• To update and enhance print environment while reducing printing costs

• Long waiting time due to large print files causing workflow disruptions
• No overview of print data and needs

• To embrace digital printing solutions

• Managed Print Services
• Equitrac Express 5 Suite (Print Management Solution)
• ApeosPort-VII C4473
• DocuWorks 8
• Color C60 Printer

• 30% reduction in operating costs
• Faster file sending and printing speeds
• Easy sharing and downloading of files
• Full visibility of their print environment
• Proactive device management alerts

With its brand steeped in heritage, this fashion house has established a reputation for its artisanal craftsmanship and timeless modernity. Today, it is one of the world's biggest luxury labels, with beauty counters and storefronts in-demand in cities around the world. It has dominated fashion luxury sales in Asian markets, where its iconic monogram has become a mark of the upper-middle class. With iconic fashion collections borne of passion, creativity and innovation, this leading luxury brand is the epitome of freedom, passion and feminine elegance.

The luxury label's training centre in Singapore is a document-intensive print hub where large volumes of customer contracts, marketing and training materials are printed. Due to increasingly larger file sizes of marketing and training materials, spooling speeds became slower whenever print jobs were sent to the print driver. This resulted in longer waiting times.

In their efforts to embrace sustainability in their business operations, it was timely for the label to shift its business into a less paper-reliant environment. This entailed a “print what you need, when you need” environment, where members of the staff printed only what was necessary. The business also wanted a clearer overview of print data to be able to optimise user needs as well as to monitor print volume and frequencies. By reviewing its print set up, the business aimed to improve its financials by reducing print costs.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation was a natural choice for the luxury label due to its reliable, longstanding partnership of 6 years and track record of high-performing printing technologies. To ensure output consistency and to maximise printing efficiency, the FUJIFILM Business Innovation team reviewed and revised its current contracts with the luxury label, making recommendations to replace older machines with newer, more efficient devices such as the ApeosPort-VII C4473 for greater productivity. With the need for exceptional print quality and accuracy to uphold its brand image, the Color C60 was also recommended to support application versatility and high-resolution output. It offers superb image quality, a robust media latitude as well as flexible finishing options, making it an ideal device for the production of marketing and Point of Sale materials.

In addition to replacement of the ageing printers, FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s first steps were to point out the excess of devices and to rationalise the fleet’s usage utilising Equitrac Express 5, a smart, secure and cost-effective print management solution with cost-management capabilities. With this solution, the local office could now effectively track document output and organise bills produced across the business on a single, easy-to-use platform.

Another great benefit of the Equitrac Express 5 is that it reduces spooling times by redirecting documents to the most cost-effective output device. In collecting device data usage, it identifies copiers and printers that are overworked or underused, empowering the office administration to relocate devices and optimise the use of print equipment. With its added secure feature, Follow-You-Printing®, the solution also allows virtual printer queues to hold documents securely and remotely for release only when users authenticate themselves – thereby preventing sensitive material from sitting unattended.

Beyond the implementation of these Print Management Solutions, FUJIFILM Business Innovation also helped design a “Managed Print Services (MPS)” program to optimise and streamline the brand’s document management processes. Through a consultative assessment, it eliminated the necessity for redundant equipment, unwarranted maintenance and electrical expenses. FUJIFILM Business Innovation also provided the business with quarterly reviews to enable the brand to make better business decisions.

For an even more seamless workflow, FUJIFILM Business Innovation installed its new and improved DocuWorks 8, a cloud-ready document portal that enables the centralised managing of personal documents and sharing of information among team members. Users could display, edit and handle electronic documents like papers on a digital desk-like display. Because it was cloud-linked, users were able to access information conveniently on-the-go.

The FUJIFILM Business Innovation team conducted a proof-of-concept demonstration for the leading luxury label, which not only revealed faster transmission speeds, but also enhanced operability of the printers. The benefits were immediately apparent – the luxury label kept more applications in-house with its enhanced digital colour printing capabilities, while reducing printing time and raising overall staff productivity.

In line with the label’s goal of creating a more sustainable work environment, the installation of Equitrac Express 5 has helped to equalise print jobs across the network and eliminate wasteful output with a solution that automatically enforces cost-saving printing via internal rules. Coupled with valuable device metrics, it empowered the brand to relocate devices and generate more output from equipment across outlets that were underused.

Integrating MPS with the luxury label’s print management solution has also supported the luxury label with much more than allocating print jobs to different printers - it has in fact allowed the business to gain full transparency of its print environment. With this value adding service, it has streamlined the luxury label’s document-, imaging- and print-related workflows and achieved positive changes in user behaviour to produce sustained reductions in print volume, waste and maintenance costs. Altogether, the transformed managed print environment has led to approximately 30% savings in monthly operating costs, leading to a knock-on effect across the entire business, as well as long-term productivity improvements.

With the flexibility and diverse work styles enabled by FUJIFILM Business Innovation's printers and services, this leading luxury label is set to embrace a fully digital workplace and a collaborative, high-performing workforce.