Samaritans
Samaritans is a regional welfare agency operating throughout eastern New South Wales. As the welfare arm of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Newcastle, the foundation helps thousands of locals in need. It supports people with disability, those who are homeless, people with mental health challenges and disadvantaged young people. The foundation also works with children’s services. The Samaritans employ about 900 staff and hundreds of volunteers across their multitude of locations.
All of these issues took away from the core responsibilities of managing Samaritan’s growing ICT network.
Jason O’Meley is the IT Co-ordinator at Samaritans. He manages a team of technicians who support the ICT needs of all of the Samaritan’s staff. As part their IT infrastructure, the Samaritans have a fleet of about 70 devices, which is a combination of laser printers and multi-function printers.
Prior to Colourworks being their document management partner, the printers were a headache to manage. According to Jason, “There was a significant amount of time and manpower involved maintaining equipment, fixing paper jams, ordering toner and shuffling printers to support the day-to-day operations.”
All of these issues took away from the core responsibilities of managing Samaritan’s growing ICT network. All of these printer issues triggered Jason to look around for an answer to their problem. The solution he found was Colourworks.
Jason’s team used to be overwhelmed with printer issues, taking time away from their key responsibilities.
No more IT headaches
As a helpdesk service, Jason’s team used to be overwhelmed with printer issues, taking time away from their key responsibilities. Every hour spent on the printer fleet, prevented the IT technicians from helping staff with computer issues, essential for providing services to Samaritan’s clients. The situation now? “We don’t see any tickets on the helpdesk for printers. It is that simple. Now, we never have to spend any time on printers.”
Colourworks is proactive in managing the fleet across Samaritan’s multi-site organisation. At least twice a year Colourworks will sit down and analyse the data they collect from the Samaritan’s printer fleet. It is a collaboration that provides real value and greater insight of the operations. “They might suggest reallocating machines from a low-use office to a high-use office to balance the output across the fleet,” says Jason. “We’ll look at retiring some older units and replacing them with new Canon equipment. The process assists with forecasting which in turn helps us with planning and budgeting.”
As for training, Jason says, “Colourworks just gets it done. I can’t remember a time in the last two years the Samaritan’s IT had to provide training – Colourworks just takes care of it.” Their service works so well, and with the user-friendly Canon printers and multi-function printers; staff after an introductory session can use the latest functionality straight away.
Colourworks just gets it done. I can’t remember a time in the last two years the Samaritan’s IT had to provide training – Colourworks just takes care of it.
A better experience
There is a significant contrast between the past and now. “Before Colourworks got involved, the printers would practically have a home in our workshop. Now, the Canon printers just work – and I’d probably see the Colourworks techs twice a year if that” Jason says. Colourworks make it easy because they keep the focus on improving the experience for the Samaritans.
Jason is simply impressed with the impact Colourworks has had on Samaritan’s IT department. “It’s a godsend for us, having Colourworks involved,” says Jason. “In 10 years, I can’t think of anything bad to say about them. It has been a win for everybody I think. They allow us to focus on the important, and they take care of the printers – together we keep everyone in our organisation happy.
