Case Study: Philadelphia Eagles
Ricoh teams with the Philadelphia Eagles to turn information into advantage — from the front office to the gridiron
About the customer
The Philadelphia Eagles made their NFL debut in 1933 when the country was edging out of the Great Depression. The Eagle — the symbol of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program — seemed like the perfect fit for a new, hopeful professional football team. During its nearly 100-year history, the Philadelphia Eagles have won three NFL Championships, played in two Super Bowls and emerged the victor in Super Bowl LII in 2018.
"Our recent DocuWare implementation is yet another great example of the co-innovation partnership between the Philadelphia Eagles and Ricoh."
Greg McDonald
VP of Financial Operations
Philadelphia Eagles
Challenge
Predominantly manual workflows for invoice processing
Need for reliable, uncomplicated, secured printing and tracking
High cost of in-house production color printing
Mission to improve environmental sustainability
Need for dependable partner for service, support and solutions
Desire to optimize workflows, improve processes and leverage new technology
Operating a successful NFL franchise is a running game. During football season, hundreds of people from the corporate office to the field are in perpetual motion to make sure everything plays out just the way it should on game day.
The Eagles were looking to turn information into advantage — on the field and in the front office. The manual AP workflows for processing 6-7K quarterly invoices were slow and labor intensive. Coaches and staff needed reliable, uncomplicated, secured printing and tracking on game days and all the days between. The cost of outsourced production color printing was growing to meet fan, ticket holder and corporate sponsor expectations for high-end promotional and informational materials. The press needed information like stat sheets in hand within minutes of a quarter's end for accurate, timely coverage.
Sustainability was also front and center for the Eagles and any new initiatives needed to align with their decades-long Eagles Go Green Program. When it came to printing, the Eagles were seeking controls to reduce paper output on MFPs. Service issues with their mixed output printing fleet lacked dependable troubleshooting and readily available parts. Staff routinely had to wait two to three days for a part, rendering the device inoperable.
Overall, the Eagles organization wanted to optimize its workflows, improve processes and leverage new technology to make better use of information. Ricoh had already been providing MFPs to the organization for years when the opportunity arose to take over the fleet and provide Managed Print Services. Our systems outperformed other vendors' devices installed in the stadium and corporate office, and we stepped up to devise a winning strategy to take the Eagles information management practices from good to great.
Results
Eagles organization saves nearly 55,000 sheets of paper per month, the equivalent of 19.2 trees annually
Enhanced invoice processing speed and accuracy integrating DocuWare with existing AP software
More reliable devices with plans to grow with Ricoh technology
Solutions to further reduce costs and environmental impact
Enhanced fan engagement
Ricoh's seamless integration of the DocuWare workflow solution with the Eagles' AP line of business system enables the organization to process its invoices with greater speed and accuracy.
Overall, the Eagles organization has a much more reliable fleet of print devices, and they plan to grow these capabilities with additional Ricoh technology. The printing solutions have reduced costs for the organization as well as enabled tracking for environmental sustainability progress such as duplex printing and energy savings. In fact, in just one month, the Eagles organization saves nearly 55,000 sheets of paper. Over a year's time, this adds up to 19.2 trees saved.
Fan and stakeholder engagement has also improved with high-quality production printing onsite. This capability has enabled the Eagles organization to reduce costs since it no longer relies on costly outsourced printing.
As an official partner of the Philadelphia Eagles, Ricoh has an ongoing, multi-year successful relationship that continues to grow. We are the title sponsor of the Eagles Post-Game Show, where our interactive whiteboard technology is used to annotate video and images to dissect plays. Overall, Ricoh has and will continue to be the team's trusted provider turning information into an advantage for the Philadelphia Eagles.
How we did it
“Our partnership with Ricoh is everything you would want, but seldom find."
John Pawling
Vice President of Information Technology
Philadelphia Eagles
Gathered stakeholder input and conducted a successful pilot program with DocuWare for invoice processing
Analyzed and right-sized with Ricoh Managed Print Service, installed reliable Ricoh MFPs and production printer
Dedicated Ricoh service technician
Print management and device monitoring software
Interactive whiteboards and other work style innovation technology
Innovative waterproof paper to produce sideline play cards
Ricoh and the Eagles organization teamed up for a widespread "co-innovation" partnership. Since the organization's invoice processing workflow was almost entirely manual, we gathered stakeholder input and conducted a successful pilot program with DocuWare for invoice processing. The solution involved automating steps in the AP process and integrating DocuWare with the organization's existing line of business AP system.
Our team analyzed, right-sized and installed a fleet of new Ricoh MFPs and a color production printer. A dedicated Ricoh technician was assigned to oversee the fleet and we installed print management and device monitoring software to keep the fleet up and running. To align with the Eagles organization's green initiatives, we enforced print behaviors like black-and-white and duplex printing.
We implemented interactive whiteboards and other workstyle innovation tools for team meetings between players and coaches and training. We also devised a way to make the team's sideline play cards without the extra step of lamination. To do this, we used thick waterproof paper stock for color production printing that can withstand the seasonal elements of rain, sleet and snow for color production printing. The production printer is also used to create high-end marketing materials and other core print pieces in-house.