Peters Bildungsgruppe chooses WorkForce Pro WP-4015 DN

The Peters Training Group in Germany dates back to 1946.

After the war, founder Johann Peters wrote social history by finding ways for war veterans to earn a living. Even today, his model serves as an example for the reintegration of people back into working life in Germany. Since then, the training group has become one of the top 20 private training providers in Germany, specialising in qualification, further training, professional rehabilitation and personal development. With 325 permanent and 500 freelance employees at 30 sites across Bavaria, the company generates an annual turnover of around 20 million Euros.

As a service provider, customer satisfaction of the highest quality is among the most important objectives of the Peters Training Group. Just as important to the company, however, are its commercial responsibilities for environmental protection and health and safety – both in relation to its employees as well as to the participants in its training and qualification courses.

"Among other things, we run retraining courses for people with health issues or physical impairments," explains Franz W. Hacker, managing director of the Peters Training Group. "So it is our duty to provide all participants with an environment where there are no health risks."

Dust-free and energy efficiency take priority

When the Peters Training Group made the decision at the beginning of 2012 to completely renew their printer environment, the topics of absence of dust in relation to health concerns, alongside energy efficiency were at the top of the list when choosing equipment. Epson's business inkjet systems use non-toxic DURAbrite Ultra Ink. As a result of the inkjet printing process, no dust, particle emissions or odours are generated during use. The operating noise of the equipment was also tested in great detail, as future printers should work as quietly as possible.

"Of course, economic considerations played an important role as well," Hacker continued. "Our printer system consisted of equipment from different manufacturers with an equal number of different service agreements." The objective was therefore to simplify the administration with a single framework agreement with one service provider. "Ideally we should have printers from a single manufacturer," said Hacker.

As the old printers did not come up to current energy efficiency standards, the Peters Training group engaged Epson's partner, Kipp & Poffo Office Consulting, to introduce an integrated printer landscape at all of the nearly 30 sites.

Inkjet: The economical and environmentally friendly option

The decision to move to inkjet devices instead of laser printers, is exactly in line with current expert opinion. This was the finding of the "Green Printing – Energy Efficiency in Printers" study by the Milan Polytechnic Foundation that showed that, in comparison to laser printers, inkjet printers use up to 87% less energy. The difference for short printing jobs, such as a two-page Word document, is particularly striking. This is because, unlike an inkjet printer, the laser device has to warm up beforehand. Overall, inkjet technology can save up to 50% in cost per page and up to 80% in power consumption. Laser printers use heat to "burn" toner onto the paper and toner is, in turn, responsible for the emission of dust and toner particulates. As inkjet printers operate without toner, dust and odour are no longer an issue. This, therefore, completely fulfilled one of the core requirements of the Training Group, namely the protection of the health of employees and clients.

Printing tasks at the Peters Training Group are rather varied. In addition to hand-outs for training and teaching units, re-trainees and participants in the training courses also print out application documents as part of their coaching.

"It is not just here that the result must be immaculate, but also when it comes to colour printing. The Epson machines fulfil this requirement to the full", says Hacker. The delivery of the printers took place from August to October 2012. At the Peters Training Group they seem to be pleased with the decision to choose Epson printers and their partner, Kipp & Poffo.

"We now have everything from a single source, short communication paths and rapid reaction times," sums up Hacker. "Thanks to the Epson Inkjet equipment and the perfect service from Kipp & Poffo, we don't just make substantial savings, but we have also made the working environment significantly healthier."