How a construction firm cut costs and knocked paper usage down 50%

Cutting to the chase

Problem

Reduce work and personal printing, and recover costs from users

Solution

Leverage user-charged printing and better visibility powered by PaperCut

Outcome

Achieve up to 50% less paper use globally, and a cost-saving culture

Operating through a worldwide network of offices in the UK, Dubai, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Australia, Halcrow specializes in construction planning, design, and management services for infrastructure development.

It’s no surprise a construction firm does a lot of drafting and drawing. But with over 4,000 staff? Well, “a lot” doesn’t really cut it anymore – and neither was Halcrow’s current print management solution when it came to visibility, cost reduction, and pay-per-page printing.

PaperCut helped us evangelize print management with the catchphrase, ‘think before you print’… It’s a cultural change that continues to yield cost savings today."

- Martin D'Souza,

Information Systems Manager at Halcrow Group

Problem

Reduce work and personal printing, and recover costs from users

With multiple stages of product design, designers need to draft – and print out – as many versions as possible. The problem is, with thousands of designers, an ample amount of drafts can lead to an astronomical amount of printing costs.

This is exactly the issue Halcrow faced. With so many people printing drafts around the clock, its printing costs skyrocketed to an unsustainable degree. At the same time, it discovered a sizeable number of staff were printing personal jobs without limits.

This led to Halcrow having three key problems to solve: encourage viewing drafts online where possible, charge printing back to users, and limit the amount of personal printing.

Solution

Leverage user-charged printing and better visibility powered by PaperCut

Halcrow’s search for a solution ended when it came across PaperCut. According to Information Systems Manager, Martin D’Souza, PaperCut was by far the easiest solution to roll out across their vast global network – and it met their key needs with ease, too.

Syncing to their Active Directory with zero fuss, PaperCut let Halcrow recoup costs by not only charging back to staff, but to clients as well. It could also leverage newfound visibility and insights, including page costs, printing volume by site, and more.

These insights finally led to more mindful printing and a reduction in draft and personal jobs. As Martin puts it, “PaperCut helped us evangelize print management with the catchphrase, ‘think before you print’… It’s a cultural change that continues to yield cost savings today.”

Outcome

Achieve up to 50% less paper use globally, and a cost-saving culture

With PaperCut at the printing helm, Halcrow has managed to reduce the number of pages printed per year, per person by more than 50% in its Glasgow office – and other offices have followed suit with similarly fantastic results.

How printing is charged and accounted for has also improved. Charges with job details are now imported into the client billing system automatically for Halcrow’s UK offices – all set up as shared accounts in PaperCut, and easily assignable at the time of print.

Together with more responsible printing, Halcrow continues to enjoy significant savings worldwide, and an ROI with PaperCut that truly earns its keep (and then some).