Success Story
Customer: Coast to Coast
Country: Australia
Industry: Logistics
Jim and Larisa from Coast to Coast
When it comes to keeping the maritime industry moving, South Australian based Coast To Coast Services has an enviable reputation as a very efficient ship supply company.
Mr Len Angione, Coast To Coast Services director and founder, is highly respected in the ship supply field with more than 40 years experience in the industry.
Headquartered in Cheltenham, South Australia the company services all ports in Australia supplying a diverse range of goods and services. These range from general provision, cabin and engine stores to unique hard to find products and technical services.
In the words of the company's administration manager Ms Larisa Angione, “We provide shipping companies with anything and everything – we are a one-stop go to shop for them.
“If our customers need life raft services we arrange companies that provide that. If they need a doctor on board we organise that. It's a pretty varied and quite exciting working environment. We operate all day everyday, giving on-time service to keep vessels moving,” she said.
The Challenge
“Because the director is not a huge computer user the company has a culture of relying on paper documentation for all its internal communications processes such as invoices, orders, quotations, technical documentation and the like,” said Ms Angione, Administration Manager.
Achieving great success by providing efficient and reliable products and services for the shipping industry is not without its problems. Ms Angione who has been with the company for the past seven years identified one major problem was the vast amount of paper documentation that they produced.
She said that while the current paper based system works perfectly well it was a noticeable cost area that needed to be looked at.
According to Ms Angione going paperless in the short term wasn't really an option for them.
“I was amazed and delighted at the innovative solution Copyworld and Toshiba Australia were able to provide to solve our problem.
The Toshiba Approach
“Since joining Coast To Coast Services I have developed an excellent relationship with Copyworld's account manager Jim Hough.” Copyworld are Toshiba Exclusive Platinum Dealers in Adelaide and Perth.
Coast to Coast originally has a Toshiba 25ppm e-STUDIO colour multi-function product but because of the huge volume of paper being printed, they wanted to explore other options.
Ms Angione said that Jim Hough proposed that she consider Toshiba's new Paper Reusing System. The system consists of the e-STUDIO Eco Printer which prints the document in an erasable blue toner, and the e-STUDIO RD30 which erases the documents for reuse—makes more effective use of paper.
“As soon as Jim explained to me that we could re-use the same piece of paper up to five times as a minimum I had a light bulb moment and asked him to immediately provide me with a quotation.”
“We got the quote back from Jim on the monthly cost of what it would be to purchase the system and also the running cost. And the running costs in comparison were a quarter of what the normal printer would be when you factor in the paper costs.”
She said that the Copyworld team were fantastic to work with on this project.
“While Jim was away, Copyworld's sales director Mark Richards came out and conducted the presentation. Once we saw all the benefits we just said to ourselves this is too good an opportunity to pass up.
“Why wouldn't we jump at the opportunity when you can re-use the paper up to a minimum of five times or more. I'm making a saving there, we're having a less of an impact on the environment so we're not wasting paper.”
Ms Angione said that in the past they would destroy any paperwork of a sensitive nature.
“Now we simply erase the ink and we are good to re-use the paper again,” she said.
While the information is erased from the paper Ms Angione said that she has plans for any critical information to be scanned by the Toshiba MFP and captured as electronic files for archiving purposes.
“There used to be a lot of comment in the office that we wasted so much paper. The staff have really embraced the Toshiba Paper Reusing System and think it is fantastic technology.”
We used to order anywhere from between 20 to 25 cartons of paper a month. - Ms Angione, Administration Manager
"We have a really good relationship with Jim and Mark at Copyworld. They were able to help us with financing on the equipment which was greatly appreciated." Ms Angione said
“Because we had an existing Toshiba e-STUDIO MFP we didn't even require training as the e-STUDIO range has a very user friendly interface and are extremely easy machines to use.”
The Outlook
“Since taking delivery of Toshiba's Paper Reusing System I only ordered 5 cartons of paper this month. So that's how much paper we used to waste in the past. It gives all of us a really good feeling to know that by reusing the paper it is not only a benefit to the company but also a benefit for the environment.
“Given many of our customers are based internationally we are often asked if we have Corporate and Social Responsibility initiatives in place. Toshiba's Paper Reusing System is one area we can now most certainly point to as a CSR initiative.”
Ms Angione said that Copyworld and the Toshiba Paper Reusing System had solved her problem by reducing paper waste, reducing costs and allowing them to importantly keep the paper based system in place that has made their operation work effectively for so many years albeit now in a much more environmentally friendly way.
