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Canotec named UK’s top provider of green IT for document management


Canotec has been crowned the UK’s top provider of green IT in relation to paper-hungry document management.

The award-winning firm attracted the most votes from the national business community, ahead of six other short-listed contenders, for its innovative work in delivering the less-paper office with secure print technology.

Canotec was bestowed the Document Management Product of the Year Award in front of 200 industry figures in London in an event run by Green IT Magazine.

By working closely with Canotec’s less-paper team, with a new fleet of multi-function printers, national law firm Bond Pearce recorded an average monthly drop of 432,000 pages.

In one month alone the 700-strong firm, whose annual paper consumption was twice the height of the world’s tallest building, saw 700,000 unnecessary pages purged, saving the equivalent of 84 trees.

Furthermore, the energy saved from lower paper usage in the first year to this August will equate to the total energy used at Bond Pearce’s Aberdeen office in one year.

The reduction in energy usage for the first year alone is equivalent to the power required to boil 71,568 kettles.

David Newman, a co-founder of Canotec, which is headquartered at Ringwood, near Southampton, collected the award at the London Zoo ceremony, which attracted 400 nominations for various categories.

He said: “Our less-paper solutions are dramatically reducing paper waste, consumables and related costs, saving our clients thousands a month whilst enhancing operational efficiencies and the storage and retrieval of digital documents.

“Bond Pearce is just one example where six-figure sums are being saved for the customer.

“It is an honour to be officially recognised by the IT profession for the way we’ve utilised a mix of complementary software and hardware products to make a significant contribution to our customers’ environmental and financial performance.”

David added: “The key to our offering was providing measurable impacts –‘smart meters’ empowered staff at Bond Pearce to repeatedly drive down paper usage because they could see the bottom-line benefit it was having to both the environment and revenues.

“Knowing you are making a positive difference to the environment can be contagious – the feel-good effect snowballs.

“What we are delivering at Bond Pearce can be replicated elsewhere in any document-hungry environment, where companies large and small have similar paper output challenges.”

A key driver in identifying wastage is 3D Print View, which is used in all of Canotec’s key accounts to cut waste and control costs, giving instant visibility, control and accountability, as well as on-going measurement and savings.

3D Print View is a simple but powerful ‘smart meter’ that identifies the true cost of printing in your printer and multi-functional device fleet, regardless of location, model or manufacturer.

Canotec’s national award, presented on May 19th, is the second within months.

The specialist was named Technology Provider of The Year at The British Legal Awards 2010 in London and holds the prestigious title until December 2011.

A panel of 19 judges, including from blue-chips such as BAE Systems, Santander Bank, BAA and Vodafone, as well as the internationally-renowned Cranfield School of Management, singled out the print and imaging provider for a “compelling” submission.

They were impressed by the way Canotec deploys ‘green’ IT to substantially reduce paper volumes and carbon footprints, enhance business production needs and cut print management costs at legal firms.

Find out how Canotec is transforming paper usage at Bond Pearce in our submission for the Green IT Magazine Awards…

The challenge:


With 700 staff across five offices, Bond Pearce’s annual paper consumption was twice the height of the world’s tallest building.
That problem is endemic in the legal sector. Document efficiency - printing, managing and distributing documents - is a perennial challenge.
In document output alone a typical law firm with 100 staff will consume two million sheets of paper or 238 paper-generating pine trees per annum.
Much of that volume will need to be shared and distributed as efficiently as possible.
But an unnecessary proportion of that volume will be a waste of time and money…
The challenge for national law firm Bond Pearce was to remove 600 trees’ worth of unnecessary document creation and associated costs this coming year, whilst pretty much eliminating the traditional stresses and strains associated with document printing, capture and management. Driving the change was the compelling desire by Bond Pearce to have a green print fleet. It recognised that that unsustainable practice of printing hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper every month was not acceptable. But how to change?

The solution:


A comprehensive print management services audit by Canotec, the digital copiers specialist headquartered near Southampton, identified potential reductions in paper consumption of up to 20%. There are now average monthly paper savings of £3,000, or £36,000 annually.
The new 61-strong Canon MFP (multi-function printer) fleet at Bond Pearce, reduced from 110, has bespoke connectors and simplified workflows, with one driver through a common platform, meeting all required scanning, imaging and document creation needs, with a more flexible and secure print delivery utilising the users’ unique ID cards to release stored jobs.
The new eCopy-enabled MFP platform also leveraged Bond Pearce’s existing investment in key legal systems, including cost recovery (Copitrak) and information and client management (Interwoven).
At the core of the solution is Canotec’s proven experience, trust and partnership approach.

The approach:


The approach to the challenge was to get under the bonnet and truly understand how the firm ticked, how each and every department worked and how the day-to-day productivity of each and every user could be enhanced, with day-to-day document-related headaches, resolved. At the core was the environmental focus.
As a result of this consultative partnership approach, a deep understanding of all other challenges, not just the opportunities, was developed and a resilient, measured and balanced solution the outcome.
Canotec ‘lived’ in Bond Pearce’s account to understand the challenges - cultural and technical - and ‘hand-held’ the client whilst implementing a simplified and more powerful answer to the firm’s document output and capture needs.
A phased implementation was rolled out over 11 weeks at Bond Pearce’s headquarters in Bristol and offices in London, Plymouth, Southampton and Aberdeen in the summer, with staff taking the environment project to their hearts.
Installations took place at weekends, minimising disruption, and a bespoke training programme fostered a partnership which focused on positive change. A series of internal ‘hearts & minds’ staff videos and technical overviews, plus the phased approach, helped to generate a positive bow-wave of anticipation ahead of each install.
As a result, training sessions were well attended, and Canotec’s on-site support staff wore special Bond Pearce implementation team uniforms; they became affectionately known as the ‘Men in Black’.
In essence, Canotec’s people-centric approach and understanding of all of the issues and challenges ensured the new print management technology is regarded as an empowering force for good.

The environmental benefits:


Already the new platform and enhancements are providing measurable, sustainable improvements in financial and environmental performance, with cost control and waste reduction, which supports Bond Pearce’s corporate social responsibility initiatives. Paper consumption dropped instantly - nearly 200,000 pages in the first month alone. Then, in another month, 700,000 unnecessary print jobs were purged, equivalent to the height of 292 ft (89m) St Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol and saving the equivalent of 84 trees. The average monthly drop in print volumes is 432,000. The energy saved from lower paper usage in the first year will equate to the total energy used in the Aberdeen office in one year. The power savings for one year are on track for 17,897KWh/year, or 1,491KWh/month – roughly equivalent to the energy saved in boiling 71,568 kettles* a year and 5,964 kettles a month.
Time wasted chasing paper is now invested in meaningful work that contributes to bottom-line profitability and client satisfaction. Departments take part in good-natured competitions to see one which is using the least paper in any given month.
There is now increased user satisfaction, device availability, stability and productivity through improved digital document workflows and stress-free printing, along with one single billing per page for easier disbursement and fixed costs, streamlined administration, reduced invoices and annual reconciliations, which all save on related energy consumption.

Ease of application:


What Canotec has delivered to Bond Pearce can be replicated elsewhere in any document-hungry environment. For example, the ‘less-paper office’ template can be utilised in law firms and accountancies, which have a poor track record in tackling paper waste. Pay-back on investment is achieved sooner rather than later. It is a genuine win-win; the environment benefits from substantially reduced paper volumes and associated consumables, such as ink cartridges and toners, as well as reduced electricity demands, whilst Bond Peace itself increases efficiency levels relating to document management.

  • Calculation based on 0.15KW/h required to boil a typical 1.7-litre kettle in three minutes.