While there are many environments and technologies to
consider when designing a document strategy, companies are discovering that
their printer and copier fleet can serve as an effective and profitable place
to start. Once you decide to begin
efforts to design a document strategy, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the
decision. Work-group printers and copiers
are a natural and sensible environment for a document strategy because they
directly support the day-to-day business of organizations of all sizes and
types from every industry. Ultimately, business operations depend on the efficiency,
effectiveness and cost control associated with work group printers and copiers.
Where do you begin? What should the scope of your strategy
cover? How will you justify your efforts and demonstrate a return on
investment? Here are some answers by suggesting five steps you can take toward
an effective and profitable document strategy that can benefit your company.
Step One – Pay Attention
This first step to designing an effective strategy is to
simply pay attention to your printer/copier environment. Many companies
struggle to understand just how many printers reside in their corporations, how
many pages are printed each month, or the cost of each sheet of paper that
passes through their printer fleet. As a result, there are tremendous
opportunities to save money without investing in any new equipment. Since this effort is often overlooked in the
demands of day-to-day operations, it can be beneficial to engage an outside
firm to conduct the assessment and make recommendations for improvement. The timing
of your activities can be crucial as well. Don’t wait until your contracts are
about to expire; a lack of time to respond often forces companies to simply
re-up their contracts and hope for the best.
Step Two – Target your Scope
By focusing on work-group printers and copiers, you can
develop a comprehensive, yet manageable scope for your document strategy. Document strategy must be comprehensive
enough to make sure that nothing of importance is not overlooked. Yet it also must be manageable enough to
avoid the risk that nothing ever gets done. Developing a strategic approach to
your printer/copier environment
may require a change in the habitual “this is the way we've
always done it” mindset. As a result, an outside consultant with an independent
view may be useful to overcome this barrier and bring about meaningful savings
and improvements. In any case, targeting your scope to improve printer/copier
performance and increase the effectiveness of your contracts and suppliers will
help you make better decisions and more profitable recommendations.
Step Three – Build Return on Investment
Once you have gone through the analysis, assessment and evaluation
needed to map your plan, now you face perhaps the most difficult task of all:
Building and demonstrating a realistic return on investment. What can you look
for in order to build ROI and justify your strategy? A few examples would be to
inventory your printers and copiers, assess hardware, maintenance and support
costs. This approach will help you
justify the return on investment in your document strategy. Your activities will bring to light the data
and perspective needed to better manage expenses, reduce your total cost of
ownership, and develop a clear and measurable enterprise-wide strategy.
Step Four – Implement your Strategy
Even the most thoughtful document strategy will not be
successful if it is not executed effectively. All of your assessments and proposed
actions now must come together in a project plan that maps the course of your
strategy and directs your efforts successfully. While there may be many areas of effort
included in the implementation of your strategy, here are a few core activities
to consider. Balance device deployment – Analysts calculate that balanced deployment of printers and copiers can
reduce your operating costs drastically. A balanced deployment strategy can
improve device performance and cost, optimize asset utilization, maximize
return on investment, and reduce total cost of ownership. Matching features to user needs – The
requirements of your printing/copying environment will evolve as your business
evolves, so it makes sense to periodically evaluate the needs of each work-group
as well as key employees in key functions. Negotiating contracts for optimal
benefit – The time to evaluate the performance of your contracts and lease
agreements is well before they are about to come up for renewal. View this
opportunity as a means of providing an incentive for your vendors and suppliers
to not only give you their best pricing, but also provide you with a higher
level of service and performance.
Step Five – Manage the Environment
Once you have completed your assessment, negotiated the best
contracts and implemented your strategy, it is important to monitor all key
cost and performance indicators of both your devices and your vendors over
time. Without ongoing management of the environment you may not be assured that
the ROI you assumed is actually being reached and maintained. As a result, organizations that optimize
their work-group printer/copier environment are more likely to have an
advantage. Firms can begin to gain this
advantage by an independent and non-bias assessment of work-group devices and
their associated costs – which is most cases has never been tracked. Often, this approach can uncover hidden cost
savings and overlooked inefficiencies without the commitment for additional
capital expenditures.
If you or a business partner are currently looking into saving money with optimizing your copier printer fleet and would like more information on our products and services, please contact James Thomas at The MPS Group:
We look forward to doing business with you.
