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MPS Case Study

Kyocera has been getting good mileage out of its work with RSA, the personal, home, motor and pet insurance provider and owner of the MORE TH>N brand. And deservedly so. The managed print service (MPS) they have implemented together shows what can be achieved when an MPS provider works with a customer to change an organisation’s printing culture. One year into a fve-year contract, RSA has already cut print volumes by 13%, reduced paper consumption by 21% and slashed print-related energy use by 55%.

And that’s just the start. In the MPS business case carried out for RSA by Accenture and EKM4, expenditure on print over the fve-year period was forecast to decline from £7,500,000 (based on pre-deployment usage) to £2,500,000 with an optimised feet.

To achieve these savings, Kyocera has delivered an MPS with all the usual elements: feet optimisation to cut the number of print devices from more than 1,000 to less than 375 (source: FT.com); two-sided printing as the default on all new devices; swipecard-based FollowMe printing to improve document security and reduce unnecessary printing; live feet monitoring;

Changing minds

A commitment to change management is one of the hallmarks of Kyocera’s managed print service for insurance giant RSA.

comprehensive management reports; and stringent SLAs for device uptime and fault resolution.

What elevates Kyocera’s implementation above the norm – and what, during the tender process, impressed Paul Pritchard, RSA’s UK Head of Corporate Responsibility – is Kyocera’s willingness to engage with RSA employees as part of an on-going change management process. “When selecting a technology supplier, you have to ensure that all the technical and risk management elements are covered, but beyond that there are other differentiators that mark vendors out as good partners for RSA. Willingness to collaborate and engage with us beyond simply rolling out a solution is certainly a large part of that, and this was something that impressed us about the team at Kyocera,” he said.

Human factors

Change management was particularly important for this project, due to RSA’s size – 7,000 employees in 22 sites – and the fact that the ratio of printers to employees was being cut from about 1:8 to 1:21. To be successful, change of this magnitude requires the full support of everyone involved,

as Kyocera Mita’s RSA account director Stewart Dudding explains: “Users can react very strongly on hearing that they are being asked to change the way they work. The removal of someone’s personal printer is an oddly emotive issue, so we knew that for the project to be successful, we would need everyone to understand the major benefts that RSA would realise following the implementation of the project,” he said.

“We knew that some staff members would be more affected than others, so we took care to identify these ‘power users’ at an early stage and involve them in the design process. We also worked with RSA and their technology partner Accenture to put in place a communications plan that would ensure that users were fully aware of the project’s implementation schedule. We wanted RSA’s staff to feel very positive about the benefts that the new system would bring, in terms of reliability and the environmental improvements.”

MPS roadshow

Kyocera carried out a series of roadshows at each of RSA’s locations which gave users the opportunity to ask questions and try out the new hardware. As part of the process, it created a series of posters highlighting the top line benefts that RSA employees would see in terms of functionality, reliability and reduced paper consumption. RSA CIO James de Watteville feels that the communications programme “undoubtedly

contributed to the overall success of the initiative”; while, for Paul Pritchard, it provided a welcome opportunity to talk about the environmental aspects of the project: “We wanted staff to understand that the environmental and business benefts of this project went hand-in-hand, and that focusing on sustainability brings its own effciency gains to the organisation,” he said. Good communication between Kyocera and RSA has not ended with the installation of the new feet. If anything, it has become stronger as the project has progressed thanks to RSA’s own internal commitment to supplier relationship management and Kyocera’s diligence in delivering detailed monthly reports and consultancy.

Kyocera now plays an active part in RSA’s Green Supplier Relationship Management programme and is a member of the company’s Supplier CR Forum, which aims to help RSA suppliers improve their own sustainability performance. This, for Pritchard, is one of the most satisfactory aspects of the MPS: “Kyocera’s willingness to engage at a level beyond that usually seen from a supplier has enabled both organisations to beneft from the relationship,” he said.

In MPS contracts lasting fve years and involving on-going changes to business processes, successful communication programmes and a willingness to engage with the client at every level are just as important as the more technical aspects of an implementation. Its work at RSA demonstrates Kyocera’s strength in all areas.