12h 27 May

A commitment to health and efficiency – the VimpelCom experience

Artur Khodzhaev is IT manager for one of Russia’s leading mobile phone carrier;  VimpelCom. He explained how the operator has been working with HP IPG to consolidate and improve efficiencies across its printing and digital imaging environment.

As Artur described, the market situation and challenges were considerable:
• The VimpelCom Group's license portfolio covers a territory with a population of about 340 million
• Geographically it covers the whole territory of Russia as well as the entire territories of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia as well as Vietnam and Cambodia
• As of  December 31, 2008, VimpelCom's total number of active subscribers in Russia and the CIS was 61 million (including 47.7 million in Russia, 6.3 million in Kazakhstan, 3.6 million in Uzbekistan and 2.1 million in Ukraine)

The company had standardised around HP MFP devices around four years ago, the current challenge being to measure the volume and nature of printing being carried out or the costs associated with the same.

“We knew that we were paying vast sums for printing and digital imaging but we had no way of measuring just how much,” said Artur. 

“In addition, my guess – from my experience of the Russian marketplace – was that up to 50% of the print jobs were ‘non business’ related, ranging from hotel booking to holiday snaps!  When you consider the scale and disparity of our operations, the costs and management time associated with such non business printing had become critical.”

The operator had already consolidated around HP’s mfps as a standard printing platform back in 2005.  This year’s adoption of HP’s Universal Print Driver (1) and Web Jetadmin (2) has enabled VimpelCom managers to track, manage, control, monitor and update all printing and imaging devices across the network centrally for the first time.

“Now we have a precise idea of what’s being printed and when, plus the ability to update drivers and security protocols instantly.  As a result, maintenance and break/fix costs have plummeted to the extent that we can divert these resources towards more business-critical, revenue-driving activities.”

Going back to 2005, was there resistance to this printer consolidation in the first place?  How did managers react to losing their individual desktop status symbols?

“We adopted a pragmatic approach,” added Artur.  “We equipped the finance team with approved personal desktop devices.  Embedded FollowMe print technology (3) offered all the safeguards necessary, but they felt more comfortable with personal devices.  However, this was the only exception.  All other departments were standardised around MFPs freeing up further office space in the process.”

And how did you address end user resistance toward these shared, standard MFPs?

“In fact it took about six weeks for end users to notice the difference in terms of reduced downtime and improved performance.  For those remaining staff still reluctant to ‘walk the corridors’ to retrieve their print jobs, we highlighted the health benefits of a regular stroll.  Walking to the printer is good for your heart!” added Artur.

What a compelling message:  printer consolidation that delivers both efficiency and health benefits!

(1) http://h20271.www2.hp.com/SMB-AP/cache/380442-0-0-14-121.html
(2) http://h20338.www2.hp.com/hpsub/cache/332262-0-0-225-121.html
(3) http://www.sax.ltd.uk/PDFs/ds_Bluemega/FollowMeEmbeddedforHP.pdf

16h 27 May

Transforming bank statements into marketing real estate with HP Exstream

One of the demonstrations on view during this year’s Managing The Challenge (MTC) event typified the transformation of printing and digital imaging as a business driver.  HP purchased the software vendor Exstream last year as the first enterprise document solution to combine customer relationship management (CRM) with mission-critical document production and multi-channel output from a single design. 

This means individually tailored, personalised customer correspondence generated and produced en masse at the flick of a switch.  Companies such as Fidelity Investments, AT&T, Aflac, HSBC, Carnival Cruise Lines, Telmex, RR Donnelley, E.ON, ING Czech Republic, La Banque Postale, State of California, Barclays Bank and many others, are using HP Exstream solutions to add a previously unimaginable level of personalisation to their customer communications.

Telephone bills are no longer a list of expenses, but an opportunity to match special offers with a user’s interests or buying habits.  Are you a regular user of SMS messages? Then why not take advantage of a text-heavy discount plan? Are you a regular international traveller? Why not consider a tailored roaming tariff?  These opportunities extend to all customer correspondence – invoices, renewal notices, bank statements – all of which can be transformed into tailored, personalised marketing opportunities.

The concept is compelling, even from my own experience.  My family of six receives, on average, three to four personalised missives per day ---and that’s just from the bank alone.  Financial information is reviewed and filed - other information is reviewed, acted upon or discarded - but everything is reviewed over the breakfast table at least once.  This type of personalised printed material can have a longer shelf-life than email (I can fold it up, write on it or review at leisure) and it’s obviously more personal than a billboard.

This combination of traditional print with the capacity to genuinely personalise makes paper-based communications a compelling new form of marketing real estate.  The opportunities are endless: why not let approved, third-party vendors communicate via your correspondence?   The levels of security and personalisation makes the HP Exstream proposition a really powerful one.  Anything that can actually convince me to read my mobile phone bill must be!

18h 27 May

From peripheral to productivity tool – reflections on Managing the Challenge ‘09

My trip back to the airport provides me with an opportunity to reflect on the two-day conference.  I must admit that my initial sentiments focused around cost management and cost savings.  Now – more than ever – organisations are focusing on the bottom (and top) line and our principal (even, sole) role is to help them do this.

However, HP’s Bruce Dahlgren really set the tone for the entire conference with his opening remarks.  History tells us that recessions provide an occasion for a change in market leadership; only 60% of upper- quartile, market-leading companies retained their leadership positions after the 2002 recession.  That means plenty of opportunity for new entrants and new leaders!  My conversations with customers, journalists, analysts and colleagues confirmed that companies are not just looking to survive this recession, but indeed to use it as a springboard to prosper. 

And the role of printing and digital imaging in all this?  Accounting for the equivalent of 3 per cent of a typical enterprise’s annual revenue, printing is no longer a cost centre ‘peripheral’ to the wider business.  In fact, ‘peripheral’ was a term I never heard during the two days of the conference.  From oil exploration to mobile telephony - from banking and finance to manufacturing and logistics - the humble printer has been transferred from the periphery of business towards its strategic heart: not merely to manage costs but to genuinely drive business opportunity.