I read another article today reinforcing how critical it is to engage all departments (not just IT or Purchasing), when looking at Managed Print Services (MPS).  The article was “Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services” written by Gartner.  It says specifically that good results are directly related to the cooperation between departments.  It will allow organizations to look at the big picture to maximize cost savings and process improvement.

It validates our approach of looking at the business goals first, and not rushing to look at only one piece of the puzzle.  And it reinforces our business process improvement seminar that we have tomorrow.  So if and when you decide to look at Managed Print Services make sure you take a step back to achieve the best results. 

When it comes to managed print services, it is essential to partner with a provider that is going to help you make a proper assessment.  It is all too common for an assessment to miss important steps.  Often providers seem to rush through this stage to get a proposal on the table.  Here are some of the most common pitfalls to avoid:

1. Poor Data.  This includes the collection of the device information and the layout of where the printers and other devices are within an office.  An assessment cannot be done correctly without both.  It is often the case that an organization is so interested in getting this done that they don’t fully complete the assessment.  If you are not willing to invest the time to get this right, print management may harm your organization more than it can help.
2. Overlooking the Biggest Cost in the Office: Payroll.  You don’t always have to remove every device and consolidate to all multi-functional products to impact the office.  Make sure to take your business processes into account before you make any changes.
3. Only Looking at One Area.  This may be the most common mistake.  Organizations constantly make changes to office technology without looking at the overall impact.  You may own it, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep it.  Look at the total cost of operation through the organization.  And yes, that even includes the printer on the CEO’s desk.

Hopefully this list, although short will help you pick a partner that will help you leverage your investments and reap the benefits of Managed Print Services.  In short, spend the time to do it right and your print management project will be a success.

You may not want to implement a managed print program.  If you are not ready to look at MPS, here are a few ideas that might help you reduce costs without a contract:

• Ask yourself "Do I have to print this?"  This is especially true of email.  Its much easier to save an email electronically than it is to print and archive.  There are also many times when we see lengthy printed reports, when only one page is needed.  Make sure that you need it before you print!
• Printing in greyscale can reduce the amount of ink that you use.
• How about adjusting the font?  I bet you did not know that the font you use is impacting the costs associated with printing. 
  
• Remanufactured cartridges save money and have a smaller impact on the environment.  Assuming that you have a reliable provider.  We can help. 
  
• Printing to file or PDF is easy and free.  There are many free applications that will allow you to archive without spending money.

Take a few of these ideas.  They will be a good start to helping you manage your print.

Print Management, Managed Print Services and Enterprise Printing Services are essentially the same thing.  Just to be extra confusing, our industry tried to come up with as many different terms for the same thing as possible.

Print management is all about managing the inventory, logistics, purchasing, distribution and output related to documents in the office.  And to throw another term in there Managed Document Services takes this all to the next level.  The idea behind all of this, do more with less.  Save time, save money, and create a print strategy.

Why create a print strategy?  Print is just like any other process in the office.  As a company grows a broken process stays in place until someone steps back to take a look from 40,000 feet.  It multiplies when the company grows.  Adding people to the process exposes issues even further.  Print is no different and the majority of the time the true cost is unaudited.

So, take a step back and let us help you look at the big picture of print management.  To learn more about how we can help click here. 

When does Managed Print work the best for you?  When the solution is looked at before the product.  I have seen too many single vendor solutions where one department has had to suffer to fit the "solution" into it's environment.  A true managed print solution would never knowingly put a customer in that situation. 

A priority for a print management evaluation should not include a dealer that does not have options.  Having worked with many different manufacturers it has become clear that each manufacturer has its strengths and weaknesses.  Of the many vendors that we work with, not one does it all well.  There are holes.  Next time, or the first time, you evaluate your print fleet, ensure you get the best solution.  Talk with a managed print provider with options!

Options are good.  Especially when it comes to managed print services.  Taken from a Lexmark article "MPS is a mix of software tools, services and custom solutions and strategies that have the power to transform your organization".  Lexmark's four steps to print management are optimize, manage, improve, and innovate.  The fourth step is where organizations find big savings.

We are fortunate to have four of the leading vendors as partners.  Each one has it's strengths and weaknesses.   Having the flexibility and capability to look at four of the top five gives Applied the ability to tailor a solution to each situation.  Many times a solution with a mix of vendors allows you to take advantage of the best possible offerings and maximize your savings.

I questioned whether or not I even wanted to give away this secret, but I figured it was important to share.  I suppose it’s out there if you look hard enough anyway.  When you think of print management and getting control of your printing costs, what comes to mind?  If you thought about printer and multi-functional acquisition cost, maintenance contracts and supply costs, you would be correct.  But you would also be looking at the traditionally observed costs.  And you would also be missing the bigger piece of the pie.  I mentioned it in an earlier article if you are interested in looking at a different spin on it.

Now let’s list a few traditionally unobserved costs: document and records management, end user productivity, IT support and infrastructure, administrative costs, and environmental costs.  Now think of how much time is spent auditing the costs in the first list.  Now think of how rarely people actually look at the second list or maybe how often it’s thought about and ignored. 

Maybe we are all just too busy doing "stuff".

On average, the typical office employee prints about 1,000 pages per month which equates to an average of around $900.00 per employee per year.  If cost alone is not a driving factor, here are five reasons organizations might implement a print management program:

• One contact for everything makes life easy (Service, Supplies, Etc).
• Printer Fleet Right Sizing (The average organization has 2 printers per knowledge worker.  Is that really necessary?  I can’t answer that for you, but it seems like a lot doesn’t it?)
• Reduce the amount of time IT spends on printer issues.
• Go Green!  If we all had to walk a little further maybe we wouldn’t click print?  Statistics show that total print volume can go down about 10% when we need to go further to pick up a document.
• Did I mention Cost?  Statistics show that organizations can save up to 30% on their output costs.  Just think of all the paper, service, supplies, energy consumption, and waste that could be saved.

I had the opportunity to watch a taped webinar at TechRepublic.com titled “Reach for the cloud – Sharepoint Online, Google Docs and Your MFP (Multi-Functional Peripheral).”  Cloud is a hot topic and the MFP is adapting to the changing workplace.  Here were a few of my takeaways:

• Leveraging the cloud can help eliminate steps to get what you need when you need it.
• End users can get output on demand at the device nearest to them.  It can be retrieved by any device on the network!
• Only the person intending to see the document will ever see the document - great for anyone struggling with HIPPA or security in the workplace.
• Access documents on the cloud right from the panel of a copier and print without a server or a print driver.  Document retrieval and version control do not get any easier.
• Scan and upload documents to the cloud for quick access to anyone with a network connection.

Managed print is a great way to control costs and improve print efficiency throughout the office.  However, if you want to see big changes in output costs you have to change the culture and the behaviors in the work place.  It’s great to limit the costs, but if the people still click print the desired outcome may not be reached.  If your desire is to change the way people think about printing, you may want to look at rules based printing.  Just think of all the paper that sits on the printer that never gets retrieved… what if it was never printed at all.  Or how about the blue hyperlink of an email… does that really need to be printed in color.  Now we are talking about some real savings!