Johannesburg, 10 Aug 2011
First National Bank (FNB) Lesotho has reduced the costs and improved the performance of its printing environment following its appointment of Itec Lesotho as its document output solutions partner.
The bank appointed Itec as its partner for Lesotho because it offered a strong base of in-country skills and was able to offer a complete solution that included lease financing, servicing and maintenance of its fleet of print devices.
In addition, Itec Lesotho was able to help FNB Lesotho identify opportunities to reduce print costs by consolidating its printer fleet and introducing management software that would allow it to manage its infrastructure more efficiently, and to better control printer usage among its employees.
John Balcou, chief operations officer at FNB Lesotho, says the bank was prompted to seek out a new vendor as its previous supplier at the time did not have offices or support staff based in Lesotho.
The fact that technicians needed to be brought into the country when a printer broke down or needed a service meant unacceptable delays in repair times.
The bank started looking for a supplier with feet on the ground in Lesotho, and eventually chose Itec based on the quality of its product as well as the flexibility of the contract it was willing to offer.
Says Balcou: “We were comfortable with the Itec hardware because it has been deployed at various sites within the group in South Africa. In addition, Itec was able to offer us a complete package that included lease financing, service and maintenance with transparent per-page pricing.”
FNB Lesotho was especially impressed that it did not need to write off existing printers that had not yet been fully depreciated since Itec bought the machines as part of the contract. These devices have been refurbished at Itec's cost and donated to charity.
In future, FNB Lesotho will have the flexibility to swap out any machines that no longer meet its needs for newer devices, without incurring any penalties.
FNB Lesotho has significantly reduced printer hardware, service and operational costs since Itec Lesotho took over the day-to-day running of its printer environment.
Costs have been saved by consolidating the FNB Lesotho printer fleet to around 25 machines, most of which are monochrome MFPs used for printing documents such as reports, monthly statements, presentations, bank statements and mini-statements.
Marco Martins, managing director of Itec Lesotho, says Itec is one of the few printing services companies that have the established infrastructure in Lesotho to offer companies the same level of service and support as they would enjoy in a major South African city.
Another advantage of working with Itec is that it offers value-added tools such as its Print Director and Itec Sentry software. Print Director saves companies money by allowing them to track and control printer usage on their networks, while Itec Sentry allows printer infrastructures to be proactively managed to prevent faults from arising and to minimise repair time when a printer goes down.
Concludes Balcou: “We are about to expand our business in Lesotho and will do so in partnership with Itec. We have been impressed by Itec's enthusiasm and commitment to our business both from a pre-sales and post-sales point of view.”
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