Least Cost Printing – Why Users Don’t Print to the MFD

Many of you have attempted to reduce your document output expenses by investing in multifunction devices and connecting them to your network. The question is how many of you have realized the results you hoped for?

Success Stories

As I talk to organizations across the country and spectrum of purpose I have found a relatively small percentage that has succeeded. Almost without exception, those that met their objectives did it by removing their cartridge-based printer fleet; thereby forcing users to use the component-based multifunction devices. It is rare to find a success story within the population that left the printer fleet intact.

Where Do the Pages Go?

The observation stated above comes from the data within the detailed assessments I perform as part of my client engagement. Even today, in mixed environments the number of pages produced on printers typically exceeds those produced on MFDs in a truly mixed environment. My experience shows the hoped-for shift in user behaviors and pages did not occur on a large scale, if at all.

Why User Behaviors Did Not Change

Let me share with you a few high-level findings that are common upon an assessment of document output environments similar to yours:

• Most users are totally unaware of the page cost differential
• Many users do not have MFD print drivers loaded on their workstation
• A large number of users are unaware of workflows that would be of benefit
• Inadequate training led to fear of change

While these seem like very simple “duh” statements they are significant to the failure of most attempts to print to lower cost per page MFDs.

Awareness

When performing a detailed environmental assessment I spend a great deal of time within the user community. Invariable during the device discovery process or user interviews I am questioned as to the cause and purpose of the project.

When I explain the high-level expenses associated with document output (possibly millions of dollars) users are quite surprised. When the discussion becomes more granular it often becomes disbelief; they simply had no clue that their desktop inkjet may be generating expenses as high as $0.25 per page or that the cost per page of the MFD (copier) is half that of their laser printer. Once that discussion is complete (proven) and expense reduction tied into something important to them (maintaining their benefits for example) their attitude typically changes to one of support.

Access to Devices

Very often during one of my user discussions they relate that they do not use the MFD because they do not have access to it. Further discovery usually uncovers that they have access to it but do not have a print driver, or the correct print driver loaded on their workstation.

There are actually two somewhat separate issues here, ability to print to the MFD at all and ability to access the features and functions offered by the MFD.

During a typical on-site discovery I load quite a few print drivers for the MFD that should be used. When shown the correct print driver and the functions they can access I usually encounter a little bit of excitement exhibited by the fact they print a document before I can leave.

Workflow

Another one of the significant influencers I find is that users typically do not understand the workflows associated with the MFD and how it can benefit them:

• Access to finishing options from the print driver
• Ability to identify and print to special media such as letterhead
• Secure printing workflows
• Print and hold workflows

These discussions often result in a “ah ha” moment when they realize they can actually take advantage of the speed and functions of the MFD from the print driver and maintain control of their jobs.

Training

This last issue, lack of training is the single most significant contributor to resistance to change behaviors and obviously influences the three other issues discussed above. It is interesting that in a group interview the issue rarely presents itself; few of us want to admit we do not understand something. However, if you listen and observe carefully, and ask the question in the correct manner someone will usually identify lack of training in a second or third party inference.

When approached individually and confidentially you will have the opportunity to walk the resistant user through the process and again experience the “ah ha” moment as they discover how it actually benefits them.

Now it is quite obvious that none of this is rocket science but these issues commonly derail attempts to redefine your document output strategy. Addressing them should be part of your implementation strategy and performed by your internal resources or contracted vendor.

Admittedly, fixing these issues may not still give you all the results you were hoping for, but will contribute. For those of you thinking, "some users just do not want to change," further modification of user behaviors can be accomplished with one of the software packages designed for that purpose. An additional benefit of these tools is they also provide you the measurements from which you can manage individual users and your entire document output environment.

Are You Getting the Color You Expected?

Have you invested in new digital color technology? Are you getting the color quality you were hoping for – the expectation that drove your investment? If you would like to see improvements read on!

Unattended Consequences

Typically change brings both positive and negative consequences. As color-enabled printers and multifunction devices have become commonplace we have enjoyed dramatic decreases in the associated costs. Color has become increasingly affordable and therefore more accessible to your organizations and user communities. Commensurate with this popularity has been the declining levels of color knowledge among the vendor and end-users which often results in your organization not realizing the quality of color you hoped to or should get.

Does it Really Matter Anyway?

This is an excellent question; does the color quality really matter? If green is green and red is red what is the difference? In many applications it does not really matter but there are plenty where it does or it should. If color is being used to highlight text or titles, or to separate segments of a pie chart then as long as red is red maybe that is good enough.

On the other hand many organizations have made significant investments in brand development so they should be concerned about the accuracy of color that represents corporate logos and color schemes. Is it important that embedded images of products, buildings and people be accurately represented?

Color Influencers

This topic has occupied complete books so I will keep it really simple here. There are many influences on color quality ranging from user tastes to changes in climate. Some of these we cannot change or control, but we can manage with some simple processes:

• Standardized desktop applications


• Workflow design to maximize the technology being utilized


• Workflow designed to compensate for user skills or lack thereof


• Document standards to maximize the technology being utilized


• Processes to maintain consistency on the output devices

Design and implementation of some basic processes and controls can maximize the quality from your particular technology, brand or model of device while taking into account the knowledge level of your users.

What Changed

It was not long ago that good to excellent quality color devices were very slow, costly to acquire and expensive to operate. The marketplace was limited to several significant manufacturers and often a subset of their distribution. The successful vendors utilized color specialists who helped the client justify these investments by implementing some of the processes mentioned above. This support structure and marketing strategy is now limited to high-end graphic arts devices if it exists at all. Today, virtually every sales person sells color enabled devices but very few of them have any substantial knowledge of color production issues.

As I work with clients who are seeking better color output I am quite amused by the sales strategies and product positioning they relay to me. What frustrates me is that often the sales person could have made a more expensive sale if they had listened to and understood their client’s needs better.

Doe's This Matter to You?

If maximizing color quality from your color output devices does matter to you then there are several things you can do today, or in the future when considering technology refreshment.

• You can inquire of your current vendor if they provide, or can direct you to someone who does provide this type of support and workflow design


• Next time you consider investing in color technology, ask these same questions of your potential vendors and demand proof that they really can provide the support you will require if they claim they do


• When purchasing color enabled output devices make sure you clearly define your expectations and purchase the correct technology to fulfill them. This may not mean the cheapest solution presented to you.

There are services providers out here who can help you build the processes and controls to maximize your color output or can assist you to determine whether the technologies, brands, devices or vendors you are considering can meet your needs.

In closing I would like to make it very clear that given today’s pricing for color enabled output devices it is not reasonable to expect a current or potential vendor to do this for no additional charge. There simply is not enough profit left to carry the cost of that type of support. It is not something that everyone needs, but it is something that a lot of organizations should be concerned about. If you are one of those I hope these thoughts help you to formulate a plan of action.

Least Cost Printing – A Strategy

My posting about Least Cost Printing several weeks ago created some interesting comments here and on other forums. After reading some of them it seemed to me that there may be some value in providing greater definition to the topic.

The Strategy

Least Cost Printing is a simple strategy that is designed to minimize document output costs within the mixed technology environments that most of you have in your organizations: it defines the least expensive method of output for specific job types. It is the antithesis of a program to take advantage of clients but rather allows clients to leverage their technology investments at the lowest expense.

Hard Costs & Soft Costs

When designing a least cost printing strategy you need to decide what hard costs and whether or not you wish to include soft costs such as user convenience, impact on productivity and environmental issues. The most simple example is the value of the time it takes for one of your employees to walk across a room or department to retrieve a printed job.

An Example

A simple scenario based on three assumptions about your environment follows:

• Average loaded cost of a classification of employee is $40,000/yr or $0.3205 per minute


• Average monochrome cost per page of your desktop inkjet printers is $0.0830 per page


• Average monochrome cost per page of your network laser printer is $0.0180 per page

In this scenario the cost differential is $ 0.0650 per page so what is the justification for printing to the desktop inkjet versus the network laser printer? If you estimated that an employee takes a minute (on average) to pick up a print job from the network printer your strategy would be that only jobs of five (5) monochrome pages or less can be output on a desktop inkjet printer ($0.3205 /$0.065 =4.93 pages).

Building Your Strategy

You can build your own strategy with as much complexity (or simplicity) as you like. Current expenses based on technology or model specific, employees by classification, department or individual, amortization of hardware or operating costs alone and any soft cost you feel are significant. The more granular you get the higher the savings but they will be offset by higher development and management costs. My recommendation is to start simple and refine as you go!

Expense Reduction

When working with my clients on document output environment assessments and strategy development I always include this component in my recommendations. Following the simple example above if I take all inkjet monochrome pages resulting from jobs of six (6) or more pages and assume their migration to a less cost device I can project savings based on the client’s actual environment. This is a cascading calculation, inkjet to cartridge-based laser, both of them to component-based multifunction devices and finally consideration for electronic document distribution. The same is done for color and duplex printing with a typical end result of about 35% expense reduction.

If the client is considering fleet management for their printer fleet then the calculations would obviously be made on the new contracted cost per page. The point here is that a least cost printing strategy and a fleet management program are not mutually exclusive but complementary components of managed print services.

Implementation

Historically, this type of strategy has been very difficult to implement successfully: how could you get users to conform and how did you know if they did or not. As mentioned in my first post on the topic there are software tools today that are very good at implementation of a least cost printing strategy and they can deliver a return on investment of six months or less.

For purposes of this posting I have tried to keep this discussion simple; least cost printing is a simple concept but it does take a bit of work to get there. If you would like to explore a least cost printing strategy for your organization or if you just have questions please feel free to contact me.

It is my intent to discuss this in future postings if there is interest from the readers.

MPS – Are You Thinking Laterally or Vertically?

After reading a number of postings in several Linkedin user groups I recognize similarities to our national political discussion. So, I have decided to borrow an idea from Mike Huckabee and apply it to the ongoing MPS discussion; lateral and vertical thinking.

The Similarities

If you are a cable news junkie like me, you must be amused by the non-stop chatter of political talking heads who constantly position every issue as either left or right. This filters down to our elected officials who argue every point strictly within their Democratic or Republican party position. Have you noticed no one seems to care about what is good for We the People, the taxpayers. This is lateral thinking, right or left versus vertical thinking, positive results for the people or negative impact on them– get the idea?

What I see happening in the MPS discussion are different folks taking positions to the left (MPS) or the right (hardware focused sales). MPS advocates definitely consider themselves as the progressives so they earn the left position on my lateral scale.

Lateral Thinking

In many of these discussions the participants like to talk about the positioning of their offerings and usually describe them in terms of how solution oriented (leftist) they are. They talk about what title to apply to their sales professionals and programs. Much attention is paid to the CPP approach and electronic monitoring of devices. There are lots of challenges issued to the dinosaurs of the copier world (my words) and a significant number of negative references to their business practices. Has anyone but me noticed that each side considers the other’s sales professionals and dealers as pencil whipping scammers and brokers of dishonesty?

Bottom line is most of the discussion is on positioning according to the marketing strategy and processes employed: this is how we do it!

Vertical Thinking

In contrast vertical thinking is about positive or negative results for the client.

Outside of a few individuals there does not seem to be much discussion about this. I read about and see in the field many programs that employ MPS processes but do little to nothing to improve the client’s environment. Some of the ones I have seen actually increase the clients cost structure without adding very much convenience to justify it (must have been some great pencil whipping done).

I think a recent posting by Jim Fitzpatrick summed it up quite well. To paraphrase; “if the client has not seen an account manager or been presented with suggestions for improvement based on reports since the implementation this is not MPS!”

Where is Your Thinking

So the question I ask is where is your thinking and MPS program? Is it simply a sales strategy as discussed by Tom Callinan a while back, or is it an actual program that manages the client’s environment beyond delivery of fix/repair services, supplies and usage reporting?

I would suggest if it is the former you are going to see some pretty strong competitive challenges as other vendors and industry participants educate your clients about what MPS could be. If this is the case, there are a number of resources for you to use to create greater value in your programs and service offerings. Start with taking a quick look at the Managed Print Services Roadmap contained in my Linkedin profile.

My Linkedin Profile

If your thinking is truly vertical, congratulations and good luck with your business; you should be able to realize some nice growth over the next few years!