32
PRINT.IT
01732 759725
DOCUMENT WORKFLOW
London’s landmarks are recognised
globally. An eclectic mix of old and
new, mild and wild, they combine
to create a visual variety that
eclipses many other cities in their
quest to impress.
The engineering brains behind
some of London’s most talked about
buildings, such as The Gherkin,
20 Fenchurch Street and parts of
Canary Wharf, is Hilson Moran. For
over 35 years, it has been designing
engineering systems for a range of
projects from its offices in the UK,
Europe and the Middle East.
In an attempt to reduce paper
consumption, Hilson Moran recently
introduced a print management
solution from Nuance. This has
helped save paper, as intended,
and has also led the firm to explore
how other Nuance solutions, notably
eCopy PDF Office Pro, can be used to
streamline document workflow.
Hilson Moran initially wanted a
print management solution to bring
greater control to office printing and
to make staff more accountable for
what they printed, not just for cost
reasons but also to eliminate waste
– a key consideration for a company
that has two ISO accreditations
as testament to the quality of its
working practices and respect for
environmental considerations.
Finance director Roger Waters-Duke
said: “We worked out that our annual
paper recycling stacked up to the
height of The Gherkin. This is because
people would print, forget they had
done so and then print again.”
Controlled printing
To gain control of its printing, Hilson
Moran is using the Equitrac print
management and cost recovery
solution to impose print rules,
such as default mono printing, and
to implement PIN-based secure
printing.
“With Equitrac, users can only
release documents after they have
typed in a PIN number. This has
dramatically reduced paper waste,”
Waters-Duke explained. “Equitrac
also reduces the chance of printing a
confidential document to the wrong
printer, in the wrong office.”
To promote the new print
arrangements, Hilson Moran uses
data from Equitrac reports in posters
displayed next to each MFP, showing
the cost savings and environmental
benefits that have accrued since
deploying the solution.
Process digitisation
As well as helping reduce waste,
Nuance’s solutions have enabled
Hilson Moran to reduce the need to
print in the first place by digitising
everyday work processes.
For example, it now scans
purchase ledger invoices so that they
can be approved electronically and
uses Nuance’s eCopy PDF Office Pro
desktop PDF software to create and
edit documents electronically – using
interactive whiteboards for group
collaboration.
“We can zoom in on a drawing
and mark up any changes together in
one document, which is much easier
for us,” Waters-Duke explained.
The software also speeds up
the scanning and distribution of
documents through scan-to-email
and scan-to-me functions.
Electronic forms
Nuance PDF Office Pro has really
come into its own on tasks like
completing fields on forms, which
saves a great deal of time compared
to filling in forms manually, and in the
preparation of documents for use in
the Middle East.
Before, if one mistake was made,
the entire document had to be
rewritten. With long and complex
documents, this often led to further
errors; in one case a hand-written
document had to be resubmitted
eight times.
Now, with PDF Office Pro, only
the amendment needs to be made,
which has resulted in a reduction in
error rates and far quicker document
turnaround times.
Waters-Duke says the software
has many other useful features: “We
find the PDF comparison function
really useful, and the fact that PDFs
are searchable saves a lot of time.
It’s also very easy to quickly convert
Word and Excel documents to PDFs,”
he said.
Because PDF Office Pro’s flexible
licence fee is rolled into Hilson
Document workflow:
from hard copy to digital
Beyond print
When Hilson Moran implemented a print management solution,
the improvements weren’t limited to printed documents
Before & After
The problem:
l
Uncontrolled printing and no accountability
l
High levels of repeat printing
The solution:
l
Nuance Equitrac Office and eCopy PDF Pro Office on
new MFPs
l
Print rules to reduce print costs e.g. default mono output
l
PIN-based secure print
l
Affordable PDF solution on users’ desktops
The benefit:
l
Reduction in print output
l
Less time wasted completing forms
l
Purchase invoice scanning and digital processing
l
Collaboration on digital documents
