Custom Software Solutions for Business Innovation
THE CLIENT:
Our client is a leader in the business printing industry with offices in over 100 countries serving clients worldwide. As a company committed to innovation, this client values technology and embraces change. They have moved from being a printer company to a data solution leader. This mindset contributes to their forward-thinking, revenue-generating tech plan with a committed spend of 10% of sales as the Research & Development budget each year. The R&D investments not only keep them at the forefront of the industry but resulted in over $4 billion in revenue for FY2020.
THE BUSINESS NEED:
Office printer sales and support was a solid division of the company producing strong profits and increases year over year. However, as an area that had changed relatively little in several years, it was ready for the R&D team to look for new opportunities. As a frequent technology innovation partner, Geneca was called in for a series of investigation and ideation sessions.
WHAT GENECA DID FIRST:
Geneca began with investigation which included reviewing company data on customer ordering habits, support tickets, and customer service calls. Next, we conducted Voice of the Customer interviews to hear directly from a sampling of the users. During investigation, Geneca discovered an overall pain point—printer down time. Whether it was a marketing firm running out of a color of ink, a university without enough paper, or a hospital running low on labels needed for admission bracelets, these businesses were all frustrated by struggles to keep enough supplies on hand. Larger businesses also complained of needing too many different supplies for various models of printers. Another frequent complaint centered around printer breakdowns which not only carried repair costs, but also a high cost of downtime due to loss of productivity. Customers all wanted the same solution: to have worry-free, on-location printing.
WHAT GENECA DID NEXT:
The R&D team, business stakeholders, and Geneca sat down to review the data and began ideation with a goal of increasing customer loyalty and generating new revenue through the monitoring, management, and re-ordering of supplies, parts, and accessories. The first suggested solution was to create a subscription service to provide customers with supplies before they would run out. We could leverage years of data on each client to determine ordering patterns as a starting point. For added convenience, it could include individual customer portals where clients could update subscription needs and ordering frequency easily. One common complaint was not remembering which type of ink each machine needed so it could make it easy to add a device, give it an internal location, and have the system update the order to send the correct supplies.
Although this was a good start, it did not address the machine service and repair side of the data. After further conversation, we hit on the big idea to develop an entirely new revenue stream centered around printer uptime—printing as a service. Instead of purchasing machines and supplies, customers would pay for a printing service at a level that fit their business needs. Everything they needed to print at their level would always be in stock and on location. By using existing analytics from each machine at the customers’ locations, software would be created to gather data on printing levels and trigger orders for new supplies. Additionally, we would create software to use predictive analytics to know when machines were likely to break down and needed servicing. Using this visibility, our client could bring in a replacement machine and trade out before the machine went offline for their customers, drastically reducing the number of service calls.
THE RESULTS:
The printing as a service model has been hugely successful for our client and their customers. In the first year, customers went from an average of 5 down printer days a month to less than 2 down days a year—that is a decrease from 16% downtime to less than 1%. Customers prefer paying for the service instead of purchasing physical machines and supplies enjoying a consistent monthly spend rather than budgeting for a roller coaster of costs throughout the year. We added predictive analytics for our client allowing machines to receive preventative maintenance which substantially lengthens the lifespan of the machine and reduces the need for costly corrective service. Individual components can be replaced at the optimum time to reduce breakdowns. This extends the life of the machines and keeps them in rotation and earning revenue longer.
Ultimately, Geneca helped our client build the subscription service as a mobile app. It is very popular with customers who have lower volume or fluctuating printer needs. These customers can easily reorder what they need and change levels if their business changes. Additionally, we added easy repair ticket functionality that allows users to send the printer error code through the app for faster service.
Both programs started with a defined first release of most lovable features and architecture designed for strong scalability by Geneca. We led the projects through the first several releases before transitioning them fully to the client’s in-house development team who have continued to evolve the software adding new features, connecting to new technologies, and setting the pace for printer analytics in the industry. When Geneca invents and builds with you, the product will last far into the future.