“Déjà Vu All Over Again”

To quote Yogi Berra, this was my reaction when I recently attended a session on Managed Print Services at the CompTIA conference.

“One Day we Will”

To set the stage, the speaker was a nationally recognized leader in the world of Managed Print Services. Shortly after the presentation began, I heard the statement “one day we will” followed by a number of action statements laying out advantages of, and benefits resulting from, a managed print services program. These were client focused – musing, or maybe wishing, that one day the industry would provide these to their clients. I was taken aback by this setup phrase and the list that followed.

The Surprise

This presentation took me back to a decade ago when the industry was spending a great deal of time and energy defining, and re-defining what managed print services was, or should be. Bloggers and chat site participants offered, and often argued over these definitions. Back then it caused me to post the “Blind Men and the Elephant” tale on this blog. So here I am, ten years later and listening to an industry expert surmising that one day, managed print services vendors would provide these advantages and benefits for their clients. I could not help but wonder what has been going on for the past decade, I thought these things defined managed print services, are they not what service providers do for their clients?

The Next Three Days

This session really set my agenda for the rest of the conference as I set out to understand what other folks, closely tied to managed print services, were experiencing. I had lengthy conversations with software vendors, analysts, industry journalists and service providers. I began each of these conversations describing my reaction to what I had heard and solicited their opinions on both the content and my reaction. I was trying to determine whether I was totally out of touch with the state of the industry today.

My Findings

Without exception, each of the individuals, or groups I talked to, confirmed what the speaker had inferred; that the vast majority of service providers used managed print services as a marketing strategy but rarely delivered on their pre-sale promises.

The software vendors explained how dealers would leverage their products to entice a prospect, but only occasionally implement it in the final solution. The general consensus was that they liked to talk about reducing pages and expense during the sales process but were loath to do so once they captured the revenue stream. This seems to be especially true when it comes to implementing rules-based-printing to reduce the number of those highly profitable color pages.

The industry analysts I talked to were unanimous in their observations that few service providers ever delivered on most of the promises of their print management program. The most generous opinion was that twenty percent of the providers delivered on their commitments while the most cynical put that number at ten percent.

Back to the Beginning

It has been quite some time since I published here, or attended an industry event. My last posting was titled “The “M” in MPS – Are all Vendors Alike”; I decided to attend the CompTIA event to see what was happening in managed print services beyond my view. I was interested in knowing what had changed since this last posting.

I need to clarify what I said at the beginning about being surprised. What actually surprised me was that I was not surprised. I went to this event to explore whether what I see in my world is representative of the whole – it appears it may be!

My personal findings are that there are only a handful of managed print services vendors who provide any significant level of management. This includes nationally recognized vendors who have put millions into some very convincing marketing efforts.

To quote a client who I recently took over from one of these vendors, “you have done more in three months than they did in the past three years.”

Maybe the difference is that I do not sell hardware or supplies, which means I do not have the conflicting motives that continue to dominate managed print services.

I think there may be a lesson in that!

For more information please feel free to contact me at (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

The “M” in MPS – Are all Vendors Alike?

So you are thinking about Managed Print Services for your organization and looking for a vendor? How do you decide who will provide you with the best program?

The Challenge

As you interview vendors you are going to notice that all of them have great sales presentations with lots of promises of cost reductions, fleet optimization and reducing the time you and your staff spend managing your printing environment. The MPS marketing strategy is mature enough today that most everyone knows all of the buzz words and catch phrases, so how do you differentiate one from the other?

There are a number of factors to consider but if you are looking for a comprehensive program that will deliver on all the promises of MPS – and there are many – I suggest you take a good look at the “M” in your potential vendor(s) program.

The Problem (an opinion)

Now let me simply state the problem as I see it today: most vendors are not delivering on the full promise of MPS. As I have stated in previous postings here my experience is that once they take over the service and supply of your network laser printers and begin to collect the resulting income stream there is limited effort to improve your environment beyond selling you additional hardware – which may or may not improve your environment?

A Cause

As someone who interfaces between the client and service providers I have come to some conclusions as to one of the major causative factors and it is the “M”.

To explain this let me use two real world examples:

I have one client I work with who is contracted with a vendor for a comprehensive managed program. This vendor has an entire team of personnel assigned to the task of supporting their MPS clients and dedicated to solving problems, analyzing data, providing recommendations for improvement and implementing strategies and policies.

While not perfect, this vendor is making very good faith efforts to deliver on the MPS promise.

Another client is contracted to a different, still substantial vendor but the contrast is the account management team is the sales representative, service manager and branch manager. While these are all good folks they simply do not have the bandwidth to provide the level of management support required for a comprehensive MPS engagement.

The differentiator between these two vendors is not the promises they made or the benefits they presented but rather the commitment they have made to delivering on them.

This is not a unique case, I see this differentiation among a number of the vendors I have dealt with and client engagements I have been involved with.

How do I Determine Which Vendor has the Best “M”?

The simple answer to the above question is “by asking the right questions and performing the appropriate due diligence” when considering your vendor options.

I can tell you that after assisting a number of clients with this process you can determine who is going to provide the best management in advance. Whether your process is a simple client/sales engagement or a full RFP process similar to those I manage for clients, the right questions will yield responses that provide all the clues you need.

If you are looking for a comprehensive program to yield long-term benefits and if your only contact is the sales professional, sales manager and service manager then beware – demand to find out who will be supporting your program and what their roles will be. Make sure these folks are not merely clerical personnel who they have brought from the office to impress you but support resources you can reach out to and depend on.

For more information please feel free to contact me at (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

Managed Print Services – Are You Buying Hardware or Pages?

I recently participated in several client engagements that in my opinion predict the direction of managed print services. The question “are you buying hardware or pages” has been kicking around this industry for some time; with MPS it can and should be finally answered.

The Transition

A number of you are considering entering into a MPS agreement or have already engaged with a number of objectives in mind:

• reduced demand on management and technology resources
• improved access and tools for your user community
• lower expenses for document output

Many MPS engagements require rationalizing your current fleet of document output devices, contracts and vendors to transition to a more cohesive and consolidated environment. You may have investments in technology that you feel you have not fully leveraged or obtained a requisite return on those investments - do not let that limit your vision.

The End of the Rainbow – After the Transition

Some of you have an opportunity for a “clean slate” approach due to an expiring contract or having previously undergone the transition. You have managed your document output environment to the point where you can implement wholesale changes and a mature managed document output environment.

In my opinion this should be the long-term objective of almost every document output environment strategy.

Buying Pages

Hopefully by now both end-user clients and purveyors of MPS have realized that the real objective is to buy pages including the hardware, supplies and support services required to produce them. As stated above I believe buying pages should be the objective and operating principal behind almost all mature managed print service agreements.

So what does this really mean – I will provide you with some suggestions below:

• As a client you do not want to invest large sums of capital in assets (hardware) but rather want to pay for the pages they produce
• You want the ability to expand or contract the overall size of your document output fleet as your needs change without penalties, refinancing of hardware or the exorbitant cost typically associated with co-terminus leases
• It is a requirement that individual devices be upgraded or downgraded to meet the changing needs of workgroups, departments or facilities within your enterprise.
• Your vendor partner is going to make sure the enabler hardware performs to the agreed service level agreements and provide the functionality required to fulfill the application
• Your employees should not have to divert their productivity to making sure the hardware is performing adequately or that supplies are delivered in a timely fashion

When you have the flexibility, productivity and support suggested above I would personally consider that as optimization of your document output environment. Now I recognize that there will be some exceptions to this where an organization for one reason or another wants to or needs to use “capital dollars” to fund technology, but I am confident this is a relatively small sampling of the overall en-user community.

How do You Get There?

The simple answer to the above question is “through thoughtful and strategic planning” of your strategy to manage your document output environment.

Wayne Gretzky once responded to the question why he was such a great hockey player. Mr. Gretzky simply said “I go to where the puck will be not where it is!”

So the question is does your strategy for managing your document output environment take you to where you want to be or just address it as it is today? Have you and your current vendor created a strategy and plan of action to take you there?

Getting “Real”

As I write this post I can imagine a number of participants at all levels of MPS expressing “get real” at their computer screens as they read my words.

My assurance to you, the end-user community who pays the bills that this discussion is very real and being put into action today – I have firsthand experience with it. Even if you feel you are locked into current technology investments explore your options, they are out there. Oh and an important note, you should not have to pay a premium for this level of flexibility.

I also believe it is the future, maybe not of fleet management but of managed print services. For more information please feel free to contact me at (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

Managing your Document Output Environment – Where do you Begin?

I suppose that I should disclose from the beginning that this posting was born largely from frustration. After studying a couple of dozen more RFPs and RFIs from both private and public organizations I hope I may be able to influence some of you!

What are your Influences?

While I have read a number of well thought out documents it seems to me that the majority have two primary influences:

• copier and multifunction device leases up for renewal
• vendor presentations on their versions of managed print services

My impression is that most of these RFPs are seeking a strategy rather than being based on a thoroughly developed one. My concern is that many well-intentioned project managers are rushing into commitments and contracts that will tie their hands from real environment improvements and expense reductions for the period of the resulting contract.

What is the Rush?

I am surprised by how many of these RFPs have been published with a combination of short time frames for implementation and lack of strategic direction. Most of these appear to be copier bids modified in some way to explore managed print services. My conclusion is that their genesis is a copier contract expiring in sixty or ninety days and were rushed to meet that restrictive timeline.

Since my professional life is based on helping you implement efficient document output environments, maximizing your effort and realizing your objectives are important to me. My advice therefore is take your time, do it right and follow a strategic plan!

Two of my more recent clients brought me in to make recommendations for upcoming technology replacement: lease ends. In both cases I was able to show them that it was in their best interest to take the time to approach their document output environments holistically and strategically.

Where did we Begin?

After these clients saw the long-term potential of changing their approach from rushing to replace their leased hardware to implementing a managed document output environment we explored the short-, mid- and long-term actions for implementation.

The first step was to consider the current fleet. In the cases of both clients and most of the RFPs I have read, the fleet had useful life remaining – there was no immediate need to replace it. So rather than rush into an agreement looking for a strategy we extended the current contract; in one case by negotiating a much reduced monthly lease payment and the other by exercising a very low cost purchase option. These actions provided time to develop a comprehensive document output strategy and resulted in significant monthly expense reductions while we did. Interesting note is that I helped the client who exercised their buyout sell the fleet for $35,000 more than their purchase option a year later.

During the same time we implemented other cost-saving actions as well as putting a freeze on new printer purchases resulting in even more savings.

Preparing for MPS

By taking a step back we were able to accomplish a number of things:

• create immediate significant expense reductions
• rationalize the entire fleet of document output devices
• prepare the employees for change and future workflows
• implement new workflows to leverage new hardware
• create a plan for the contract term and beyond
• develop a comprehensive document output strategy

Taking the time to create a thorough document output strategy enabled:

• identification of additional savings and improvements
• full leveraging of current investments in technology
• issuance of highly defined RFPs that supported the clients’ strategies
• implementation of world class managed document output environments

The Take-Away

What I hope you take away from this posting is that implementation of a managed document output environment is an important undertaking in today’s business and technology climate and deserves the time and attention to do it right.

I encourage you to begin your planning today if you are under a current copier/multifunction device contract or explore ways to avoid rushing into an incomplete agreement.

Additionally, develop your RFP and resulting contract based on your individual needs and strategy and do not limit them to what service providers tell you they can do. Managed print services should not come from a can!

For more information please feel free to contact me at (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

Gordon Hawkins Presenting at ITEX 2011

Gordon Hawkins will be returning to the ITEX show this year to present “Anatomy of a Managed Document Output Environment.”

Anatomy of a Managed Document Output Environment

This presentation will follow the steps and processes taken to maximize current investments while transitioning into a world class managed document output environment.

Based on an actual client engagement we will look at statistics, actions and results from:

• Assessment
• Data analysis
• Development of a document output strategy
• Planning for a successful transition
• RFP management
• Implementation
• Management of the environment

What Can You Learn?

The dealer and managed print services vendor can learn how to add value to your service offering: beyond simple supply replenishment and hardware services.

End-user clients can walk through the strategic processes to transform your own document output environments and realize the objectives of your efforts.

When and Where?

Session P21: Anatomy of a Managed Document Output Environment
Wednesday, March 23 at 9:00 a.m.
ITEX 2011 Expo & Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Save $50 on your Registration

You can save $50 on your registration fee by using Registration Source Code 923K on your registration form.

ITEX National Expo & Conference is the largest expo & conference in North America for the imaging channel, ITEX 2011 will provide the latest state-of-the-art office solutions, technology innovations and product, from the industry’s best thought leaders, service providers, vendors and manufacturers. ITEX insists that actionable strategies are implemented to secure high margins in managed print services, document management solutions, managed services and IT systems, as well as the growing office supplies market. These quality education sessions led by experienced leaders will enrich your business model - and are plentiful at ITEX! For up-to-date conference and exposition information, please visit www.itexshow.com. Education, products, support, and value. ITEX 2011 - the one event that captures it all

For more information please feel free to contact me at ghawkins@buscomgroup.com at your convenience.

Where Have All The Phases Gone?

After viewing vendor MPS programs and talking to you, the end-user clients I am beginning to wonder where have all the phases gone? The more I explore the more it seems that these theoretical phases are just that – theory. My real question is what long-term plan they belong to; providing you with the “managed” component of MPS or waiting for you to forget about the promises made to phase in your expected benefits.

Phase One And Then?

How many of you have contracted with a vendor for managed print services to find that after offering up your fleet and paying a few months worth of invoices the program results in nothing more than a cost per page service and supply contract – fleet management.

What reports are you receiving to help improve your document output environment? Are they limited to how much your fleet is producing and how well your new vendor is servicing them?

Have you found that most of the management recommendations you receive are for additional or new technology investments you need to make?

If so, how does this help you to create a world-class document output environment: how does it reduce expenses, improve productivity or make for greater user satisfaction?

How Do You Get What You Expected?

As you consider entering into a managed print services relationship you need to do a better job of determining which vendor can simply talk the talk and which can illustrate their ability to deliver the results you are looking for. Just like interviewing a new employee, past performance is a good predictor of future success; do not accept vendor sales presentations that tell you what they did for other clients but demand they clearly explain in detail how they are going to meet your objectives. Require and read a business proposal that addresses your environment, organizational politics and goals.

Is your current vendor agreement based on a contract presented by that vendor? If so, how does this boilerplate document meet your specific needs any better than the last lease or service agreement you had in place. It is my suggestion that these contracts represent a program-in-a- box and can provide little more than the previously mentioned fleet management.

A managed print services engagement, like any other professional services contract, should be customized to your project, contain a detailed scope of work and clearly outline how services will be delivered and the responsibilities of both parties. In addition, I would suggest it defines success and failure and contains remedies for lack of performance.

This discussion reminds me a bit of the current political discourse in America, Many, including me believe that we deserve the government we currently have. Until we demand better and pay attention to the result we will not get better.

The same goes for the state of MPS; if you, the client demand more the service providers will be forced to improve their capabilities and resulting performance. If you never call in your provider and question what happened to the other phases I am confident many will conveniently forget about them.

Part of the problem is MPS is relatively new in the industry and even though many copier and printer dealers realize they need to participate they are struggling with the how. This goes back to my earlier point; you need to separate those who can talk from those who know how to do.

Summary

For those of you, who are truly looking to realize the benefits of a world-class managed document output environment you have to take some responsibility, just like any other business venture you undertake:

• Educate yourself on what MPS can and should be
• Understand the differences between managing your document output environment and fleet management
• Define your own objectives, do not let a vendor determine them for you since this is a basic conflict of interest
• Create a statement of work based on your own goals and expectations, do not enter into a boilerplate MPS agreement
• Inspect what your vendor is doing and provide them with proper reinforcement

Like anything else, as an educated and motivated client you will realize the benefits you are looking for and may locate where the mysterious phases have been hiding.

If these opinions and discussion caught your attention and you would like to pursue it further please contact me (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

What Have I Missed?

It has been quite some time since I last posted to this blog or contributed to any of the interest groups on the web. I thought it would be interesting to catch up a little bit and see what I have missed.

Where Have I Been?

Just so folks realize that I still have a grass-roots perspective on the state of the industry I thought I would let you know that I have been extremely busy with a number of large projects assisting organizations to assess their document output environments and create and implement comprehensive document output strategies.

In addition, I have been reading quite a few bids, RFPs and proposals for managed print services from around the country as I help independent dealers write their proposals and create their reports.

My Personal Assessment

My absence was not only a result of being extremely busy but also influenced by what I saw happening within the industry and in the multitude of web conversations. It became very frustrating to read the same rehashed information and what I believe to be limited views of the managed print services as a whole.

It is my opinion that other than more people talking about the topic, the state of managed print services has not progressed too much in the past number of years. While some of the software tools have developed and hardware has become more compliant the actual services being offered fail to deliver on the promise.

There are a number of analysts and organizations promoting multiple definitions of MPS while others chatter about hybrid dealers and phases of engagement but I queston what clients are actually realizing.

My Experiences

A while back there was an ongoing conversation about MPS being little more than a marketing strategy. My experience with actual clients who have engaged with MPS providers largely confirms that observation. Once the contracts were signed and the first of the proverbial phases captured the income stream the other phases seem to be forgotten. The resulting engagement quickly reverted to a cost-per-page fleet management program.

As I read through end-user client generated bids and RFPs I understand how this can happen – they rarely address anything beyond a fleet management engagement. It is very easy to see the influences of the various vendors and dealers they talked to prior to building their requirements document.

My Conclusion

Maybe I am just too impatient and expect the industry to develop at a pace faster than it is capable of. I suppose if I wait long enough MPS engagements will deliver on their potential and promise. Given enough time will end-user clients demand more from their vendors?

But wait a minute, what will be the drivers that cause this to happen:

• Clients’ realizing they are spending more than they did before?
• Competition driving pricing down and creating need for greater differentiation?
• New players jumping in and forcing the industry to change?

On the other hand this is still a manufacturer-driven industry and as long as they are accomplishing their objectives (software, supply and hardware sales) who will be leading the charge for change?

What’s Next?

This is a at least in part a hypothetical question but I there are some things each of us can do to chart our own course and enact positive changes:

• MPS providers can begin to look beyond the simple supply provisioning, fix/repair services and simple reporting they are offering to develop value-laden and highly differentiated MPS service offerings
• Clients can do a little more homework and invest in greater knowledge which will yield handsome returns in the form of greater savings, better workflow and return on their technology investments.

Personally I am going back to work helping end-user clients realize the benefits of a world-class document output environment for their enterprise.

If these opinions and discussion caught your attention and you would like to pursue it further please contact me (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com ) at your convenience.

70% of Your Dealership’s Profitability!

According to some of the business models employed within this industry your dealership should realize as much as 79% of its profits from service. My question then is, how are you managing your service department to maximize this opportunity?

Where is Your Focus?

It seems to me that most dealer principals spend more time managing their sales professionals and sales department than the service department which actually produces the profits. Many invest in software tools for CRM and managing the sales funnel but how many utilize advanced tools to measure and manage their technicians and maximize service department profitability?

Now I am in no way suggesting sales management is not important, we all know it is but I am suggesting we can do better at managing the function of the dealership where profitability is actually realized.

What Does Good Look Like?

When I question dealer principals directly I usually get a response that they run reports on service metrics to measure service performance. While an excellent practice, if you are doing this what is the baseline you are using to measure your results? Simply put, what does good look like, and are you really good?

Let me illustrate in a couple of specific areas.

Technician Performance

I recently reviewed an assessment of the service department for a relatively small dealership with less than 10 service technicians. Based on their internal “rankings” they expressed concern about the performance of several of their service technicians.

This review compared their service performance against a large national database and part of it graded service technicians from ”A” to “F” based on a number of measurements. What caught everyone’s attention was that not a single one of their technicians scored an average above a “D”. Further analysis of these results showed that by simply managing all of their service technicians to a “C” level would provide tens of thousands of dollars additional profitability to this dealership.

I believe this illustrates the question of what does good look like: instead of being concerned with a couple of individuals this dealership should be taking steps to improve performance across the board.

Performance of the MIF

Similar to the previous discussion do you know if your MIF is performing as good as it can and what could be gained from improvements.

If we were to analyze your in place population by model and compare it against thousands of other devices of same model across the country how would your parts usage and call frequency stand up?

I can tell you from experience that the average dealership can improve profitability by tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year by identifying those units with above average service expense and managing them down to the national average. The potential within your own dealership would probably amaze you!

Additional benefits are improved client satisfaction and therefore retention, and the ability to identify additional or supplemental training for specific technicians.

Marketing Ramifications

So now to what I believe is a bit of novel thought: how do you leverage this type of detailed analysis within a marketing strategy to drive higher profits for your dealership?

Since most of us agree that the function of sales is to place units so that we can realize profits on the aftermarket would it make sense to incent sales professionals to sell those models that drive the greatest profitability within their target volumes?

For those of you attempting to move into MPS how about the ability to compensate your sales professionals on a combination of hardware placement, capturing page volumes and profitability within an account? Do you think this may cause them to place the correct hardware and manage the account to greater efficiencies?

Summary

If you are already doing all of these things I congratulate you; you are definitely ahead of the curve. If you are not then this effort may provide one of the best returns on investment of anything you could do within your dealership.

There are resources and support available for you today that enable you to compare your performance against national averages with minimum effort on your part. Now as with anything else if you do nothing with the information then you will gain the same – nothing. However, if you manage to these numbers you are going to be surprised how much more efficient and profitable you can become while increasing client satisfaction.

To reiterate here, the value is the ability compare against what good is based on a very large set of service statistics, not just within your own organization.

If this discussion caught your attention and you would like to pursue it further please contact me (ghawkins@buscomgroup.com / 602.989.5667) at your convenience.

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!

“Least Cost Printing” – is it the holy grail of the Managed Print Services effort?

Over the years the convergence of technologies changed not only the way we deliver documents but the cost structure of doing so. As printer technologies evolved workflows shifted from print-once-copy-many to printing to the most convenient device. Commensurate to this was an increase in costs as page volumes moved to relatively expensive toner and ink cartridge-based engines.

So began the idea of least cost printing: as copiers transitioned to digital multifunction devices much of the effort focused on replacing printers and print-once-copy-many workflows with the MFD and concentrating print volumes to a workgroup device.

The Digital Promise

Many organizations invested in new component-based digital MFD technologies on the promise of reduced costs and even improved workflow. More often than not, this digital promise was not realized due to the inability to train their users to adopt these new workflows. The capabilities of the digital MFD remained underutilized in most enterprises as users continued to print to the desktop and workgroup toner and ink cartridge-based printers.

Fleet Management

As the marketplace realized the folly of the idea that the digital MFD would eliminate printers some began to focus on reducing the cost structure of the printer itself. The concept of fleet management began to grow and come to age enabled by improvements in the quality of remanufactured and compatible supplies.

So here we are today with half the marketplace proselytizing the benefits of fleet management while the other half continues to promote digital multifunction devices as the answer to cost containment. Meanwhile, most clients still have one foot in investments in digital MFDs and the other in fleets of printers, both toner and ink cartridge-based. For these, fleet management can without doubt reduce the expenses associated with operating printers but still not to the level of maintaining the multifunction devices.

Least Cost Printing

Simple in concept, least cost printing is one step in the evolution from fleet management to print management. It acknowledges the realities of the marketplace and can deliver dramatic results by shifting pages from higher cost-per-page devices to those with lower operating costs. Organizations can reduce office printing costs by as much as 35% with an effective least cost printing strategy.

A least cost printing strategy takes into account the actual cost-per –page of individual technologies within document output environments combined with the impact on user convenience and efficiency and drives pages to the most cost-efficient device or document delivery method for a particular job. A well designed least cost printing strategy should address issues such as color, duplex printing and electronic document distribution.

Enabling Technologies

While the concept of least cost printing has been promoted by the copier industry for a number of years to cost-justify digital multifunction devices there was not an enabling technology to train and manage users to overcome their resistance to change.

Today, there are low-impact and cost-effective enablers for least cost printing. I have used several and for the most part they are easy to install and maintain and provide an attractive return on investment.

These tools are applicable for small user groups to large enterprises who wish to leverage their technology investments and realize the digital promise. They will receive additional benefits from office printing solutions that include process controls provided by a least cost printing implementation;

• Reduced page output costs
• Improved employee productivity
• Increased utilization of technology investments
• Ability to manage office printing environments

It is my opinion that least cost printing should be part of every well-designed strategy for managing a document output environment.

Page Cost Calculator Update & User Tips

I wanted to thank all of the folks who have provided constructive feedback - it is satisfying to know this tool is saving time for you!

This post provides an update and a couple of user tips:

• The calculator should now work for all Hewlett Packard and Lexmark laser printers and color laser printers - next will be the laser-based multifunction devices
• The default page coverage (9%) is applied universally across all consumables - for a more accurate cost model you may want to reset the maintenance kits, fuser kits and transfer kits to the manufacturer standard five percent (5%). We will update the algorithm in the future to take this into account.
  
• Some of you have asked about access to other supply items - if you click on the file folder icon to the left of a supply item a window will open with alternatives such as high-yield toner cartridges. You can select an alternative from this list and the tool with automatically recaculate the cost model.
• You do have the ability to adjust the supply item cost, yield and assumed coverage model to customize the cost model to accomodate compatible supplies or specific client pricing and usage.

Please continue to provide constructive feedback and share this tool with your fellow sales professionals and other potential users. I will keep you informed of updates on this blog site.

Please provide your feedback directly to me at pagecost@buscomgroup.com.

Once again, here is the temporary link to the tool.

Page Cost Calculator

Cost per Page Calculator - Update

I am surprised by the number of individuals who have registered to use this tool. I know some of you are just looking but hope most of you have found some value in it.

I wanted to update those of you who are using it on some additions and fixes:

• The decimal place has been fixed to represent dollars; for example 0.0440
• Color cost per page is now totalled accurately, sorry about that one, the individual components were correct
  
• I think we have all of the Lexmark monochrome laser printers added now in addition to the Hewlett Packard laser printers and color laser printers
• Some of you have requested a more "intelligent" search function which we will be able to add by moving the tool to a more sophisticated platform when we see its usage increasing

If you find this tool useful please share it with your team members and continue to provide us with your valuable, constructive feedback.

Please provide your feedback directly to me at pagecost@buscomgroup.com.

Once again, here is the temporary link to the tool.

Page Cost Calculator

Cost per Page Calculator - Great Response

There has been a great deal of interest in this tool including quite a few questions directed to me.

Due to this high level of activity I am going to expand on its access and usage:

• To access this tool you need to follow the link below, go to the Sign Up page and fill in the required data completely but ignore the credit card information, it is not necessary
  
• I have intentionally kept the registration process manual at this point so you will not have immediate access, we will inform you by e-mail. Due to the overwhelming response we are running a bit behind here at the outset
  
• I am still editing the data base to enable the automated price calculations so not all devices are ready to go but all of the HP LaserJets and Color LaserJets should be
  
• All supply prices are for OEM supplies and obtained from the manufacturers web store or in a few cases from an alternate web store such as CDW
  
• Cartridge yields have been obtained from manufacturer web sites
  
• The default page coverage assumption is 9% per color channel
  
• You have the ability to customize all three of these fields to accomodate your personal needs, cartridge cost, cartridge page yield and coverage assumption
  
• You can also select an alternate toner/ink cartridge by clicking on the file folder icon to the left of the cartridge description. This is especially important when you are customizing the report for the cartridge types your client is actually using. In the case of Lexmark printers there may be as many as eight toner cartridges available for a monochrome laser printer
  

Now that we have this tool up and running we hope you use it and provide us with your valuable, constructive feedback. There are several folks who have been testing it and it does appear to work well for those devices currently supported.

Please provide your feedback directly to me at pagecost@buscomgroup.com.

Once again, here is the temporary link to the tool; I will eventually be moving it to a permanent URL.

Page Cost Calculator

Cost per Page Calculator

I cannot tell you how many times I heard loud groans emanating from an analyst or sales professional within the copier, printer or fleet management market space as they struggled to research and calculate cost models for cartridge based printers to use in assessments and competitive proposals.

I too had experienced the same frustration and early on began to develop a database of printer models with compatible supplies, manufacturer yields and pricing so I did not keep starting from scratch. Over the years it grew from a simple spreadsheet, to a rather unwieldy spreadsheet and then into a database.

Now before some of you jump in here and tell me how your process is better than calculating cost models let me tell you that discussion is for another day! Some of us less sophisticated folks out here still need to know what supplies go with which devices, what are their page yields and yes even estimated cost models.

A few weeks ago I posted a query in a couple of Linkedin groups about cost per page tools available on the web to simplify the life of analysts and sales professionals – I was surprised to find no one could identify one?

This led me to approach much smarter friends and solicit their expertise to turn my personal database into a web application so I could share it with hard working analysts and sales professionals.

To automate this tool has been slightly more involved than I expected; I have to manually edit each device to enable functionality but am well on the way of doing so. I decided to begin with Hewlett Packard laser technology since it represents some seventy percent plus of the existing installed base.

For those of you who would like to take this for a test drive it is now available for you to do so. I just completed a test where I created cost models for about four hundred different Hewlett Packard laser printers in less than an hour. I think it is safe to say that is significantly quicker than doing the research manually?

I encourage you to register for free access to this tool but in return I request that you provide me with feedback so I can continue to punish my friends with requests for any bug fixes and improved functionality. In the meantime I will continue to bring more device models online, let me know if you would like Lexmark laser printers next or Hewlett Packard inkjets.

If you do choose to use this tool there is a Help menu at the top right of the Search page that explains its functionality. Now if you are prone to complaining, just remember this is just getting off the desktop and will continue to improve based on constructive feedback.

Here is the temporary link to the tool; I will eventually be moving it to a permanent URL.

Page Cost Calculator

The Americans

In 1973, as the Vietnam War came to an end America was under attack from both within and without. The barage of negative sentiment and press inspired Gordon Sinclair, the dean of Canadian broadcasting to write the following for his June 5, 1973 morning broadcast. After just more than 36 years I clearly remember the emotion I felt while driving in my car that morning and listening to this broadcast: it seems appropriate to post it this holiday weekend.

"The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.

I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.

Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.

When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.

Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.

I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.

This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped".

Original Script Courtesy Standard Broadcasting Corporation Ltd.
Copyright 1973 by Gordon Sinclair

MPSA – Constructive or Divisive?

As I follow the numerous discussions and postings on various blogs and Linkedin groups I cannot help but wonder if this new organization will promote the MPS market space, or divide the participants.

It is a fact that any organization of two or more human beings is subject to politics; the challenge is to rise above them to serve a useful and maybe even noble purpose to its constituents.

• Provide a forum for sharing of ideas
  
• Facilitate learning for the improvement of the industry
  
• Recognize and promote best practices
  
• Create standards for the protection of end-user clients
  
• Promote fair business practices between manufacturers, vendors and end-user clients
  
• Combine resources to promote growth of the entire marketplace
  

There are many personal and corporate agendas being interjected into these communications. Not only should this be expected but the competition benefits all of us in the end. However, with that said there are several underlying themes which I personally find disturbing and disruptive to the value and growth of this association and the market space in general.

Throughout is an arrogance that there is a higher calling to service-centric sales strategy than a hardware- or supplies-centric one. Many of the folks who appear to be central to this new association are setting themselves on a pedestal above "lesser" industry participants. While I personally believe in the service-centric approach and do not wish to go back in time to selling hardware, I recognize there are a lot of value-laden dealers who do business with great integrity, provide their clients with excellent service and create a large number of very good-paying jobs.

Related though somewhat separate is the theme that the traditional copier dealer and their sales professionals are intrinsically dishonest and stupid! Copier dealers have been providing a high-level of managed print services through facilities management programs for many years. In addition, most offer page acquisition models equal to the print management programs I experience in the field. They provide supplies, fix/repair services, technology refreshment and usage reporting for a fixed cost per page. Let me ask how that is significantly different than the vast majority of so-called print management programs? I must also ask the question "if copier dealers should get into MPS for higher margins then how are they currently gouging their clients?"

Both themes were epitomized by the recent discussion about a relationship between the new MPSA and the BTA. The BTA has transformed over the years to accommodate changes in the market it serves; like Tom Callinan I remember when it was NOMDA and largely populated by calculator and typewriter dealers. Over the years it evolved to play a significant role in building the copier industry and continued to change to adopt the transition to digital technologies and yes, even managed print services. I remember discussions with them to develop managed print services training in 2005 and they have actually been sponsoring training events for the past couple of years. The real point I want to make is not about the value of a relationship or association, but the underlying arrogance and divisiveness that arose in these discussions.

It is my honest opinion (IMHO) that if the MPSA is going to promote the MPS market space then it should embrace all industry participants as potential "converts" rather than the continual piling of some less than civil discourse upon them. I certainly hope this type of posting and discussion is no longer commended and recommended by the association leadership! These individuals and companies can be represented as the iceberg below the water line while the "San Antonio" gathering is that small and visible portion.

Rather than forming an inward-facing print-centric circle holding hands and singing Kum Bah Ya I hope the MPSA turns around and puts their collective hands outward to welcome all of the participants in this industry. This is what will enable this association to reach a "noble" purpose.

How Do You Rationalize Your Desktop Printers?

Do you, or does your organization have a strategy for desktop printers? If you are like most of the managers I speak to the answer is no. When they do it is typically that desktop printers are not allowed at all or the exact opposite; anything goes! I am not sure either of these are real strategies.

My experiences have revealed very few fleet management providers address the entire desktop fleet and usually ignore the impact of their expense in assessments. If you notice I specifically said fleet management because I believe a broader managed print services engagement includes all of the devices by default.

I think desktop printers are often ignored for the following reasons:

• Their impact on costs is underestimated
  
• They add to the complexity of the project
  
• No one wants to address the associated political issues
  

Impact on Your Document Output Environment

If you believe your desktop printers will not have a significant impact on your expenses you may want to think again. If I look back over some recent clients' environments it is not at all unusual for the inkjet devices alone to look something like this:

• Inkjet devices ranged from 3 to 33% of the overall device population
  
• Inkjet produced pages ranged from 2 to 11% of the total pages
  
• Inkjet driven expenses ranged from 6 to 43% of the total expense
  
• Savings from an effective inkjet strategy ranged from 8 to 65% of the total savings
  

The actual averages would be in the upper half of these ranges, there were a couple of environments included where a first pass at removing desktop printers had already been completed. The message within the data is that most clients are quite surprised by the actual impact of their desktop, and specifically inkjet devices.

Complexity

Adding locally connected desktop printers to a well designed MPS project does not increase the work and complexity beyond the potential benefits. It is understandable why a fleet management provider who is not likely to increase their revenues as a result of this effort would not want to include them. However, you as the client or end-user should be concerned with a component of your document output environment with as much potential impact as the desktop devices may actually have. The actual savings from a good desktop strategy for some of the clients included in the numbers above ran into thousands of dollars per month.

Political Issues

When you conduct a physical survey inside an enterprise you hear every reason why someone needs (deserves) a personal desktop printer. I have had the pleasure of $450 per hour professionals sit me down and present their 30 minute justification.

Security is an issue that no one believes can, or will be challenged but it can be:

• Network printers and multifunction devices have very good secure print functions
  
• How secure is printing a document on a slow desktop printer to leave it sit in the output tray or on the desktop?
  
• Security is in the workflow and not the device
  

Having a personal printer saves time and therefore expense (soft costs):

• What was the cost difference between printing the job on the desktop versus the workgroup device?
  
• How much time was saved and what was the value of the time?
  
• Was printing the job on the desktop device a good investment?
  
• Are you really that busy 8 hours per day?
  

Printing to a workgroup device disrupts my workflow:

• An interesting statistic inside of my data is that a high percentage of users print less than one job per day to a local device?
  

Printing photographs requires a desktop color printer:

• If the photographic printing is that important you should be using color management and printing on a photo grade paper
  
• The above is rarely evidenced by the pages I see sitting on the printer and desktop
  

Let me make it clear that I am not one who believes that every desktop printer should be "yanked" out of an organization but am convinced that there should be a strategy for their deployment within a well managed document output environment. This discussion can provide an outline for such a strategy but obviously will need greater detail based on your unique environment, cost structure and corporate (institution) philosophy.