Serbian innovation saves 60,000 euros per year, three trees and power big enough for 8-year use of a light bulb

A team of Serbian programmers has designed a print management solution that significantly cuts the costs of printing. By using their solution during the period of one year, a bank with 350 employees saved nearly EUR 60,000, 3 trees, and enough power to use a light bulb for almost 8 years.

Cedomir Vitorovic, director general of the company TOP Solutions, says for eKapija that the system TOP Solutions print management is the first solution that is applicable to all types of printers and is not limited by various equipment and disposable materials.

- There are hundreds of programs that only monitor the consumption of toners. There are also print management solutions that are specially designed for certain brands. Our solution is unique because it controls the existing hardware, regardless of its brand, and then creates a personalized web service through which the user communicates with the suppliers of disposable materials (toners) and service providers. This portal also monitors destruction and disposal of empty toner cassettes. All reports on the consumption and deliveries, as well as analyses and suggestions for the print interface optimization, can be found on that portal - says our interlocutor.

The results of a research show that print management solutions are not in use enough in Serbia and Europe where only 15 percent of companies possess some form of a print interface control system. What is encouraging are the estimates made by Gartner agency, according to which almost all companies, or at least 95 percent of them, will start using some form of print management within next seven years.

That is a completely neglected field and many companies waste their money in that way. Printing costs depend on toners, printers, type of paper, but most of all on the existence of a control and supervision system. The price of disposable materials are different and depend on their quality so that the most precise manner to determine the printing costs is to calculate the costs of printing one page. In its efforts to find a response to the need for achieving the minimum price of a printed page, Top Solutions has developed 'TOP Solutions print management' solution, which takes care of all aforementioned factors and finds an optimum for the concrete situation.

Cedomir Vitorovic says that the use of their solution cuts the costs of printing by 35 to 60 percent, without any additional investment.

- The current situation is such that the price of an individual toner determines the offer, and all that at the expense of quality and quantity. A client gets a toner at low price, but without the defined number of printed pages. Certain data show that up to 250,000 euros are spent on printing on annual basis.

That is why it was necessary to create a system that would guarantee that each toner bought by a client would be placed in the printer it was ordered for and that it would print as many pages as foreseen by the manufacturer.

- As far as I know, there is no such system anywhere in Europe. What makes us different from others is that we install this system on the already existing equipment, meaning that there are no additional costs. We developed the solution in May 2010 and tested it at Univerzal Banka. With the use of our solution, printing costs were reduced by 58 percent on annual basis. This institution with 350 employees saved nearly EUR 60,000, and if you take ecological effects in consideration, we also saved 3 trees and enough energy to use a light bulb over the period of nearly 8 years.

The system is useful in all companies with over 10 printers, and the aim of installing this solution is to lower the price of a page printed on the existing hardware as much as possible. Installation takes maximum one week.

- Each client gets access to a personalized portal where all information on the condition, purchase and booking can be found. The design of every portal depends on the organizational structure of the client and all communication is done through that website. It also enables placing of all orders and includes all reports so that the client, that is, a person the client names responsible, has access at any moment to the information about everything that is important for the print interface of his/her company. We will also upload monthly reports to the portal, showing all tendencies of consumption and possible emerging irregularities. There will also be quarterly and annual reports, which include recommendations for additional savings with the use of the existing interface.

Speaking about abuses, Vitorovic cites the example that a toner is more expensive than a monitor, and if nobody takes care of them, toners can easily "disappear" from the stock. Something like that is impossible if the solution developed by TOP Solutions is used.

When asked if the users of that system will have to buy toners and paper from Top Solutions, Vitorovic replies:

- No, TOP Solutions does not sell toners or paper and is not a service provider, although there is a possibility that we start doing everything by ourselves and providing a complete service, which would include that as well. Our users can buy toners from any supplier. Our job is to provide maximum control and savings. We can also help our clients in preparing a call or tender for a new supplier and, if needed, recommend the best.

Speaking about how much it costs to install the print management solution, Vitorovic says that the costs of the system depend on the degree of control introduced along with the system.

- Payment is made monthly, and the price ranges from EUR 1 per printer to EUR 1 per user (employee).

The solution designed by TOP Solutions has already been implemented in several enterprises in Serbia that can be classified as small (up to 50 printers), but the best results of the print management solution are achieved in large enterprises (with over 100 printers), as well as in banks.

- The adaptation period is very short, and all employees, from those working at high-technology companies to the ones employed by government agencies, public companies and banks, very quickly learn how to use this user-friendly system.

It is well known that printing activities are closely related to the environment protection issues.

- In its nature, this solution is intended primarily for those companies that behave socially responsibly and make sure to reduce their impact on the nature to the minimum. The solution designed by TOP Solutions monitors that influence and informs the client on the reduced negative impact on the environment through the personalized portal. In that way, each client knows how much energy and trees are saved with the use of our print management solution.

M.K.