Case studies

Overview: Customer Name Home-Fix (Singapore) The Challenge Time consuming to manage the office equipment Improve efficiency of mundane task Reduce cost Reduce document storage space The Solution imageRUNNER 2270 The Results Easier to manage faxes Automated the production of document Reduced paper and printing cost Reduced storage space for accounting documents
	"Image combination has helped us reduce storage space, printing and paper cost by 50 per cent"   Lyne Ong Advertising and Promotions Manager Home-Fix (Singapore)

Business Overview

Since its inception in 1993, Home-Fix has undoubtedly grown to be the industry leader in Singapore’s Do-It-Yourself (DIY) home improvement scene. More importantly, the company is not merely a retailer of high quality products, but it also plays an eminent role in shaping a new culture in the country: a DIY home improvement culture. Through its handyman advice service, power tools rental service, workshop for rental, timber centre and DIY classes, Home-Fix aims to encourage and facilitate widespread adoption of this culture. Home-Fix believes that DIY home improvement is not just for a trained technician or the man of the house, but these tasks can easily be performed by everyone, young and old, men and women alike–hence the tag line "DIY Made Easier".

With this in mind, Home-Fix has recently undergone a re-branding exercise for all its stores (13 in Singapore and three in Malaysia) to reinforce its presence as a lifestyle store which caters to everyone’s home improvement needs.

"Our intention with Home-Fix’s new look is to create an image that is welcoming and homely, a place that can be enjoyed by the whole family… one that can be enriching, yet entertaining so that our customers can take home an enjoyable shopping experience as well as believe that doing-it-yourself can be fun … and it can be something that the whole family can enjoy," said Ms Lyne Ong, Home-Fix’s advertising and promotions manager.

Home-Fix is a medium size setup with several branches and there are about 14 staff at their headquarters. The headquarters uses a copier, a printer, a fax and a scanner. Managing these equipment is time consuming for Home-Fix’s staff. Besides having to deal with different vendors in the event of a breakdown, the printer and fax ink cartridges need to be replaced frequently.

Ensuring Smooth Outgoing & Incoming Faxes
Lyne commented on the fax machines: "Our staff spend much time waiting for the faxes to be scanned. The secretary needs to spend time keeping a constant watch on the fax machine for error reports and with the low paper capacity of the fax machine, there is a need for frequent replenishment of papers."

Unproductive Mundane Task
Lyne also needs to send out weekly circulars to various other departments. "The process of preparing these circulars is tedious and requires much time. The circulars are printed single sided in multiple copies, manually sorted and stapled before it is circulated internally."

Documents Storage Space
The accounts department generates a lot of documents which take up space. For example, receipts submitted by staff for settlement purposes are photocopied for processing and subsequently filed, which takes up storage space.

The imageRUNNER (iR) 2270 is able to handle all of Home-Fix copying, printing, scanning and faxing needs. Since its
implementation, several improvements were experienced. First, Canon’s service contract cover breakdowns and toner refill, the administrator had an easier time maintaining the office equipment since the service technician will turn up within four hours in the event of a breakdown.

Managing Fax is So Easy!
Besides being user friendly, the iR2270 has a remote UI feature that makes staff more productive. The remote UI, a web interface viewable on the desktop, allows the administrator to monitor incoming and outgoing faxes right from the desktop computer. Thus, it is very easy to track outgoing faxes that encounter problems. In addition, the remote UI interface enables the administrator to make many settings such as adding or editing a new fax and email address without going to the machine. This is easier to manage.

With high paper capacity of 1150, there is no need for frequent replenishment of papers. To top it all, faxing is so much faster since documents are quickly scanned into memory for faxing. In addition, by scanning documents to be faxed for emailing instead, telephone bills are reduced.

Automated Document Production
Compared to their previous copier and printer with speeds of 15 pages per minute, the iR2270 is 45 per cent more productive with a print speed 22 ppm, enabling Home- Fix staff to work faster.

The imageRUNNER has also helped Lyne as she can now prepare circulars five times faster.

"Thanks to its booklet and saddle stitch features, the imageRUNNER prepares the circulars with no human intervention. They are automatically printed into a booklet, stapled and ready for immediate distribution. This eliminated the sorting and stapling process to save me time and increase productivity," said Lyne.

Reduced Storage Space
The accounts department also benefit from its use. Using image combination feature, when photocopying receipts for settlement, two images are copied onto one page.

"Image combination has helped us reduce storage space, printing and paper cost by 50 per cent," said Lyne.