All of us were impressed with how the Ricoh customer

training specialist worked with us to understand how

to use the machine. We never felt embarrassed about

asking even very basic questions, and every answer

and explanation he gave us made perfect sense

– without the technical jargon.

Sydney Youth Orchestrasand Ricoh

”

‘‘

For nearly forty years, Sydney Youth Orchestras (SYO) has been

providing ongoing education and long term support to young

musicians throughout New South Wales. Today, with more than 400

musicians aged from six to 25 in nine separate orchestras, SYO is

recognised as the State’s premier orchestral training organisation.

In the background, it’s a core team of seven full time personnel that

provides SYO’s operational and administrative backbone. From

sponsorship and marketing through to membership and concert

management, the team operates on a lean budget yet remains focused

entirely on maintaining a highly professional infrastructure.

Challenge: Document management as a business imperativeWhile quality of young musicians may be a measure of success for

SYO, document management – printing, faxing, scanning and copying

– are crucial to achieving that measure. After years of coping with an

ageing copy and print device, 2010 became the year of change.

According to SYO Development Manager Liz Terracini, the not-for-profit

organisation had for too long made do with equipment that required

constant attention, was receiving poor levels of service and support,

and when it came to reliability, well, the less said the better.

One of the most telling examples of the impact the legacy machine

was having on the organisation is that it was taking an entire day

every week just to print and staple the music sheets that would be

used by the various orchestras during weekend practice sessions. “The

amount of frustration this caused was incredible,” Liz says. “It meant

that every Friday, anyone wanting to print anything else might face a

wait of several hours. And for the person producing the music sheets, it

was an entire day fully consumed.

“Then, when we needed to produce customer or external-facing

documents, the poor print quality and low print speeds were such that

we would have to outsource the printing to a print bureau. Aside from

the cost issue, there was also the downside of having to fit in with the

bureau’s schedule and the delays this ultimately caused.

“Added to that, we recognised that managing documents – everything

from faxes and single-sided membership forms right through to

thousands of full-colour saddle-stitched booklets – had to improve

dramatically. Essentially, it became a business imperative.”

The Answer: A Ricoh colour MFDDuring the early stages of 2010, SYO searched the market for a highly

efficient single unit document management solution provided and

supported by a vendor that had a demonstrable commitment to

corporate citizenship and values, and environmental responsibility.

“We recognised Ricoh as being the definite leader in all those areas,”

Liz states. “And when we spoke to them about the problems we were

facing and, more importantly, the document management requirements

we had, they immediately stepped in and offered to support us by

providing a Ricoh 40 page per minute Multifunction device [MFD].”

Ricoh’s support of SYO is in keeping with the company’s commitment

to assisting worthwhile not-for-profit organisations and the arts in

Australia. “Ricoh is now one of only four Corporate Program Partners

we have,” Liz continues, “and their support and solutions are very

important to our organisation’s viability.”

Secure and efficient workflowsWith the introduction of the Ricoh MFD to the SYO offices, document

management workflows have undergone enormous changes, all of

which have brought with them savings in time, cost and paper, as well

as improved levels of security for inbound and outbound faxing.

By taking advantage of the Ricoh MFD’s ability to distribute incoming

faxes automatically to either network folders or email addresses,

SYO has ensured instances of hard copy faxes going missing have

been totally eliminated. Now, all incoming faxes are immediately

emailed to a specified team member whose responsibility is to forward

them on to the intended recipient. In the case of outbound faxes,

the integration work of the MFD with the SYO network carried out

by Ricoh specialists has delivered desktop outgoing fax capabilities

to every user.

Along with a streamlined fax management workflow, the solution has

delivered the all-important benefit of improved security. Liz explains:

“We often receive credit card details via fax; and it’s our responsibility

to ensure that information is kept as secure as possible. Having the

faxes emailed to the right people and not lying around as hard copy

means we’re meeting that responsibility.”

It’s when it comes to volume document production, though, that the

efficiencies and savings are most prominent.

“The entire process of producing documents and booklets, either from a digital file or hard copy, is so incredibly

straightforward and quick on the Ricoh MFD.”

With the Ricoh MFD, we’re reducing our own carbon footprint by using an

energy-efficient multifunction device, cutting back on paper usage by producing

documents on demand rather than getting them printed in 1,000 lot batches

with a bureau, and taking full advantage of the in-built features that default to

double-sided printing and enforce print quantity quotas.

”

‘‘

According to Liz, it was training delivered in a manner starkly different

from what the team had expected. “All of us were impressed with how

the Ricoh customer training specialist worked with us to understand

how to use the machine,” she says. “We never felt embarrassed about

asking even very basic questions, and every answer and explanation he

gave us made perfect sense – without the technical jargon.”

Corporate citizenship plays a roleTechnology and document management aside, it is Ricoh’s strong

corporate citizenship and commitment to the environment that was

the initial driving force behind SYO’s approach to Ricoh. “The approach

Ricoh has to the environment, with energy efficient solutions and their

extensive paper saving features, means more to us than saving paper

and money,” Liz states. “We have a young membership and it’s very

important for them to see us aligned with companies that have the right

values and delivering services and solutions that reflect those values.

“With the Ricoh MFD, we’re reducing our own carbon footprint by

using an energy-efficient multifunction device, cutting back on paper

usage by producing documents on demand rather than getting them

printed in 1,000 lot batches with a bureau, and taking full advantage

of the in-built features that default to double-sided printing and

enforce print quantity quotas.

“It’s a solution,” Liz continues, “that affords us the document

management facilities we need as a business, the security we’re

committed to providing our members, and supports the values we

encourage in our young musicians.”

Booklets, for example, which were previously outsourced for

production are now produced in-house at a fraction of the cost and in

hours rather than days. “The entire process of producing documents

and booklets, either from a digital file or hard copy, is so incredibly

straightforward and quick on the Ricoh MFD,” Liz says.

“Having the ability to produce full-colour bound booklets in house

means we’re also now able to improve the overall quality of our

concert programs and other booklets. The colour quality in particular

we gain from the Ricoh solution is, as far as everyone here is

concerned, every bit as good as we were getting from the professional

print bureau, but for significantly less outlay.”

Even document copying has taken a major step forward, with the SYO

team members making good use of the MFD’s 100-sheet document

feeder, high speed scanning and printing, and intuitive control panel.

“There’s no more standing around, feeding in sheets of originals and

hoping for the best,” Liz says. “We simply place the originals in the

document feeder, follow the on-screen instructions to select the

appropriate settings then walk away. It may not seem a huge thing,

but in an office where there are only a handful of people responsible

for an enormous amount of administration, it’s a major efficiency gain.”

Training: keeping it realNew equipment. New features. New capabilities. All that’s well and

good, but it was the on-site training provided by a Ricoh customer

training specialist that was a major contributing factor to gaining the

growing list of document management efficiencies within SYO.

Ricoh Australia Pty. Ltd. 8 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone: 61 2 8977 1111 Fax: 61 2 8977 1100 Web: ricoh.com.au | Product code: B950529Ricoh New Zealand Pty. 60 Stanley Street, Parnell, Auckland New Zealand. Phone 0800 2 Ricoh (0800 2 74264) Fax: 64 9 915 1401 Web: ricoh.co.nz

We often receive credit card details via fax; and it’s our responsibility to ensure

that information is kept as secure as possible. Having the faxes emailed to the right

people and not lying around as hard copy means we’re meeting that responsibility.

”‘‘