Case Study: Major Global Food Company

Process improvements, cost savings achieved at one company now benefits the other

About the customer

The merger of these two prominent companies created a global food powerhouse with billions in sales and some of the most iconic brands around the world. Ricoh had partnered with one of the companies for nearly a decade, and spent years implementing a true print transformation—streamlining the food giant’s print environment to bring continuity, visibility and cost savings to the organization in North America. With the merger of the two companies now complete, it was time to take the transformation to the global stage.

"In addition to having representation globally, we needed a partner that could resize our printer fleet, decrease our cost per page, standardize and control consumption and demonstrate our commitment to the environment."
North American IT Operations Director
Major Global Food Company

Challenge

Pre-merger, one company was exclusively focused on North America while the other was global. Transforming a now joint, worldwide print environment was no small task. Different locations had multiple print vendors with multiple contracts. There were varying lease terms, service levels and some with no service levels at all. No standardization existed for print devices, optimization or policies. Yet, we had a blueprint—having monumentally transformed the North American company's print environment. With a first-year mandate to save $1 million in operational costs, we set out to convince the newly merged entity we could replicate results.

Solution

With a track record of proven solutions and sizable cost savings achieved with the North American company, as well as operations in 200 countries and territories, we emerged in early 2016 as the one strategic partner to streamline and optimize the newly merged print environment. With the clock ticking to achieve $1 million in first-year operational savings, we began to replicate the original model on a global scale.

As the company's one strategic partner for print transformation worldwide, we drew from the many successful technologies and platforms we had implemented in North America to reduce costs and streamline their print environment. We had:

Reduced equipment vendors from nearly 100 to one
Decreased print devices and print output by 80%
Standardized forms printing at multiple sites and saved $1 million by eliminating pre-printed forms
Implemented a "print anywhere" environment with one print queue—reducing assets by 59%
Enhanced corporate environmental efforts, resulting in a $1 million savings over the life of the contract

Following thorough site assessments of the global entity's North American locations, we replicated the print solutions on a global scale. Following a proven blueprint, we were quickly able to:

Reduce and right-size their print fleet and standardize technology
Optimize their fleet to decrease paper per user and costly color consumption
Leverage Equitrac intelligent print management software for insight into page output by user
Instituted cost-saving print control policies
Managed networked devices across all locations with RICOH @Remote Enterprise Pro
Provided change management services to smooth the transition for employees

Results

Quality control worker with digital tablet examining cheese at production line in processing plant

We surpassed the $1 million in operational savings mandate during the first year—logging $1.21 million. Local printing has been reduced from approximately 10 million pages per month to about half that. Color output—which is about ten times as much per page as black-and-white print—has been reduced to less than 10 percent.

With more fleet uptime, information flows more freely throughout the company's locations and employees are more productive. This is evident from the 25 percent decrease in job tickets and complaints throughout the organization.

With the merged company's North American locations successfully brought into the print transformation, we are now replicating the solutions at the global locations. Now, as the company continues to expand, the print environment is ready for whatever comes next.

"Because we transformed our print environment with Ricoh, we now know how to standardize and repeat the processes if we acquire more companies or facilities. We won't have to spend more than six months to get all of our processes in place," said the North American IT Operations Director for the global food giant.

Download PDF