Archive

Hitachi Data Systems Research-Data Storage Solution gets high marks from Lancaster University.

Addressing ever increasing data demands

As one of the United Kingdom’s top 10 universities, Lancaster University is a research-led institution with an ambitious strategy to become truly globally significant. The university required a robust, high quality and scalable storage and backup solution to support its business applications and research data storage for at least the next five years.

The existing infrastructure was approaching full capacity and unable to continue supporting its growing data demands. The NAS environment (provided by EMC) was reaching maximum capacity and did not have a non-disruptive route for expansion of its research data storage. The existing EMC backup hardware had also reached end of life, and the backup window and tape quantity as at the practical capacity limit.

Delivering improved flexibility and availability

In partnership with Hitachi Data Systems, we utilised the National Server and Storage Agreement framework to provide a solution for Lancaster University that covered SAN, NAS and backup environments.

Migration was completed in two phases, and two separate NAS platforms were proposed for each main data type: user and research data. For cost efficiency, Lancaster University’s user data is now stored in Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) with intelligent tiering based on access frequency. To ensure scalability and reliability, research data is stored in a virtualized Hitachi Content Platform (HCP).

HCP is ideal for the management of business-critical information and utilises Hitachi Unified Storage (HUS): HUS 150 via HUS VM. To provide a high-performance gateway and ensure fast file retrieval and additions, research data is presented via HNAS to users with Hitachi Data Ingestor (HDI) across the two data center locations.

With the university’s current environment composed of about 90% virtualized infrastructure, the optimal solution was to consolidate all data into the virtualized HUS VM, a competitive, cost-effective solution that delivered flexibility and scalability. Best-in-industry capabilities were installed across all areas using HNAS and HUS 150, with backup-free architecture put in place for high-performance NAS research data using HCP.

High-performance, resilient technology

Upon installation of HDS solution, a benchmark test proved its high-performance capabilities, superseding IOPS requirements by 250%. The difference was highly notable as end-user services greatly improved, allowing students, faculty members and administrative staff to work more efficiently, access required services, and maximise use of the research data produced by the university.

Due to virtualisation and advanced flash technology, Lancaster University has accelerated application performance and reduced costs. The university also manages capacity and services more efficiently. To meet government guidelines, data retention was important and Lancaster now has the flexibility to support its projected data growth over the coming years.

Supporting cutting edge computer-based research with Viglen HPC

With Intel® Xeon® Gold processors based on the new Skylake architecture, offering significant per- core performance, Lancaster University are able to meet growing and support of a wide range of HPC workloads on premise.

The University of Lancaster is one of the UK’s largest research institutions, so having access to enterprise class HPC power is mission-critical, the university receives more funding through research than through tuition fees alone. The University of Lancaster has been an HPC user for a few years but decided to adopt a more strategic and centralised approach when they began looking at refreshing and upgrading its resources.

Lancaster University chose XMA as a partner to deliver the new HPC resources, which will allow the university to maintain an enviable record in cutting edge computer-based research. The difference is that Viglen products and services are tailor made for each and every client. By weaving together the team’s high level of experience and expertise, with a solution orientated approach to hardware, XMA can deliver on budget and on brief every time.

Why Intel?

HPC platforms—from the smallest clusters to largest supercomputers—demand a balance across compute, memory, storage, and network. The Intel Xeon Scalable platform was designed to deliver and enable such balance with massive scalability—to tens of thousands of cores. From its improved core count and mesh architecture to newly integrated technologies and support for Intel Optane memory and storage devices, the Intel Xeon Scalable platform enables the ultimate goals of HPC—to maximise performance across proved core count and mesh architecture to newly integrated technologies and support for Intel.

Keeping the IT one step ahead of the expanding University

It is vital that IT delivers an infrastructure platform enabling the University to meet the requirements today and in the future. This platform is based on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) server and storage technologies and VMware Virtualisation software technologies.

To meet the needs of 23,000 students, 5,000 staff and plans for continual growth in the University’s data and services, the University chose us to refresh and expand their core Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure utilising the latest HPE 3PAR storage and providing a dual-site, replicated highly available platform.

Increasing the capacity, resilience and performance of IT

In order to respond to the increasing demands being placed on such a large institution, the University’s new technology solutions need to have high capacity, resilience and performance.

The University needed to replace an existing HPE 3PAR T800 that was due to be decommissioned, and also update software on their existing HPE 3Par V400 array enabling cross-functionality between arrays. At the same time, the University also needed to implement a new SAN fabric into the newly commissioned data centre which would support current and future requirements.

The new environment, utilising hardware, software and the SAN Fabric had to connect the existing HPE based infrastructure, providing a dual site, highly available and resilient platform.

One of the challenges that the project faced was that it needed to be invoiced by December but
could not take delivery until the following March. As part of our commitment to excellent service
delivery, we provided a secure bonded warehouse facility at our St Albans Head Office to store the
19 pallets of HPE infrastructure for four months at no additional cost to the University.

Working in partnership with HPE and XMA the University was able to deliver the project on-time and
on-budget.

A tailored solution meeting current and future requirements

The project commenced with a workshop discussing the requirements in detail with Warwick University’s IT Services, HPE and XMA working together, in partnership. It was clear that the requirement was for a tailored solution maximising the investment in existing HPE and VMware infrastructure whilst also being able to meet current and future requirements and expanded to a dual-site deployment.

The University was already using HPE ProLiant Server and 3Par storage, with VMware vSphere virtualisation software delivering a highly virtualised infrastructure which worked.

This made the decision to expand the environment using HPE technology an easy one and the
University decided to expand to a dual-site, replicated environment utilising:
• HPE ProLiant DL560 Servers
• HPE 3Par V400 StorServ Storage
• HPE SAN Fabric Switches
• HPE 3Par StorServ Replication Suite, including Peer Persistence
• VMware vSphere Virtualisation Software

This enabled the University to maximise existing investment and knowledge, reduce risk and provide
a highly available and resilient infrastructure platform to meet current and future needs.

Moving Warwick University into their future IT Infrastructure

The highly available, saleable and manageable infrastructure based on HPE Server and Storage and
VMware Infrastructure has enabled Warwick University to achieve their goal of expanding IT
Services to support today’s requirements as well as future growth and demands.

XMA comes out on top

Ofsted issued a tender for the supply, implementation and ongoing managed support of a Microsoft Private Cloud solution with over 300TB storage, 500 CPU cores and 8TB RAM (plus a smaller platform at a second site). The requirement included fully-managed migration of approximately 300 production and test/dev systems to the new platform, while addressing their need for a number of secure network environments including a combined user acceptance testing environment and a Disaster recovery failover.

Hitachi scores “outstanding”

We recognised that Ofsted required a platform that provided significant computing resource and a highly resilient storage platform. In response, we proposed a Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) comprising automatically-tiered Hitachi Unified Storage (HUS) and CB500 blades based on the latest Intel Sandybridge processors. Core networking (based on Brocade VDX) was included, as was firewalling and load balancing using F5 Big IPs. We addressed the solution requirements in their entirety and provided training and migration services on top of hardware, software and extended managed support for the complete infrastructure stack.

As HDS’ largest public sector partner in the UK market, we recognised this as an ideal fit for the HDS Unified Compute Platform. This was an opportunity to introduce a disruptive yet constructive technology, despite the length of relationship with the incumbent technology partner. Our solution provided to Ofsted replaced the entire existing estate as it hurtled past the end of its economic life.

The migration process, which included virtualising over 100 legacy physical servers (including SQL and Exchange clusters), also required the migration of their on-premis datacentre to a secure remote datacentre, all without any business disruption.

Project success leads to opportunity

On completion of the Infrastructure Refresh project, Ofsted engaged with us to develop the platform further by extending the storage layer to a content platform. We are also involved in consulting on the effective use of its infrastructure to achieve delivery of its regulatory and statutory objectives.

XMA’s technical expertise has proved invaluable for helping Lincoln Minster School install a SAN and carry out a server virtualisation project which has given staff and students a much improved service.

“Having an impressive technical team on the end of the phone was very helpful.” That was the verdict of Simon Cornish, network manager at Lincoln Minster School, after XMA helped the school design and deliver a SAN installation and server virtualisation project. In fact, he attributed much of the final success of the project to the company’s ability to offer sound technical advice at every step of the way.

The solution was designed by XMA after the school decided to explore moving towards a modern virtualisation environment during a hardware refresh. Mr Cornish said: “We were refreshing our server infrastructure and we wanted to virtualise it. Previously our servers were old and tired and out of warranty. We knew virtualisation was the way IT was going but we needed help to move forward with the right solution.”

The entire project ran very smoothly. Members of the XMA team were happy to answer
questions about anything we wanted to know about. We were really impressed.

The school, which caters for 900 pupils across three sites, needed XMA’s help to make sure their plans could become an effective reality. Therefore, XMA designed a solution and installed a cost- effective SAN which enabled the school to reduce its server estate from 15 servers to 4.

Why virtual?

The benefits of virtualisation were clear to Lincoln Minster. Mr Cornish said: “This is the way IT is going. By cutting down our servers from fifteen to four, we have reduced our overheads dramatically and it has also made the management of our IT systems much easier as we only have one place to look at all the servers – rather than having to maintain each separately. Thanks to this project, we have refreshed hardware, our operating systems are up to date, we have more power and, generally, we now have in place a faster, more effective system than before.”

Support for the right solution

However, ensuring the school reaped the benefits of a virtualisation solution was not a foregone conclusion. Mr Cornish said: "We have our own technical team but finding people who were at the next level up was essential. One of my aims was to find a solution provider with good technical expertise.

“Today, both staff and students at Lincoln Minster are enjoying the advantages of XMA’s solution which has proved to be value-for-money, as well as reliable and scalable.”

“We were most impressed with XMA’s technical knowledge. From that point of view, it was absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t have asked for anything more at all. It was quickly apparent that XMA staff knew what they were doing and had the knowledge to help
us.”

A personalised solution

Another reason that Lincoln Minster chose XMA to deliver the solution was because the IT provider was happy to create a solution that was fitted to the school's requirements exactly. For example, the school had already chosen to use HP and Microsoft technology – so XMA ensured this preference was factored into the final design.

Mr Cornish said: “Our account manager made an effort to come and sit down with us and find out exactly what our issues were. By doing so, XMA could plan out exactly what we needed. Now we have a solution that fulfils our needs.”

The solution in action

Today, both staff and students at Lincoln Minster are enjoying the advantages of XMA’s solution which has proved to be value-for-money, as well as reliable and scalable. The system can also support much faster backup times and improved disaster recovery. The solution provides redundancy within the SAN solution through two fibre controllers to service the servers and data traffic and three high performance specification servers to manage data requests to the SAN from the school’s network. A storage server was also installed to backup all data from the main SAN.

Mr Cornish said: “Our storage is improved so the service we can offer our students is much better. What’s more, the staff know they can rely on the IT facilities. In the past we have had complaints about the systems performance. That was not an acceptable situation because if the computers are down, teachers cannot deliver lessons to the standard they want, which is a major problem for any modern school. Now we just don’t have these complaints coming in.”

A smooth implementation

He went on: “The entire project ran very smoothly. Members of the XMA team were happy to answer questions about anything we wanted to know about. We were really impressed. They knew their stuff and because of that we would absolutely use XMA again in the future.”

Bridging the divide with HPE

Addressing ever increasing data demands

The Windsor Forest Colleges Group is made up of three college campuses (Windsor, Langley and Egham) all managing different technologies and virtualisation software. Supporting IT for more than one campus and in different locations, presented challenges for the group; with too much physical infrastructure, inconsistent systems, poor service levels and time and resource intensive management.

HPE makes the grade

We worked with the Group to implement an identical 3-node Hyper-V cluster and DPM backup solution into each of the three sites. By integrated best of breed HPE servers and storage, the College gained three major components.

A production environment consisting of a three node Hyper-V cluster with 1024GB RAM and 70TB of shared storage per site that hosted each sites IT services and data, with spare capacity that allows for one site to be replicated to another to form a 3-way mutual Disaster Recovery environment.

A Microsoft System Centre DPM backup solution configured with 60TB usable storage at each site that
provides disk to disk backup for local services and data.

A 3-way mutual disaster recovery environment that allows virtual machines to be replicated between sites
allowing for failover of services should one site become unavailable.

As a result, each site is now able to work independently with local failover clustering and the ability to replicate virtual machines to another site for added resiliency using Hyper-V replica.

Revolutionising STEAM subjects with 3D print

3D printers are revolutionising how schools teach design and technology, science and arts subjects but, just as importantly, XMA finds they are offering primary school children an alternative way to learn.

Did you know that the McLaren Formula 1 team print out spare parts trackside to make instant repairs to their cars; that Coco-Cola makes huge savings on bottle design by printing out new prototypes for pennies rather than paying out large sums for traditional redesigns; or that Gummy Beans are being printed off ready to eat?

Industry is looking increasingly to schools, colleges and universities to produce 3D print-savvy employees familiar with technology that is now using anything from plastics through to carbon fibre and metals to save precious design and production time and cash.

A leap forward for design and technology

So how are schools preparing young people to handle one of the most exciting developments in design and technology at a time when curriculum reforms are prioritising ‘academic’ subjects above all other disciplines?

Back in 2012, one of the first schools to adopt 3D printing was Windsor Boys’ School. The Department for Education was searching for innovative ways of teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and design that made full use of 3D printers and asked schools to bid for a year’s free use of one of 21 Makerbot printers in a pilot scheme. Windsor was one of the ‘winners’, explains its long-standing design and technology (D&T) teacher, Phil Hall.

‘If anything goes wrong, you can fix it yourself!’

“We pretty much taught ourselves after half a day’s free training on specialist software,” says Phil, winner of the 2017 D&T Association’s Outstanding Teacher of D&T Award. “The more we used it, the better we became. After a year we’d seen the machine’s potential, we were allowed to keep it and we got our parent teacher association to invest in three more (second-hand) Makerbots.

“Four years later they are still going strong. We installed and networked the printers ourselves – they are simple to set up and really robust. They can be put together with alum keys and nuts and bolts – and if anything goes wrong, you can fix it yourself!”

The school now has six printers – besides the original four, one is donated and the other is being trialled for a manufacturer.

At first, staff and pupils were amazed by the technology. “We just wanted to show off and print final showpiece models for D&T GCSE and A-level exams,” says Phil. “But we quickly realised our students were not learning much doing that. We now make best use of them earlier in the design process at the development and prototype stage.

Printers ideal for producing prototypes

“Students earn many exam marks for showing learning through making. You can print a prototype, evaluate, test and modify it, then reprint it again within a day, overnight or, in some cases, just an hour. The students might want some very complex parts that you’d struggle to manufacture any other way – now you can print them quickly and have them in your hand to test them, take them to a client, and evaluate and learn from them.”

Students can have their designs printed off at any time they see fit during the design cycle. All the machines are open access and just need a quick check every 20 minutes or so to ensure the plastic filament is still flowing through to feed the machine.

Pupils spend year 9 just getting a feel for D&T, learning how to use the software, and then start using the printers for their designs if they opt to take D&T at GCSE and/or A-level.

Students regularly push the 3D boundaries

Every year brings surprises. Students regularly push the boundaries, asking to do new things, and Phil will work out how to do it. “We have been doing it long enough to gauge the tolerance of different parts that we need to twist, lock or push together, and we’re getting better at this all the time.”

So what projects are being worked on now? “The large ones are the most ambitious; sometimes parts take up to 10 hours to print,” says Phil.

One student designed carriers for surfboards that hung on the side of a bike frame. It was quite ambitious and comprised many component parts. All the brackets were 3D-printed and then connected by metal tubes – a mix of resistant materials and printed plastic parts.

Smaller projects include an exam brief for portable working speakers, fitted out with all the electronics that were mounted on 3D-printed parts; angle-poise lamps with 3D-printed joints and, most recently, drones designed with specialist CAD software and then flown in front of MPs at Westminster. Phil and two students had been invited to Parliament to talk about the benefits of 3D printing and mark the launch of a national STEM project for schools supported by Autodesk, supplier of the software.

New learning route for primary children

But D&T is not the only subject to benefit from 3D printers. XMA’s sales account manager and 3D printer specialist Virendra Kayakar says the technology is also becoming popular in primary schools as it offers children another way to learn.

“It’s not just about learning visually or audibly but kinaesthetically through touch and feel,” he says. “It’s very difficult to understand a concept in your head without being given evidence, but now 3D printing means you can hold something in your hands.

“The primary curriculum has changed recently, introducing basic computer-aided design, and 3D printing is an ideal and very simple way of getting kids involved and bringing the subject to life.”

Print off and label a human heart

The technology is also becoming popular with biology teachers as they can print out different parts of the body and then hand them out to students.

“One teacher I know designed and printed out all 14 parts of the heart and they all connected together. You could take the heart apart and see how it works – it was also labelled and you could see all the veins and arteries.

“You can’t expect everyone to learn the same way, everyone’s different,” says Virendra. “It also helps those students who do understand it to get another perspective.

“If you incorporate this sort of knowledge at an early age rather than at 18 or 19, it works much better as students hunger for knowledge and they’ll pick it up a lot quicker. It’s not just about D&T. Everyone can use it.”

For more information on 3D printers, please contact our 3D specialist at XMA on 01422 444 666 or email halifax@xma.co.uk 

Streamlining print operations

The University of Warwick is one of the UK’s great success stories. In less than fifty years since being founded it has become one of the UK’s best universities, consistently at the top of UK league tables and rapidly climbing the international league tables of world class universities. The University has 29,301 students and staff using average annual print volumes of 25 million pages.

After being selected under the Crown Commercial Services RM3781 framework, XMA began working with the University to provide a fully managed print solution. Chris Wood, Printing Services Owner of the University commented “We chose XMA because we felt that they were the most flexible”.

The University had a mixed fleet of 3,800 devices encompassing MFD’s and Desktop Printers. XMA have rationalised these devices, reducing the fleet by 60%. As part of this rationalisation project, XMA also provided a wraparound managed service for the University’s legacy MFD and desktop printers including HP, Samsung and Ricoh devices. Now, staff and students use the Print Management solution across the University, accessed via Mifare smartcards.

The initial requirement was a mix of HP and Kyocera MFD’s coupled with SafeCom Pull Printing and job accounting software in order to provide accurate billing for cost recovery. The second phase of the project was a Document Management Project to digitise information for sharing around the University, which will reduce overall page’ volumes University wide.

Adam Williams, MPS Manager for XMA noted: “With the University we had to adopt a customer led and very fluid approach as each Department had differing print requirements to be supplied through the Kyocera fleet of products”.

Chris continued: “The key for us was to have one user interface across a vast fleet of devices so that we could have support information, documentation, FAQ’s, where there was a real continuity to it and ease of use”.

The fleet has also been supplied with SafeCom pull print management software to reduce costs and meet environmental targets. Users authenticate at the MFD using MiFare smartcard technology.

“The pull print has made a massive difference for us, cutting down on waste. We used to see enormous piles of waste in the recycling bin; we don’t see that anymore. Another massive area for us is mobile print and technologies. That gives our users the ability to send an attachment to a specific mobile print email address, and that attachment will then be sent to their print queue. Use of this has doubled since last term and we expect that to continue.”

Since the initial phases, XMA now work with Warwick University, who also offer their print room services to local businesses in the area. This has created a revenue stream for the University, alongside their £180,000 reduced print costs and tangible environmental savings. Craig Colledge, Print General Manager explained:

“SafeCom gives you financial reporting that we can go back to the Financial Directors and tell them exactly what the cost implications of printing in the University are”.

Harrow College has its printing needs all mapped out thanks to a five-year fully managed print solution from XMA.

The ability to avoid unwelcome and costly surprises can be a useful asset for departments who must deal with constantly changing IT needs. It was certainly a consideration for Anton Saverimuthu, Harrow College’s technical services manager, when he investigated how to upgrade the college’s printing solution.

The college was using a mixture of old and new printers to support the printing needs of its staff and students across two campuses but Mr Saverimuthu wanted to introduce a much more standardised printing solution. He, therefore, opted for a fully managed print solution from XMA after finding the company could fit the right solution to his needs – and that printing costs could be spread over a five-year plan.

He said: “We now have a fully managed solution and XMA bill us a fixed price for our printing needs every quarter. It is based on our historical printing figures, what types of prints we use and how many. We have a five-year plan but after every year we assess and can adjust our payments accordingly.

“The fact our pricing is on a five year contract, based on a quarterly payment for the number of prints we do per quarter, means we have a very clear picture of our costs which is very useful for us. There was also no initial capital outlay required for the replacement hardware or software.”

Harrow College now has around 110 HP printers with printers installed in each classroom. They include 70 new HP 2055dn and two new HP 3525n printers. The solution is based on around 1.83 million prints per year.

The College wanted to retain the PaperCut print management solution, and the data available through it enabled XMA to plan the print solution refresh more effectively. The fully managed service option also includes remote monitoring via Jet Advice and a four hour response break fix support. The deal also gives Harrow College the opportunity to benefit from fortnightly preventative maintenance visits although this will not kick in until the printers need a greater level of maintenance.

The implementation of the solution went very well. There were a lot of printers replaced at two different campuses but everything happened smoothly and the result has matched up with our plans.

A consolidated approach

Mr Saverimuthu said: “Our project intended to get rid of some of our older printers and replace them as well as keep some of the more recent ones. We had different makes and models, a situation which was not ideal, especially as we also were reliant on different consumables. For example, up until this point we had been forced to buy toner from different companies, which could be difficult to keep track of.

“We knew if we standardised on one or two printer models it would make it easier to manage the whole system and enable us to run a much more effective print solution. We could drastically reduce the number of different consumables we had to use. At the same time, I knew I didn’t have too much money available and couldn’t just replace all the printers outright.”

The right solution

Mr Saverimuthu found XMA could provide the answer. He said: “We managed to reduce our solution by around 30 printers all together, keeping some of our existing printers as well as buying new ones. All our consumables are now provided by XMA and come via an automated ordering system as and when we need them.

“I was pleased the company could offer all HP printers, which was what I wanted. What’s more, the cost of the new printers was also worked out within the five year deal so that minimised our initial outlay too and made the whole project much easier.”

Good value as well as good price Mr Saverimuthu added: “Price played a part but it was not the only factor. XMA were competitive but not the cheapest. What was more important to me was that what they could offer exactly fitted with my plans and they had a value-add.”

Another factor in using XMA for Harrow College’s print solution was the reputation the company has built up in the education industry. Mr Saverimuthu said: “HP described XMA as one of its major print resellers and that played a part. We knew they had successfully offered this type of managed service to others in similar positions within our industry which gave me confidence in them.

XMA delivers better printing at lower cost for City College Norwich with eco-friendly Kyocera printers lowering Total Cost of Ownership.

This term City College Norwich’s 14,000 staff and students are reaping the benefits of new printers that are more efficient, cost less to manage and are better for the environment, courtesy of IT solutions specialists XMA.

The College appointed XMA to replace ageing HP units with a batch of 39 new printers, following a competitive pitch.

While the contract was worth just under £9,000, the savings made by the College will be significant due to the Kyocera models it has now installed.

Reducing spend on running costs

Gary Johnson, the College’s Procurement Officer, explains: “We had used HP printers in the past, but switched to Kyocera for the cost and eco-benefits they offer. For the most recent phase of our printer refresh it was important to go with Kyocera because they fitted in with our managed print service, complementing the existing infrastructure. But the savings speak for themselves – our TCO has dropped by a considerable sum.

The College, which prides itself on being a progressive and aspirational organisation, provides further and higher education and training to 14-19 years olds throughout Norwich and Norfolk. The printer refresh is part of the College’s commitment to providing its students with access to 21st Century systems and functions, while maximising value and adhering to sustainable practices.

Mr Johnson adds: “Obviously one of our biggest ongoing costs for running printers is consumables and we estimate we’ll spend thousands of pounds less running Kyocera’s printers over other models.”

The Kyocera printers, both colour (FSC-5250DN/FSC-5350DN) and mono (FS1370DN) were installed during the College’s New Year closure when there was less demand on the system.

For the new print installation, XMA’s role was supply and warranty support. XMA was eligible to bid for the contract through a framework agreement with the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium.

According to Mr Johnson, the bidding process in itself was valuable for testing the market. He says: “By going out to tender we achieved instant savings over and above running new printers. We found the difference between the highest quote for the contract and the XMA offer was huge – XMA’s price was 30% lower than one of the bids, which just shows the exceptional savings that are available.”

Going the extra mile

While the current economic climate puts the spotlight on spending across all areas of industry, education particularly is feeling the pinch. He adds: “In this sector, there is a pressure to reduce spend and to ensure we’re getting the best value for money. The price was right with XMA, and they were brilliant in their service delivery. One of our challenges was that we had no way of storing the printers, which meant we needed multiple deliveries to reflect when the equipment could be fitted. The result was four separate deliveries, so XMA literally did go that extra mile for us.”

Kyocera is one of over 50 leading manufacturers with which XMA is a key supplier partner, providing long-life and award-winning printing solutions.