and £14,000 over five years in print costs alone. This saving does not take the initial hardware lease into account.

PaperCut played a huge part in reducing print costs. As well as helping to encourage users to print in grayscale rather than colour, Theatre Royal Stratford East printed 14,000 fewer pages by utilising the PaperCut unreleased jobs function, resulting in 18% less paper being used.

By cutting paper waste, reducing the number of devices, and upgrading to eco-friendly machines, Theatre Royal Stratford East has also reduced their carbon footprint and exceeded their environmental action plan targets.