Case Studies

In this age of increasing demands and tight budgets, school districts everywhere are constantly looking for ways to control operational expenses so they can redirect funds into the education processes. The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Ind., is no exception, and that is why it is an early adopter
of technologies that will help control costs and redirect savings.

In 2005, Cannon IV, Inc., an HP Public Sector Elite partner, began working with MSD of Wayne Township to develop a new imaging and printing strategy. Wayne Township wanted to take a multi-phased approach to optimizing its imaging and printing environment across the school district. Their first objective was to better manage the existing fleet of output devices to reduce costs and optimize the imaging and printing infrastructure and workflows. This was accomplished with a district-wide managed print services agreement on the existing fleet of devices—over 1,600 printers at 24 locations. The next phase would address the needs of individual schools within
the school district.

The first school targeted for infrastructure and workflow optimization was the Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center. Teachers in this school had individual inkjet printers in their classrooms. They would use these devices to print master copies, which they would take to the copy room. There, they would wait in line for a copier to make class handouts. Surely there was a less costly, more efficient way? There was. Working with Cannon IV, the district centralized and consolidated its print infrastructure, standardizing on HP printers and multifunction printers (MFPs). As a result, MSD of Wayne Township streamlined workflows, cut waste, and reduced the cost per page by four cents, placing hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings back where it belongs: educating children. continue reading...

Abstract
This practical is a case study of an Insurance Company’s migration to an enterprise-wide security system. It is the intent of this practical to provide a path to follow when creating or migrating to a security system. Initially, a primitive online security system was the only mechanism to control access to corporate data. The exposures were severe - there were no integrity controls outside of the online environment. Anyone with basic programming skills could add, change and/or delete production data.

A project plan was developed to identify tasks, assign resources and ensure milestones were met. The scope of the security initiative included creating an inventory of information assets, creating new objects (data within datasets), constructing new groups and granting the appropriate permissions for access to the objects. Training documentation was created to instruct the users how to access the new system, both in an interactive and batch mode. Mini boot camps were conducted to train the trainers, who in turn, provided mentoring and tutoring for the user community.. Additional staff was recruited from other departments to provide user support for the rollout. D-Day arrived and the rollout experience only minor glitches. All the exposures were mitigated to the satisfaction of internal and external auditors.

Before Snapshot – May 1998
The Bumper Insurance Company (BIC – not its real name) is operating in a 1980’s technology environment. There are no LANs or WANs, just 3270 (dumb – green screen) terminals linked by coax to the mainframe. In addition, BIC had previously acquired another insurance company and runs the acquired company’s applications on the BIC mainframe. A proprietary security system provides access control for the online applications; there is no provision for access controls outside of the online environment. What are our risks? How can we quantify the risks? continue reading...

3M is fundamentally a science-based company. It produces thousands of imaginative products such as Post-it notes and is a leader in scores of markets from healthcare and highway safety to office products, abrasives and adhesives. With recent annual global sales of US$2 billion, it has 75,000 employees and operates in more than 65 countries.

One of those is Australia where 3M is headquartered in Pymble, New South Wales. 3M Australia has 14 sites with more than 700 employees and generated recent annual sales of US$420 million.

3M Australia moves towards a total document solution with HP Managed Print Services
3M Australia had a multi-vendor fleet of 130 devices which was complex and expensive to manage and maintain. At a global level, 3M Group also felt that its print, copy and fax fleets were inefficient and expensive so from the headquarters in St Paul, Minnesota, it negotiated a global Managed Print Services (MPS) contract with HP.

SAVINGS AND EFFICIENCIES
In Australia, this five year MPS contract generated significant savings and efficiencies so with the agreement of the global HQ, it has recently been renewed. Under the agreement, 3M pays a monthly fee consisting of a base rate and a ‘click charge’ based on actual page volumes. The agreement also covers print cartridges and repair/maintenance services. continue reading...

Established in 1912 as a small, three-man commercial print shop, Schmidt Printing today is a major supplier of direct marketing and other print services. The Byron, Minnesota-based printer specializes in medium-run web printing for direct marketers and a variety of other customers, including magazine, newspaper and card pack publishers and multi-channel merchants.

In 2009, Schmidt expanded its capabilities further by adding digital printing capabilities to its offering.

“A year ago, one of our largest customers was looking for a way to print a huge quantity of short-run, personalized postcards—about 1,000 cards per run, and millions of them per week,” says Jeff Winter, Director of Sales and Marketing at Schmidt. “The only way to provide short-run quantities at the volume they were requesting  was with digital printing technology.”

“That’s when we started looking for a single solution that could offer variable data while cost-effectively handle a high volume of short run jobs,” says Winter.  Schmidt reached out to its parent company,  Taylor Corporation in Mankato, Minnesota, to help identify digital technology options that would meet their customer’s request—and at a competitive price point. Taylor is one of the ten largest graphic arts companies in the world, with over 90 locations around the globe, and  has a long history working with HP to provide end-to-end graphic arts solutions.

Working together with Taylor’s management team, Schmidt considered a number of digital printing solutions before selecting an HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press.

“Installation happened very fast,” recalls Winter. “I have to give HP kudos—within two months, we went from the purchase order to having the press on our floor and running live product.” continue reading...