Print accounting and integrated printing facilities

BKF – University of Applied Sciences logo

Print accounting and integrated printing facilities

Print accounting and integrated printing facilities

In little more than 13 years, this educational institution, which was founded in 2001 as the small but promising Budapest College of Communication, has grown into the biggest private university in Hungary. It is today attended by more than 8,000 students, has an educational staff of 340 lecturers and 8 departments. Obviously, such a highly dynamic institution needs to be up-to-date not only with regard to the education it offers but also in the services it provides beyond its curriculum. To ensure this, BKF decided to modernise its rather haphazard installation of output systems from various suppliers, streamlining the entire installation to integrated and comprehensive printing facilities.

 

Modern, dynamic, fast growing

Founded in 2001 with just 3 departments (Communication, Business Communication and Marketing Communication), the BKF University of Applied Sciences has since evolved into an essential member of the Hungarian higher education scene. With a constantly growing number of students, education venues and campuses, and a diverse range of programmes, today BKF is the biggest private university in Hungary, represented in two cities, Budapest and Hódmezővásárhely, and accommodating a massive learner community of 8,000 students.

BKF offers a complex educational programme at two vocational grammar schools, various higher-level vocational trainings, master degree programmes and post-graduate specialist training programmes built on the bachelor programmes in the fields of communication, business, tourism and arts.

 

Haphazard compilation of devices

Typical for most fast-growing organisations, BKF had extended its printer fleet as and when necessary. Eventually, this haphazard collection of output devices included around 90 desktop printers, mostly laser but even some inkjet units among them; 24 multifunctional copier/printers, some faxes and scanners, and even an analogue copier. Almost logically, all of these devices came from various different suppliers.

This unstructured setup caused considerable problems, for example alone with the stocking of the numerous consumables for the different brands. The man-hours and ensuing costs required in the IT department were enormous. Despite the print quality, which was lacking in many cases, the print costs were extensive, largely due to a lot of unnecessary printing. All in all, a very costly and ineffective situation that urgently needed to change.

 

Streamlined printing in a centrally managed MFP fleet

BKF enlisted the help of Konica Minolta to centralise most printing activities. The first step was a comprehensive analysis of the university’s entire print facilities. The Konica Minolta professionals checked all output devices, assessing their quality, cost per print and location in the buildings. The eventual optimisation concept proposed savings of around 40% in print costs. This was achieved by eliminating almost all desktop printers and by establishing a comprehensive document accounting system (YSoft) that integrates all multifunctional output systems, also covering the existing devices from competitors.

The comprehensive solution included the installation of various productive and highly efficient Konica Minolta multifunctionals, 21 monochrome and colour devices ranging from bizhub 222, bizhub 282 and 362 to bizhub C280.

 

Entire satisfaction

The private university was profoundly impressed with the performance of their chosen business partner:
“Konica Minolta committed itself from the first moment throughout the entire assessment phase to facilitate a fast and complete installation of our new solution. They looked at our institution as a whole and offered a comprehensive one-stop solution including the best-suited hard- and software.”

Other points that particularly satisfy BKF and the users include the intuitive and unified user interface on the bizhub systems, the excellent output quality, easy IT administration that considerably relieves the university’s IT department, and the fact that the Konica Minolta technical service operates on a 24-hour basis, which makes it available around the clock!

 

 

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