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Case Study: Peoria Surgical Group

The Customer Challenge

For more than 50 years, Peoria Surgical Group has performed innovative general, vascular, thoracic, pediatric and plastic surgical procedures in Central Illinois. The team of 17 surgeons and 60 supporting staff members are dedicated to providing patients with the highest level of surgical care, as well as education about their treatment options.

As the organization’s Administrator, Daniel Friend, Ph.D., is charged, among other things, with managing the group’s technology infrastructure to ensure the Peoria Surgical team is able to serve its patients.

This is no small task – particularly in the healthcare industry where machines and patients are often in the same room and care must be taken to adhere to industry standards and regulations.

Peoria Surgical Group has been working with RK Dixon for many years. The company is a market leader when it comes to computer networks and IT solutions, copiers and printers. So when the task of managing the organization’s outdated printer fleet became overwhelming, Friend knew he could rely on RK Dixon to get the job done.

“We had about 50 devices in all three of our locations, many of which were different models and brands,” said Friend. “When our main copier and fax machine broke down, I knew this would be a good time to look into outsourcing the management of our printer fleet.”

The RK Dixon Solution

RK Dixon’s Managed Print Services Group routinely works with businesses to proactively manage their printer fleets in order to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. To do this, RK Dixon developed a systematic approach to its managed print services. The three stages are discovery, analysis and fleet management.

“When left unmanaged, document management can cost a company 1-3 percent of its total revenue,” said Jeff Davies, senior business consultant for RK Dixon.

Davies and his team began the discovery process by conducting a 30-day audit of Peoria Surgical’s existing printer fleet. The goal was to determine the total cost of operations and technical support of its 36 printers, 12 copiers and two stand-alone faxes.

The audit enabled them to analyze the current approach, determine where the gaps were and develop a print management strategy that would help the group gain control of the fleet.

“Through their analysis, RK Dixon allowed us to make an informed decision about our printer fleet,” saidFriend. “They were able to show us exactly what our unique challenges were and how we could address them by managing our fleet more strategically.”

To implement the strategy, RK Dixon engaged their deployment team to install, connect and test. To ensure patient confidentiality, some of the implementation took place during off-peak hours.

The Results

RK Dixon’s approach allowed Peoria Surgical Group to rightsize their fleet from 50 to 35, while increasing their output speed and capacity by more than 100 percent. The new fleet will assist Peoria Surgical Group’s efforts to work within the healthcare compliances.

In addition, Peoria Surgical Group networked 90 percent of the new machines, enhancing productivity across all three locations.

“Since our equipment is virtually new, service calls have become practically non-existent,” said Friend. “Also, because we now have many of the same models across our organization, there is an increase in productivity because staff members don’t have to learn how to use multiple types of devices.”

In addition, Friend no longer has to manage the fleet himself. He can now turn to his RK Dixon team for any printer-related issues.

“In the past, we had three vendors. When a machine went down, we would first have to determine if it was under a maintenance agreement and then figure out who was responsible for the maintenance,” said Friend. “Now if we need supplies, service or just have questions, there is one phone number to call - RK Dixon.”

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