Hamilton Boys’ High School

Hamilton Boys’ High School is among New Zealand’s largest schools, with a roll topping 2,200 students.

The school used Konica Minolta printers prior to Brother becoming an Authorised Distributor. When its previous contract came up for renewal, they canvassed the market to see what their options were.

They ultimately settled on Brother, as a member of the All-of-Government Printing Technology and Associated Services (PTAS) panel and the distributor of the Konica Minolta devices their staff were already familiar with.

Challenge

With such a large roll, Hamilton Boys’ High School prints millions of pages every year.

Printing peaks around exam season, where they have a dedicated print room that handles bulk jobs. For around three weeks, the print room will print upwards of 2,000 booklets per day on a tight schedule, with very little room for delays or breakdowns.

It’s essential printing is done on time so students can sit their exams and gain their qualifications. The school also needed a fleet of reliable devices around the large campus for students and teachers to use for general day-to-day printing.

On top of that, they produce a number of high-quality pamphlets, posters, prospectuses and other marketing materials throughout the year.

They typically outsourced these jobs to specialist printers, which took extra time and money. To minimise spending, they would bulk order a number of copies, which could go unused, and couldn’t be easily updated and reprinted. The school was also on a fixed price contract, which meant paying for printing whether it was used or not.

Solution

Brother allowed Hamilton Boys’ High School to stick with the Konica Minolta and Brother devices they knew could deliver to their intense requirements. They also felt Brother’s approach was best suited to their specific needs – it wasn’t like they were being upsold to printers they wouldn’t need.

The print room was equipped with a Konica Minolta black and white production machine for bulk print jobs, a colour production print machine for high quality colour prints, and a smaller Brother printer for smaller jobs.

The two Konica Minolta print room printers were upgrades of the previous versions the school had, giving them added capacity and faster print speeds of 100 pages per minute.

Hamilton Boys’ High School also received a mixed fleet of Brother black and white printers as well as high-performing A4 colour laser devices for general use.

Through regular reporting, the school has access to insights into how printers are used around their campus. This provides them with the ability to adjust the type and location of printers to best suit the needs of staff and students.

The contract was set up on a pay-per-page basis, rather than a base price. This allowed the school to pay for only what it used, rather than a set price that was paid regardless of if it was used or not.

Brother also allowed flexibility in the contract renewal date. Devices were due to be changed over in the middle of exams in July, but the old contract was extended by a month to allow for exams to be printed on the existing devices, with a less disruptive changeover in the school holidays a month later.

Results

Brother’s approach to providing devices that suit the school’s needs, as well as charging printing per page, meant Hamilton Boys’ High School ended up saving 14% on their direct printing costs – while also upgrading its devices.

The school also saves money by not having to outsource its high-quality printing. This saves time organising the logistics, allows it to print copies on demand rather than in bulk, and makes it easy to update documents.

Director of Administration Kristin Rillstone estimates all up, the school has saved around 30% on printing.

On top of that, print room staff now get through exam printing faster. Previously, staff would work 1-2 hours overtime most days for three weeks. By transitioning to a faster digital workflow, they now only do those overtime hours for one week.

Another standout is the service they receive. Brother placed a technician on standby during the first block of exam printing with the new devices, ensuring smooth operations without any disruptions.

The school can solve issues remotely using Brother’s 24/7 New Zealand-based helpdesk, or through a technician that can work on both Brother and Konica Minolta printers on-site.

“Brother has been really great to deal with. We wanted to make sure we had everything we needed at a great price – we spent less and we have fantastic new machines that have given us very few issues. We’re really happy with them.”

“We’ve always wanted to add value to the school from the print room. Before, we were scrambling to get work out for teachers, whereas now we’re able to add value by printing on demand, which is great.”

Kristin Rillstone, Hamilton Boys’ High School Director of Administration

To find out how Konica Minolta can help your business embrace digital change, contact the team today.