Upstream said that like a lot of companies that experience rapid growth covering multiple geographic markets, Austereo was showing a lot of symptoms common in companies with unmanaged output fleets.

Of Austereo’s 200 devices nationwide, a small percentage were over-utilised, thus increasing maintenance costs and reducing the lifespan of the equipment, Upstream said.

A greater number of the devices were under-utilised, dramatically increasing running costs.

The Austereo fleet also featured more than 60 different types of printers, copiers, fax machines and other output equipment, increasing support and supplies costs, we well as adding to end-user confusion.

Most of its printers were at the end of their lifespan, so were often slow and unreliable.

Austereo is a majority-owned unit of Village Roadshow, which had previously engaged the print specialist Upstream to reduce costs within its own print environment. One the recommendation of Village, Austereo also engaged Upstream.

Upstream is Australia’s largest independent print solutions company. The company, which has annual revenues in excess of $90 million, provides integrated print, copy, fax and scanning solutions that help businesses reduce the cost, hassle and volume of document output.

Upstream's fleet management solution has saved Austereo 28 per cent over its previous annual output spend. The results included a 15 per cent reduction in output-related help desk calls and 5 per cent reduction in print volume.

While some of the Austereo radio stations had been initially successful with either managed print services or consolidated IT purchasing, overall there was little coordination. For example, each market negotiated separate lease agreements for copier equipment, so that service levels and costs varied widely throughout the group.

Another factor in Austereo's high document costs was an unusually high volume of colour printing. As a highly sales-focused organisation, Austereo makes heavy use of colour sales presentations, driving the company's cost per page above average.

Upstream devised a fleet management plan that would give Austereo increased cost control and transparency. The company was able to retire end-of-life output equipment, gain a complete hardware refresh, and still lower its cost structure.

Consolidating Austereo's device profile by 61 per cent, Upstream significantly reduced the number of consumable types and user interfaces Austereo staff had to contend with.

The new fleet was rolled out in conjunction with a planned shift in the Austereo’s office culture, from an environment of “departments” and private offices to a more efficient and communal emphasis on “teams” and open plan space design. Even the CEO now works in an open plan area; the new approach is being deployed across Austereo’s business in phases.

Upstream also conducted training to ensure that Austereo staff were comfortable using the new equipment and able to take advantage of labour- and paper-saving features such as electronic faxing and scanning functions that had been available previously in many cases, but not widely understood or used. For example, the new system can scan a paper document and automatically route it to the user's email address.

Upstream also helped Austereo implement a reasonable colour policy to ensure that colour was used for maximum sales impact, and not just as a default.