As the Marsdens Law Group grew, they purchased printers and photocopiers on an ad-hoc basis, and on most occasions from different manufacturers depending on the requirement at the time. Each piece of equipment was a capital purchase with a separate service agreement.
Company profile
Marsdens Law Group
From two people in 1968, the Marsdens Law Group now has more than 150 staff in five offices across Sydney. A multiservice law firm, Marsdens use modern technology tailored to meet their clients’ needs. Keeping their technology and infrastructure current, enables them to deliver a more efficient and affordable legal service. This is in keeping with one of their fundamental principles of “Providing service with a difference.”
Key challenges and business drivers
- Different suppliers for service and repairs, causing inconsistent service response and lower productivity.
- Multiple printers with varying service agreements, increasing administrative overheads and costs.
- Multiple makes and models of equipment, causing administrative and productivity issues.
- The requirement to efficiently manage the manual process of hard copy documents in a legal environment.
Benefits delivered by efex solution
- Australian-based service and support, increasing uptime and productivity.
- Standardised fleet, reducing overheads and costs.
- Standard operating environment deployed with new technology, removing administration burden and cost.
- One monthly bill with known costs, providing predictability.
- No upfront capital outlay.
- Partnership providing continuous improvement and innovation.
efex were professional in understanding our business strategy and printing challenges, and then efficiently delivered a solution that addressed these needs"
The Marsdens team across multiple locations have technology demands that call for an uncomplicated solution with unobstructed uptime.
As the Marsdens Law Group grew, they purchased printers and photocopiers on an ad-hoc basis, and on most occasions from different manufacturers depending on the requirement at the time. Each piece of equipment was a capital purchase with a separate service agreement.
As the equipment aged, service costs increased resulting in varying expenses across the fleet. It was an administrative nightmare. Staff were also directed to use specific printers where possible to manage the increasing print costs.
Marsdens then looked at a different model and contacted efex in 2014 and have been a client ever since. When efex first looked at Marsdens, they were confronted by a complex and difficult situation encountered by the firm on a daily basis.
In addition to the ordinary service costs, each time a call was logged with their IT provider, an additional charge was incurred to have the equipment fixed.
The costs associated with their printers and photocopiers were mounting up.
As efex were a new company at the time, and Marsdens were a new client, the idea of ‘change’ was met with some reluctance. Therefore, to provide Marsdens peace of mind, a staged approach was suggested by efex, where a portion of the current fleet would be replaced allowing Marsdens to gauge the impact and benefits in a controlled manner.
To begin this process, efex was required to obtain current printing data across all the equipment.
While John Adam, Managing Partner of Marsdens was efex's main contact, as part of the audit, efex consulted with key staff members within the firm to obtain user feedback and find out exactly how the equipment was being used. This in turn highlighted other problems, with some devices being either too small or too large for their required usage or purpose.
Getting to know the actual operations of the client is key to tailoring a proposed solution. It isn’t just about saving money but increasing efficiency, alleviating administrative bottle necks and simple frustrations to make processes as seamless as possible.
The installation itself was challenging as Marsdens operated in a Citrix environment. efex personnel, who understood Citrix, were utilised to make the transition of the new technology effective.
efex also keeps up to date with industry trends to ensure their clients will always have currency. Marsdens staff were then trained to use the new technology with all the new functionality understood. The large conveyancing department was a focus for efex technicians, who worked closely with this team to ensure they got the most out of the technology and to make their job as simple and as automated as possible.
Needless to say Marsdens approved the replacement of the remaining equipment and roll-out of a new fleet of printers.
The Managed Print Service in place at Marsdens is an ongoing process. Quarterly account reviews are conducted to identify where optimisation may be needed, where technology needs to be replaced, and any suggested improvements made to prempt future issues occurring.
The fleet is reviewed consistently based on the volume and applications rather than the age of the equipment, to maximise the printer uptime and to reduce servicing required.
As laws change and legal firms move forward with technology, scanning and filing solutions also change. efex works closely with Marsdens to anticipate these changes and accommodate them delivering continuous improvement to the firm. This close relationship keeps Marsdens agile and able to meet future challenges.