- Reduced Costs
- Increased Productivity
Customer Profile
- Leisure
- Located in Edinburgh
About The Balmoral Hotel
Edinburgh’s Balmoral Hotel oozes quality. From the luxuriously appointed suites to the Michelin-starred restaurant, The Balmoral is simply the most luxurious hotel in Edinburgh. The Hotel boasts a landmark location at the top of Prince’s Street and its ornate architecture and massive clock tower help shape the Edinburgh skyline. Residents of the five-star hotel look out onto the historic old town and Edinburgh Castle.
The Challenge
Recently the hotel chose to update its print and reprographics equipment, replacing an ageing fleet of photocopiers and printers with brand new Sharp multifunctional products supplied by the local Sharp dealership. The Balmoral’s impressive service ethos means that the hotel meets all manner of guest service demands quickly and to the highest standard. It was essential that customer-facing documents such as menu cards and table plans could be produced in-house as are personal prints and photocopies required by guests. With print playing a role in service delivery, it is imperative that hotel staff have access to reliable, easy to use equipment capable of producing impeccable output quality.
”We are definitely seeing benefits. The Sharp multifunctional products are fast, efficient and reliable. Replacing printers has helped reduce waste and save money. The service provided is really good. We enjoy a personal relationship and they respond quickly to our needs.
IT ManagerThe Balmoral
Solution
The requirements were reviewed; balancing output needs against running costs and the environmental impact of different technologies.
Potential suppliers were invited to tender for the business. Demonstrating their own impressive service ethos, we installed a trial Sharp machine in the hotel’s busy accounts office. The Sharp MFP, which could print, copy, fax and scan met all needs and proved fast, easy to use and utterly dependable.
The advanced yet easy to use communication features of the Sharp multifunctional product impressed users. Not only could staff in the accounts office use the Sharp MFP to send and receive faxes, the simple scan-to-email facility enabled them to respond quickly to customer requests for information. Copies of bills and receipts could be scanned and forwarded directly to email, helping speed up settlement of customer accounts.
The Balmoral Hotel ordered four Sharp multifunctional products; high-speed colour and black and white MFPs as well as mid-range black and white MFPs. The machines were installed without fuss and comprehensive training was provided to the in-house team. Although easy to use, the IT manager was keen to appoint key operators.
The colour MFP was installed in the sales and marketing suite. The Special events manager explained that the elegant menu cards used in the hotel’s restaurants and banqueting suites are printed on the Sharp machine. The in-house facility allows the hotel to respond quickly to change. The quality of customer-facing material has to reflect the hotel’s opulence.
With Sharp multifunctional products used for network printing, The Balmoral was able to retire inefficient printers. Three were removed from the sales and marketing office, one from the food and beverage office and two from the front office. Reducing the number of printers led to “considerable savings” as the hotel no longer needed to buy high cost toner cartridges and drums. The Sharp multifunctional products are not only cost effective; they are faster and more productive.
