Our flexible managed print service saves Redditch and Bromsgrove councils 65% on print-related costs

Together, Redditch Borough Council and Bromsgrove District Council meet the needs of over 184,000 people in Worcestershire. A shared management and services strategy underpins service delivery improvements and efficiency savings at the two councils. Having embraced a managed print contract some years ago to enable savings, evolving needs meant more flexibility was required when the contract expired and hence the move to Konica Minolta’s managed print service via the CCS RM3781 framework agreement.
 
Jack Carradine, Senior Marketing & Communications Officer at the councils was brought on board to gather metrics and define requirements for a new managed print service. “As well as reducing our costs considerably, we wanted more contractual flexibility and better business intelligence, and a supplier who would help us transform the way we approached the service,” he states. “Konica Minolta’s procurement response was robust and it was a convincing win. They also took the time to understand and respond to our quite particular technical requirements around billing."
 
Reviewing the tender specifications put forward by the councils, Konica Minolta advised that the existing 67 multifunctional devices (MFDs) and three production print devices could be efficiently reduced to 50 devices, enabling considerable rental costs savings as Konica Minolta managed print service contract is based on device rental (covering capital costs, plus a click charge for the service element).
 
Konica Minolta’s PaperCut print management software drives highly secure printing and provides business intelligence that enables the councils to see — and control — the print-related expenditure of different parts of the business. By removing 90% of the internal admin involved in running the councils' printing service (including supplier liaison, handling invoices and other paperwork, and responding to internal questions and complaints), Konica Minolta has also saved the time resources of a full-time admin person.
 
"Switching to Konica Minolta cut our annual print-related costs by around 65%," says Jack. "What's more, those costs aren't set in stone: we have the flexibility to ensure that the amount we pay reflects the amount we print." During the pandemic, for example, the councils could reduce the click charge element without affecting their ability to stay in contract.
 
Like many other local authorities, Redditch and Bromsgrove continue to evolve their business. As well as closing buildings and relocating offices, they're digitising workflows and relying more on scanning. "We can now provision printing and scanning for our changing business without any drama," says Jack. "As we could tell from the start, we have found Konica Minolta to be a supplier that works with you to make what you need happen."