Print.IT Reseller - issue 70

01732 759725 BULLETIN 6 Project saves Avon and Somerset Police £650,000 EBC Group has completed a project with Avon and Somerset Police and Xerox Services to help the force generate print-related savings of at least £650,000 over two years. Avon and Somerset Police needed to make operational efficiencies to maintain policing levels without dipping into reserves. A joint venture with an IT service provider covering printing was coming to an end. “We took it as an opportunity to see if we could print better for less,” said Steve Hodgson, Head of Procurement. The force asked EBC Group to help by carrying out a benchmarking exercise on managed print value propositions, quality and compliance with information protection requirements. EBC Group proposed a range of Xerox Services to meet the force’s ambitions. “The work done by EBC Group gave us assurance that selecting Xerox met our internal governance on contract awards,” Hodgson said. Further print-related efficiency gains through Xerox's Document Publishing and Production, Hybrid Mail and Intelligent Workplace Services, enabled the force to make savings, increase information security and transform citizen communications. www.ebcgroup.co.uk Commercial celebrates success Commercial is celebrating the success of its Change Champions programme and its volunteering scheme, where people take a day off to support local charities and causes. Last year 24 people from across the business took time out to support six charities, including the James Hopkins Trust, CCP, IT Schools Africa, the NSPCC, Sue Ryder and Maggie’s. “The beauty of the volunteering scheme is that suggestions of charities to support can come from anywhere in the business,” said Simone Hindmarch, Managing Director and Co-founder. “While they have been mainly proposed by the HR team to date, in 2020 we want to encourage more ideas from across the business and engage more of the wider team. Our experience has taught us that fostering our employees’ passions means that we never run out of new ideas.” According to Jenny Evans, Marketing Co- ordinator at IT Schools Africa, the equipment Commercial donated to IT Schools Africa is transforming education in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. “The students and their communities will benefit from life- enhancing knowledge and skills, access to further education and improved opportunities for employment. Thank you Commercial, for helping us to offer brighter futures to African schoolchildren.” www.commercial.co.uk Softcat wins place on CCS TePAS The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has named Softcat as a supplier on its Technology Products and Associated Services framework (TePAS). TePAS, one of the UK’s largest national frameworks will deliver a four-lot agreement and is available to the entire UK public sector to provide technology hardware, software and associated services for the next four years. In 2018/19, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits worth £945m – supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers. www.softcat.com Arena Group acquired by Xerox Xerox has acquired Arena Group. “Building on our success in the small and midsize business market in the US, we’re now expanding our strategy to Europe,” said Hervé Tessler, President of EMEA Operations, Xerox. “With the acquisition of Arena Group, we will be uniquely positioned to offer workplace solutions in one of the fastest- growing managed print services segments in Western Europe.” “There is no better time to join Xerox, a company undergoing a digital-first transformation and investing in the future,” said Adrian Fitzpatrick, Managing Director, Arena Group. “With our complementary client bases and Xerox’s comprehensive portfolio of offerings, we will be able to address the growing needs of the SMB market together.” The acquisition has received government approval. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. www.xerox.com EBM relaunches IT services programme EBM Managed Services has released entirely updated IT packages for 2020. Based around customisable support packages, the new offering covers four main areas of business IT: hardware and software, networks and infrastructure, an outsourced helpdesk and security and disaster recovery. “As an SME ourselves, we were struggling to find the support we needed without being bamboozled by technical language, jargon and delays. We simply thought, there must be a better way,” said Managing Director, Mark Bailey. “We scaled right back and took a good look at what we needed as a business. We spoke with existing customers, and we scoped out the range of IT services available to SMEs,” Non- Executive Director Richard Tytherleigh explained. “Then we went back to the drawing board and re-wrote our own offering with a focus on keeping things simple and prioritising the business needs of our customers.” “We’re already working with a select group of clients who were excited about the premise of simple, efficient IT services and we look forward to supporting many more in the future,” Bailey concluded. www.ebmltd.co.uk See page 28