Kindred Healthcare

Challenge

Challenges with too many printers and too much toner

With almost as many printers as employees and a considerable amount of spare toner stored on site, the support center at Kindred Healthcare’s headquarters building in Louisville, Kentucky presented many opportunities to improve efficiencies and cut costs. The print fleet was a mix of old (some near end of life) and new devices. Maintenance was challenging and costly.

For the investors that acquired Kindred Healthcare in 2018, reducing operating costs was a priority. As Senior Director of Procurement and Vendor Management at Kindred Healthcare, Christine Albro negotiates contracts, maintenance renewals, hardware contracts and pricing.

“When you have 30,000 employees and 400 sites of service, it’s not hard to lose visibility on supply purchases made at the facility level. Our focus was on the largest spend categories to reduce operating cost.” Kindred’s enterprise-wide $3-million annual toner spend was an easy target.

With more than 450 print devices at the support center – including 85 on one floor alone, it was a prime opportunity for improvement. Print volume for a 60-month term was 2.5 million pages. Most employees had a printer on their desk (0.8 printers per employee).

Throughout the company, Kindred was using multiple vendors—one for end-users, one for large MFPs (copiers), and a smaller number of Lexmark devices for document management using the Lexmark Document Distributor (LDD) solution.

“Lexmark was basically the only company that had the kind of software (LDD) we needed that could build workflow scripts into the print devices,” said Albro. “So that was a big deal for us. It’s integrated with our SAP and AP invoicing, and many more workflows.”

Since Kindred needed to optimize print, the company issued an RFP for fleet optimization and managed print services, starting with the support center. Lexmark won the business over three competitors.

Solution

Potential print security issues eliminated

Kindred also chose Lexmark Print Management, which eliminates potential print security issues. “The main security feature that rose to the top was badge release,” said Albro.

Albro noted that requiring employees to authenticate at the printer is certainly an advantage. “Lexmark’s badge release software was a compelling story because they were already integrated into our SAP world.”

Now, employees can send jobs from their computers to any printer at HQ. They no longer have their own printers. They simply need to scan their security badge or enter a code on the device when picking up print jobs. Although most HQ employees aren’t back to the office, 400 have registered their badges so far.

With the support center implementation complete, the next phase for Kindred will be optimizing fleets and implementing Lexmark Managed Print Services in the field.

“Then, as we optimize in all our facilities, we will gradually be able to modernize the f leet, replace the copiers from our legacy provider with Lexmark MFPs, and reduce the number of devices in the field, said Albro. “But that’s more of a long-term project.”

Results

Optimized fleet with 90 percent fewer devices

The number of print devices at the support center at headquarters was optimized from around 450 mixed fleet devices to 50 Lexmark devices (approximately 90 percent reduction).

Completing implementation at the support center after the global pandemic significantly delayed the schedule is by itself an accomplishment. Implementation was initially scheduled in spring 2020, just as COVID-19 was spreading and offices were closing. Lexmark devices were delivered and staged at the support center in early March and implemented in October 2020.

“For the support center, having standardized devices (and fewer total devices) has certainly simplified maintenance,” said Albro. “And now, that’s also cut down on our procurement of new printers because the support center is no longer buying printers.”

With Lexmark Proactive Consumables Management, there’s no reason to purchase extra toner to have on hand. Supplies are automatically ordered when needed. And Lexmark Predictive Service (part of Lexmark MPS) frees up time for employees to focus on Kindred Healthcare business instead of printer maintenance.

Lexmark and Kindred engineers worked together

Lexmark and Kindred engineers worked together and debugged every step of the way to ensure a successful implementation at the support center. Since few employees have been working onsite, the full benefits and metrics of the Lexmark products and solutions have not yet been realized. As more employees return to the office, Kindred anticipates continued savings from rightsizing the print environment and implementing Lexmark MPS in the field.