Save your Company Money – without doing a thing!

Feb 3 11 under News, Printing, Up and coming products | Leave a comment

Studies suggest tha print associated costs can account for 10% of company costs!

Aspen in partnership with Xerox software are offering a FREE No Hassel Print Audit for a limited time only… Offering the following:

* Remote Audit – no sales person will attend – all you need to do is download the link that we email you.
* This will generate a FREE fully comprehensive report, with NO obligation.
* The report holds thousands of pounds worth of business SAVINGS!

Benefits to you!

* No visits from a sales person
* FREE Audit of your usage
* FREE report
* Significant SAVING of money

If you feel like your business costs are spiraling out of control and would like to save money – Email offers@aspensolutions.co.uk or call us on 08450 780 790.

Buy IT Hardware and Software at Aspen!

Jan 24 11 under Electronic Environmental Disposal, IT Support, New Software, New hardware, Printing, Sales Support | Leave a comment

At Aspen we have recently launched our new online shop! Where we have a great range of IT hardware and Software such as PC’s, Laptops, Print consumables and much more!

For example we have the Dell U2211H 22inch Ultra Sharp TFT Monitor for only £155+VAT

For more information call us on 08450 780 790 or visit our shop!

Other services that Aspen provide are, IT Support, Environmental Disposal Services, Managed Print Services and Document Management Services.

Xerox ColorQube: What is Solid ink ?

Dec 23 10 under Printing, Sales Support, Up and coming products | Leave a comment

Around the same time Mrs Thatcher was coming to the end of her reign and Baywatch was the X-Factor of Saturday evening TV, a company called Tektronix launched a new range of solid ink colour office printers .Back then office colour was a high-priced luxury (along with brick sized mobile phones and garishly coloured braces) .A mainstream office printer offering high speed and low running cost was destined to be a winner.

How does Solid ink work?

Solid ink technology utilizes solid ink sticks in lieu of the toner powder usually used in printers. After the ink stick is loaded into the printing device, it is melted and used to produce images on paper in a process similar to offset printing. Solid ink printing produces more vibrant colors than other methods, is easier to use, can print on a wide range of media, and is more environmentally friendly ,reducing waste by as much as 90% when compared with toner cartridges. The sticks are non-toxic and safe and clean to handle.

Solid ink’s place in todays market!

It didn’t take long for the document industry behemoth, Xerox, to sit up and pay attention to this revolutionary new technique. They were impressed, very impressed, and in true Vicotor Kiam style , so much so, they bought the company!

With the massive resources of Xerox R&D, over the past decade, the technology has been refined .Solid ink has now made its way to mainstream applications. With the 2009 launch of the Xerox ColorQube range, multifunction tabloid color printers that use solid ink technology, Xerox have now positioned solid ink to contend directly with laser/toner technology in the multifunction office printing space.

Advantages of Solid ink technology!

As mentioned, the advantages of solid ink are many, not least of which is the ongoing running costs. The machine measures actual colour coverage and uniquely, bill accordingly on one of the three-tiers of billing. This means that when printing a small percentage of Colour (286,000 colour pixels and under if you really want to know) ,such as a company logo, the job is charged at the same cost as mono print. From Xerox’s analysis of millions of documents, this may account for up to 40% of a traditional office’s total colour output. When you consider the traditional toner machine clicks as a full colour reproduction irrespective of coverage, the savings on running costs when using solid ink can be dramatic.

So from the decade that gave us Yugo cars, legwarmers and the Rubik cube, we now have a refined technology that may just go on to revolutionise office colour printing.

The solid ink era has arrived.

Xerox ColorQube Event Edinburgh!

Oct 19 09 under News, Printing | Leave a comment

Aspen are holding an event for the newly released Xerox ColorQube with solid ink technology!

The Xerox ColorQube Business Live Event is the perfect opportunity for you to see how your business can achieve affordable colour for EVERY document, every day!!

This revolutionary technology brings a whole new meaning to colour printing for the office, whether you are interested in saving money, looking for a more efficient way of running your business or wanting a more environmentally friendly energy efficient solution to your current machine Aspen will be demonstrating all these aspects at the event.

The event will be running over two days:

Monday 23rd of November 2009 – 12pm, 2pm and 4pm
Tuesday 24th November 2009 – 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm

Event Location:

Bonham Hotel
35 Drumsheugh Gardens
Edinburgh
EH3 7RN

For more information and Registration for our Event click on the link below:

Aspen Solutions Ltd

Or call us now on 08450 780 790 and speak to one of our advisors!

How to make “Managed Print Services” work for your company?

Sep 24 09 under IT Support, Printing, Tips & Tricks | Leave a comment

Businesses are increasingly looking towards Managed Print Services (MPS) as a modern approach to control and managing the cost of print across their companies. Hybrid vendors can offer a mix of products, services and software which will ultimately reduce and control the cost of print.

To drive out real productivity gains and focus on cost savings, recognising the need for a fact based approach, and investing in the technology to provide organisations with the tools to carry out “print audits” throughout a business enterprise this technology can capture most networked and local printing devices.

To achieve outstanding results you need an IT solutions company that will be working between specific dates were the assessment tools allow analysts to capture the total volume of print generated across an enterprise, this information can be used to calculate along with consumable costs the total cost of every print produced during this period.

Other assessment tools used allow calculations of the environmental effect of companies existing printing methods, and good vendors can advise on best practice and how companies can reduce their carbon footprint by adopting green printing methods.

Office layout advisor software can help map the layout of your office to maximise use and access to deployed devices.
Software can enhance access and control printing through swipe card, fob or secure pin code access technology, management software can notify, report on volumes, performance, faults across devices and fleets and middleware can allow integration into existing back end office systems to speed up business processes.

You can take the first 4 steps to Managed Print Services by adopting this consultative strategic deployment model:

Analyses and investigate cost of current printing processes and methods throughout your enterprise.
Apply a strategic design and layout to improve workers productivity and workflow needs.
Provide a balanced deployment of services, software and products across the enterprise to increase uptime, improve office productivity, reduce wastage, control printing and improve the overall user experience.
Provide ongoing management, support, services and maintenance to optimise the new businesses model.

If you are decision makers in your company who are responsible for adopting MPS strategies and are looking to take cost out of the business then MPS will deliver and drive out other benefits, such as streamlining of labour intensive business processes, system integration, convergence of paper and electronic information in a structured searchable format.

If you are looking to take the first steps towards a MPS strategy then contact Aspen to support your business needs.

Public Sector – Key Propositions and Green IT

Jul 30 09 under News, Printing, Public Sector | Leave a comment

Public Sector

ICT spending by local authorities increased by 5% in 2008 and now overall spending has to be reduced by over 20% due to the Global economic position. In light of prospective cuts of £1 billion to the Scottish Government budget from Westminster between 2010 and 2012, Councils will share £11.8 billion from the Scottish Government during 2009-10 to deliver public services. Authorities throughout the UK are still planning to spend over £3bn on ICT in 2009/10. Of these costs, staff account for 44% of overall spend.

Driving down operational expenditure is at the forefront of ICT Heads’ strategies. In the current financial environment ICT needs to be able to demonstrate it delivers business benefit wherever it is used. In addition to providing support and managed services in line with Government efficiency plans, the continuing reduction in the cost of technology means that more can be bought for less. This has presented a massive opportunity and influenced Aspen to extend its offerings in Managed Print Services and Infrastructure Support.

Green IT

The Green IT agenda seems to have left centre stage globally, mostly due to the economic climate and lack of awareness. At Aspen, we have been well aware of the Government’s Green IT initiative, even though, many public sector IT managers remain unaware of the strategy.

“In a report produced by Global Action Plan and commissioned by Cisco, the research identified that 60% of public sector IT managers were unaware of the Government’s green ICT strategy, with 41% of national government respondents ignorant of the strategy even though it encompasses their area of responsibility.” (Cisco Report - The path to a greener government)

With a focus on operational expenditure reduction, both central and local government departments can obtain massive savings by introducing Green Solutions. With our commitment to the environment, we have provided services to reintroduce redundant hardware to many third world countries in line with WEEE regulations. Aspen have recently introduced a unique and innovative way to solve IT disposal issues. This convenient service offers a secure and fully compliant way to dispose of any unwanted IT equipment. The GreenIT Box can be provided to organisations to fill with redundant IT equipment, is uplifted when requested, and a Waste Disposal Certificate provided to ensure you meet your legal IT disposal requirements.

At Aspen, we not only establish significant savings, but help significantly lower customers’ carbon footprints whilst maximizing productivity and efficiencies. These messages are at the forefront of our campaigns.

Did You Know?

Server virtualisation helps reduce your number of servers by a ratio of 15:1, and every server virtualized saves 7000kWh of electricity annually, or about £500 in energy costs.

“Virtualisation improves server utilization rates from 5-15% to 60-80%. Running fewer, highly utilized servers frees up space and power. 4 tons of CO2 are eliminated for every server virtualized – the equivalent to taking 1.5 cars off the motorway.” (VMware - See how VMware customers are cutting energy costs.)

Desktop Virtualisation

There remain some big opportunities for ICT to transform local public services.

“Some of the new emerging technologies can be exploited to transform local public services, delivering better more cost effective customer service.” (Socitm – Local authority ICT spend in 2008/9 reaches an all time high according to Socitm IT Trends 2008 report – January 2009)

Desktop Virtualisation is one such area Aspen can help customers meet such objectives. Desktop users can access through traditional desktop, repurposed PC, laptop or Thin Client. There are huge Power savings – less processing power and less storage requirements (Thin Clients lower the Carbon Footprint further and do not need refreshed as PC’s do). There is secure encrypted access which supports users out with the network’s firewall. A virtual machine can be cloned or moved easily and provisioning is like a single copy rather than installing several applications, user profiles etc. Storage costs can decrease by up to 70% – improving service levels, providing higher operational efficiency. There are up to 40% savings on TCO – These savings are real and can be used e.g. to support other company initiatives. Another benefit is that users can access applications whilst unconnected from the network.

Security

Security and privacy of information has also leapt to the top of the agenda in all organisations. High profile cases of data loss reported in the past twelve months have served as a wake-up call for all public sector organisations. New technology, out-of-date management practices represent a serious threat to organisations. Ministers have recently revealed the number of laptops lost or stolen from their departments, with the Department for Work and Pensions mislaying 41 laptops last year.

“Figures for the Department of Health and its agencies show that the number of laptops lost or stolen reached a peak of 36 in 2008-09. Minister Phil Hope said all the devices were encrypted, minimizing the risk of exposing sensitive or personal data.” (Departments reveal laptop losses - GC News July 2009)

Amongst other departments losses were the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which has mislaid two since 2004; the Northern Ireland Office with five missing since 2004; and the Department for Children, Schools and Families which had six lost or stolen in 2008-09.

As more and more paper is being replaced by soft filing systems, more data requires to be secure. Hardware encryption, data recovery, infrastructure security, single sign on solutions, growing storage, backup and disaster recovery are only a few solutions Aspen can assist with for business continuity.

Managed Print Solutions

Due to the current economic climate and shrinking hardware margins Aspen Solutions Ltd view MPS as key to growth. Providing Managed Print Services (MPS) has helped Aspen to shift from capital to operational expenditure, and benefit from fixed and predictable pricing on a monthly or quarterly basis. As such, we are in the transition from selling hardware to selling services.

Most organisations are unaware of expenditure on printing, due to the lack of centralised print management. As a result, devices become underused, costs, security risks and downtime increases – and user satisfaction decreases due to poor service quality. An audit of the print environment provides the first steps to a MPS, where organisations get cost visibility i.e. which device, where, who is printing etc. Rationalisation can maximise the use of printers, lower running costs, and increase uptime and user satisfaction.

With Aspen partnering with Xerox we are able to utilise enterprise tools which enable us to provide services to assess, design, implement and manage customers’ print environments. As cost reduction is high on the agenda for most organisations, MPS provides an opportunity for us to provide visibility customers need on print costs and enables us to develop long-term and profitable customer relationships.

These messages need to be shared – not only with Public Sector but with all customers in order to assist adaptation to change, enable growth, remain secure and meet the continuing demands from the Government.

Aspen Solutions Ltd is an enabler of change for the future.

I.T in the Recession………Saving and Upgrading!

Jul 28 09 under IT Support, News, Printing | Leave a comment

Now that we are in the depths of the recession, companies across the world are looking to cut costs and the I.T departments role in the cost cutting process is extremely important. Studies show that 91% of IT Managers/IT Directors in the UK have seen a reduction in budget in the last 12 months.

Without properly functioning Telecoms & IT systems, the modern business, whether it be SME or Enterprise finds it extremely difficult to function properly, and more importantly, finds it difficult to compete in the increasingly competitive marketplace.

Telecommunications Systems

Keeping a careful eye on your communication contracts is vital, with new and improved solutions like the Cisco UC500, which has been branded the “office in a box”, as it manages voice, data, video and security, plus lots more, ensuring increased productivity without the need for many different hardware products or software solutions to be purchased. Included with the product are basic call centre facilities, soft phones, music on hold support and voicemail, and as this is being aimed at the SME market, the costs are not as much as one would imagine.

Data Storage and Retrieval

Document storage and access is a commonly underestimated drain on business cash and resources. Have you ever thought what it costs to hire premises or use a part of your own premises to store paper documents, and how long in staff time it takes to store and retrieve these document on a daily basis? The cost to the modern business can run into tens of thousands of pounds per year, even for an SME. An electronic document management system could solve many problems. All paper documents would be scanned into the system from a current device within the network, documents can be easily stored and retrieved at the touch of a button. A good system, properly installed and configured can remove any costs associated with storage of paper documents, and cuts down the time of retrieval immensely, ensuring better productivity of staff and is a potential money saver. This helps to serve your customers faster with immediate answers to questions, reduced printing costs, helps keep processes locked down and secures all documents safely and improved security of company documentation.

Virtualisation

One of the big talking points at the moment is virtualisation, but what exactly is it I hear you ask………
“Virtualisation is an abstraction layer that decouples the physical hardware from the operating system to deliver greater IT resource utilisation and flexibility to the user”. Virtualisation put simply, allows multiple operating systems to be run on one server, with the servers resources shared between each one. On the face of it, many think that it sounds a costly and difficult exercise. In practice, if you had 4 servers, it would be acceptable to think that these could be reduced to one server running all of your business applications, thus reducing your yearly support for the redundant servers, saving space, reduced power usage, reduced capital and operational expenses, reduce downtime and lost revenue, not to mention the obvious environmental advantages involved. Read more on virtualisation and access the cost saving calculator by contacting Aspen Solutions directly.

Printing

Finally a major cost to most businesses today is printing documents, with the capital expenditure involved in procuring devices, consumable costs and the ongoing running costs involved. One way of making a quick cost saving is having a print audit of all of your devices, this looks at what type of documents you are printing, how many devices you have and could they be reduced, what is the average toner coverage on a page, what the total cost of ownership is (TCO), and finally could you reduce costs dramatically whilst increasing end user productivity. Contact Aspen to arrange a free no obligation print audit.

Some IT departments that are ahead of the game maybe adopting some of these products already, and will soon align their IT strategies with the financial focus of the business, proving to the shareholders that they do understand what’s going on and can make a positive contribution to the situation.