In 2002, Advance and the Ravens forged a mutually beneficial partnership. The Ravens were under contract with three separate Baltimore-based multifunctional printer (MFP) providers. They were dissatisfied with each one in their lack of quality service, response time, billing, and overall relationship. The MFPs were not meeting their needs and were often not operational—a major challenge for an organization operating on a fast-paced schedule during the football season.

Advance performed an extensive walk-through of the facilities, taking time to listen to each department’s needs, then formulated a plan to right-size the fleet to meet the needs of the Ravens. Advance provided a single source solution for service, billing, and maintenance for the team’s main headquarters in Owings Mills, its satellite operations at M&T Bank Stadium, and training camps, as well as a home office setup for the team’s owner.

Advance recently entered their third consecutive 5-year agreement with the Ravens, transitioning their fleet to all new devices, and reducing their operating costs by 30%. Optimum hardware performance and enhanced security for documents passing through the machines was a vital component to the transition.

The problem

While there were no true issues with the machines in place at the Ravens’ facility in Owings Mills, the fleet was reaching the end of its lifecycle. Advance’s hand-picked product offerings from the leading office equipment manufacturers, coupled with its history with the Ravens, allowed for an in-depth understanding of the needs of the organization from both a process and product standpoint. Advance was able to intuitively make recommendations on the optimization of the fleet and to improve efficiency.

Challenges

In order to decrease downtime for the Ravens’ front office staff, the new fleet of 20 machines, whose placements were among the team’s marketing, ticketing, public relations, finance, coaching, and personnel departments, were to be installed at the Ravens’ facility within two days. The orchestration had to be precise. Significant challenges included coordinating the delivery schedule and times with the Advance delivery team, Network Services department, and product trainers to work with Ravens personnel, which included facility managers, department heads, and the Ravens’ IT department.

The solution

The Advance Network Services department worked with the Ravens’ IT staff to collect all locally stored information on the existing fleet of machines in order to pre-configure the fleet. This allowed for the delivery of each machine to be virtually plug and play through a unique system developed by Advance called Onsite & Online. Network Services was on location for the installation to ensure a seamless transfer. Our training team was also on hand during the installation to begin training with the end-users as each machine was up and running on the network.

Results

The total transition accomplishing delivery of the new fleet, removal of the existing fleet, and networking occurred within 8 1/2 hours. Initial training was provided to acquaint the staff with their new MFPs, and follow-up sessions continued as needed as part of the unlimited training accompanying each Advance customer contract.

Learn More about Advance’s Partnership with the Baltimore Ravens Here >>