Business

When Kenya’s Martin Lel crossed the finish line at this year’s London Marathon, Ikon’s print production base in the capital went into full swing. Once the other runners had followed the winner across the finish line, the race results were sent back to Ikon, which then produced and fired off documents to data-hungry sports reporters.

Turning around such a job might not be something the industry would normally associate with Ikon, which is better known for its distribution of digital presses (powered by Konica Minolta engines). However, the company has had its feet firmly in the facilities management (FM) market for 14 years and it has clients in the financial services, legal and public sectors. As we stand today, Ikon has 40 managed sites, explains Gary Downey, UK marketing director.

FM is on the rise and Ikon is one of many companies capitalising on growth in this area. Other names, better known for their manufacturing prowess such as Xerox and Océ, are cashing in on FM’s prowess alongside print management giant Williams Lea. They are already winning some valuable contracts, both from the public sector, which accounts for around 80% of FM deals, and private sector, which is under pressure to cut costs and boost efficiency.

The impending recession can seem daunting and companies and organisations are looking for ideas to lose costs off their bottom line, explains Darian Sims, marketing manager at Océ Business Services. They are looking for ways to enhance their products and focus on their core business. Many companies are still trying to find their way through the straightened economic conditions.

Océ branches out
Last month Océ won a £40m five-year deal with Cambridge Assessment, the assessment agency for the University of Cambridge, proving that there is big money to be made in the sector. Océ will run a print facility at Cambridge Assessment’s warehousing facilities. The deal is one of many contracts Océ has with blue-chip firms including Rolls-Royce, Aerospace and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Sometimes we go into a company and find that many of the cost savings have already been made, says Sims. That leads to challenges for us to take that organisation to the next step. Saving money is all well and good, but you need to make operations more efficient. Rationalisation can be part of that, but you have to deliver more than was previously in place.

While Sims says that Océ’s strengths are in engineering and high-volume printing, the company looks after additional areas of an operation. For example, Océ adds value to a contract by handling areas such as e-publishing, database management and the mailroom. At Pfizer, for example, Océ has three members of staff working alongside the marketing team. We are a one-stop shop, says Sims.

End-to-end service
Xerox Global Services is also taking control of areas other than print. Its European director and general manager of the document outsourcing and communication services division, Anoush Dowlatshahi-Gordon, says that FM has changed considerably over the years. If you go back 15 years, the market has evolved. The model is now much broader.

One example of this is in Xerox’s contract with the Department for Work and Pensions. There is very little print involved and, while the contract manages documents, it also involves warehousing and logistics.

It’s very much an end-to-end service, says Dowlatshahi-Gordon. And so far the contract has been successful. Everything has been done on time and on budget. We have provided the cost savings the department has been seeking.

Ikon also weighs in with additional services. It has the capability to handle the mailroom, design, running and implementation of office printers and print buying. In the financial sector, Ikon is called upon to print manage higher-run documents. This can result in some weightier documents being litho printed. But Ikon has another string to its bow to help with production overflow.

In London, it has a dedicated hub facility to support its on-site operators boasting a 24-hour digital print service for six days a week. While it does contain some of the latest Ikon kit, including a full colour CPP 650, the site also has a Canon ImagePress C1.

Having an additional site where digital work can be completed and delivered is a key selling point for Cats Solutions. Its managing director Greg Smith believes that his firm’s offering sits right in the middle of the FM market. You do need to be managing on-site, but for longer-run work we have massive capacity off-site.

Cats is able to call on its many hubs dotted around the country: its headquarters in Swindon, and sites in Glasgow, London and Truro. For Smith, it means that there is suitable back-up for any project. He’s also found that managing print off-site can have its limitations.

Anyone considering running in-house printrooms off-site should be warned that it is unlikely to work, says Smith. We tried it with one client and it proved to be a disaster. By going down the route of both in-house and outsourcing we have a unique product in the market. It has also helped minimise the size of the in-house printrooms and reduced our machinery footprint.

Objective approach
Ikon’s UK managing director Glenn Griggs adds that despite his company’s background in selling machines, it does not seek to increase in the number of devices per printroom. We are often looking to use fewer machines, he says. When we go into an organisation we downsize the fleet that has grown over the years. It’s important to streamline the operation and consolidate the budgets.

What clients are looking for is an objective approach, explains Ian Richardson, strategic sales director for outsourcing at Ikon. And, he explains, when it comes to selecting equipment for a printroom, Ikon doesn’t always recommend its own machines.

In terms of technology, we always look at what the client already has in place and bring in equipment that is fit for purpose. It can be a mix of technology; a best of breed. We may recommend equipment from Canon or HP.
Xerox’s Dowlatshahi-Gordon adds: The client can dictate the terms. If they want to keep the equipment on site then we will manage it. We give them a dedicated service.

That equipment manufacturers and distributors are muscling in on the FM market should come as no surprise; having installed so many machines in printrooms they should have an idea as to how to run one. But the signs are that the market is growing, not only because of their knowledge of print but also thanks to their ability to broaden the range of services they offer.

With so many people predicting a recession, more organisations are likely to call on manufacturers to make their printrooms run more efficiently.

CASE STUDY – MCGRAW HILL
McGraw Hill operates in the financial services and business education sectors. Its head office is at Canary Wharf in the heart of London’s financial powerhouse. Ikon previously held a contract with the company to supply equipment to the site but in 2007, it also had the opportunity to tender for the running of its printroom.

Ikon won the contract and is now responsible for the 10-11m prints produced at the site every year. McGraw Hill has 700 employees, 11 of whom work in the printroom alongside nine Ikon staff.

In the printroom, Ikon has a raft of kit – not all from its own stable. There are four Ikon CPP 500 full-colour digital machines, all installed to maintain colour consistency for documents. But there are also Ricoh machines as well as a black and white workhorse, a 105ppm Canon IR 7105.

Ikon also has control of the print and copying on each floor at McGraw Hill’s building. Printers and copiers, as well as scanning equipment, is enclosed in red ‘pods’ designed to make the equipment easier to locate for staff.

With the financial markets so volatile at the moment, the printroom is a vital cog in the wheel; up-to-date short-run documents are needed fast. In instances where longer runs are required, Ikon acts as a print manager and outsources the work to an offset printer.

Ikon national operation director Mark Smyth says: We have a monthly service review with McGraw Hill, which covers the running of the operation and assesses how we’ve performed –
it’s very comprehensive.