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At Toscana in Austin, TX, simple, serene living is the goal.
For residents, that can look like an afternoon spent by the pool, a workout in the fitness center, or grabbing a few minutes on the playground with the kids. It’s having responsive on-site maintenance when something needs fixed and a clubhouse to gather with neighbors. It’s also being able to print a resume, job application or last-minute school assignment without having to leave home.
But for the team running the 358-unit community managed by Cardinal Group, overseeing those amenities, particularly the printer, was anything but simple. Or serene.
Between leasing documents, resident notices, event flyers, work orders, and resident printing requests, the team could easily go through hundreds of pages each week. All of that demand depended on one oversized, unreliable machine that had become a constant source of frustration.
And therein lay the problem: the team couldn’t count on their printer to actually print.
The problem with Toscana’s previous printer wasn’t that the team used it too much. It was that they needed it too much for it to be as unreliable as it was.
First, it was hard to miss. Toscana Leasing Manager Dawson Huntley described the oversized machine as a “beast,” joking that it was practically the size of a smart car. But the nickname went well beyond its massive footprint. The machine put off an incredible amount of heat, service was hard to come by, and when something went wrong, getting back to business wasn’t quick or easy.
“I was spending a minimum of an hour and a half a day troubleshooting the printer,” Dawson said. “We would send 50 pages to print and it would print two, and trying to figure that out was always a pain.”
Then, the occasional vendor-mandated change could turn something as simple as paper into a much bigger problem.
“They sent us new paper one time and said, ‘You are required to use this,’” Dawson recalls. “We used it, and it immediately jammed our printer to the point where we literally couldn’t get the jam out unless we completely disassembled the entire printer. For a while, we just couldn’t print anything.”
And when the printer went down, the frustration didn’t stop with staff. Residents lost access to an amenity they relied on, while the team was left fielding the fallout.
Costs also piled on. Toscana had inherited a legacy printer contract that Dawson recalls costing more than $3K per month. Even at that price, service wasn’t included when the team needed it. It’s a stark contrast to PrintWithMe Office’s predictable monthly pricing, which rolls equipment, supplies, maintenance, and support into one managed solution.
“If we needed someone to come out, there was an additional charge for that,” Dawson said.
So, even after budgeting thousands each month for the printer itself, the team could still find another charge waiting when something went wrong.
After countless hours of troubleshooting, printer downtime, and added service costs, a change was more than welcome. When PrintWithMe Office arrived at Toscana, Dawson’s reaction pretty much said it all:
“Thank God.”
The decision came as Cardinal Group looked to consolidate printing across its portfolio. Different communities had different providers and setups, and bringing in PrintWithMe Office gave Toscana a fully managed printing, scanning, and copying solution.
The first sign of just how much simpler things would be came during installation. Dawson assumed getting PrintWithMe Office up and running would fall on him. Instead, a technician arrived the day after delivery and had everything set up in less than 20 minutes.
“He gave us the passwords and how to instruct residents and everything, and that was it,” he said. “It was super easy.”
And once the printer was up and running, there was even less for the team to think about.
Not long after installation, Dawson noticed the toner was getting low and did what any property manager would do: made a mental note to contact PrintWithMe. Before he even had the chance, the replacement was already at the door.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I should probably contact them because we’re running low on toner,’ and five minutes later the delivery arrived before I even had to call,” he recalled.
Today, there’s very little left on the team’s to-do list.
“Literally the only thing we have to do with PrintWithMe Office is add paper to it,” Dawson said. “Which the company also provides. The simplicity of it knocks hours out of our day.”
That’s a far cry from the time Dawson and the rest of the team once spent troubleshooting print jobs, dealing with paper jams and trying to keep the old machine running.
Now, when the team does hit print, they no longer have to wonder how many of those pages are actually going to come out. A printer that prints. Imagine that.
The hours PrintWithMe Office has given back to Toscana’s team are now being spent where they belong: on the community.
Staff no longer have to stop their day to troubleshoot why 48 pages disappeared from a 50-page print job, or dissemble a bulky machine to find the source of a paper jam. Even during the property’s busiest printing days, Dawson says PrintWithMe Office is quick, responsive, and ready to keep up.
“And even if we lose our wireless connection, we can still print, which is incredible,” Dawson said.
Meanwhile, resident printing no longer has to involve the leasing team. Instead of sending documents to staff and asking them to print, residents can now manage their own print jobs from their personal devices. This shift gives residents a more convenient way to print while keeping personal documents in their hands. And for staff, it means fewer resident printing requests interrupting a workday that already has plenty competing for their attention.
When asked to describe PrintWithMe Office, Dawson landed on two words: “efficient” and “user-friendly.”
And when asked whether he’d recommend PrintWithMe Office to other property teams, he didn’t hesitate.
“Do it. Do it. Do it.”
In fact, he’s already spreading the word. After seeing how much time and frustration PrintWithMe Office has saved him, he’s been encouraging an assistant manager at another community to bring it to her property.
At Toscana, printing is finally as simple as it should be: hit print, get your pages, and get back to running the community.
At Toscana, PrintWithMe Office turned a daily source of frustration into one less thing for the team to manage. With a fully managed solution, automatic supply replenishment, proactive monitoring, reliable performance, and predictable monthly pricing, staff can spend less time troubleshooting, tracking down toner, coordinating service, and wondering whether their next print job will actually print.
For a lean on-site team, that means fewer hours lost to printer problems and fewer printer-related tasks to keep track of.
Want office equipment you don’t have to worry about? See how PrintWithMe Office can give staff hours back in their day.
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