Solutions Success

The Employees: Ken Allison, Julie Robinson

The Client: Little Rock Christian Academy

If you want a visual snapshot of what a partnership looks like, just picture this.

Little Rock Christian Academy is hosting a school-wide open house to unveil its new print shop. There is a room full of administrators and teachers there, along with Print Shop Manager Karen Mitchell, to get a glimpse of the capabilities that are now a reality with the school’s new production equipment.

Also invited to the celebratory occasion are Datamax Area Sales Manager Ken Allison, Account Representative Julie Robinson, and Service Supervisor Ken Miller. The team spends several hours there meeting, greeting, reconnecting, and, if nothing else, showing their sincere support for this new endeavor. 

The Business Challenge.

The idea for a campus-wide print shop first surfaced as a green light thinking session between the school’s IT director Randy Robertson and Ken about two years ago. But first, let’s back up to 2002.
“This is an account that I have personally handled for 21 years,” Ken said. “They have grown exponentially since I first took them over. They probably had 18 or 19 copiers in the fleet and several printers.”

Over time, Ken has become close with teachers, administrators, and even the Head of School at LRCA. Because of the rapport, he chose for years to work it exclusively. With so much growth in both staff and print volume over time, the idea of removing the fleet of copiers and centralizing all print activity to a print shop became at least a conversation worth having.

“Their volume had gotten significantly high through their Canon copiers. The equipment was on five-year leases, and they were running them ragged in three years. So, we talked about maybe looking at a print shop environment and what that would look like,” Ken said. “I talked about some of my own experiences, some of the pros and cons.”

So, the ball slowly started rolling. Along the way, Ken brought in one of his trusted account representatives, Julie Robinson. The reason? Simple: “She’s such a deeply customer service-focused account manager.”

“Ken put his trust in me to jump in and really make sure that if they need anything, I’m on top of it,” Julie said. “That meant a lot to me and something I’m very proud of with this whole project.” 

The Thought Process.

It was three or so months ago when the print shop concept began processing quickly. Ken identified two issues that really needed to be addressed by the school and pursued by Datamax: One is identifying all the currently outsourced materials and bringing them in-house (to ensure a true ROI). The other? Getting buy-in from the staff.

“I warned them, that we would need to collectively help overcome pushback. Teachers will be used to walking down the halls to make a copy. Now they have to do this whole other thing that takes a little more time,” Ken said.

However, with lower operational output costs and stellar print capabilities, the school acknowledged that the print shop was the best “big picture” solution. About a month ago, a black and white production machine (a KM 6136) was installed. Just recently, a color production unit (a KM C7090) followed. The plan is to gradually move forward with the shop operations, so the copiers will not be removed until over the Christmas break.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Julie has and continues to field questions, respond to concerns, and show up on-site to continue to forge that partnership, one call, text or visit at a time. Just as an example: She’s built such personal rapport with Karen (print shop manager there), that one day recently she spent time on campus helping Karen’s son with his Math homework.  Talk about a personal touch!

“When I get a text message from Karen (print shop manager), it’s me saying to myself ‘I need to take care of this right now,’” Julie said. “It’s part of my MO that this is not merely a sale, and I’m going to leave you alone. I like to befriend the people I’m working with. I want them to know how much I care that they’re satisfied, they’re happy, and even that their family is doing well. Building deep rapport is so important.”

The Prevailing Results.

21 years of partnership and two years of project strategizing came to a climax at the print shop open house on campus last month. Team Datamax was there to speak with teachers, to showcase the equipment, and to reassure all parties involved that the print shop would be a resounding success. Not to mention…no doubt about it… Datamax isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

It seems fair to say that Little Rock Christian Academy wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There really is no bigger Raving Fan than that account,” Ken said. “This is a long-term partnership with these guys.”

And there you have it… a quick snapshot of what a true partnership looks like.