Manage what you measure
A print management strategy allows businesses to control expenses by outsourcing management of the printer fleet. The usage-based, outsourced model ensures they only pay for the prints they use and, best of all, there is no capital expenditure required since the agreement is to manage the existing fleet.
Companies cannot manage what they cannot measure. A managed print services strategy should begin with a comprehensive assessment of the current situation to uncover the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your office printing. This assessment provides both a baseline, to measure improvement, and a snapshot of the current situation to discover opportunities to improve. Ascertaining the current situation also gives organisations a benchmark against which to measure the effectiveness of their programme.
Proactively managing printers also enables companies to introduce carbon footprint reduction strategies. Reducing paper use not only reduces the volume of trees consumed, but also helps offset the rising cost of printer paper. There are several means of reducing paper use, including duplex printing and electronic forms among many others.
Some companies are concerned that optimised printing will negatively impact productivity. But a properly implemented managed print strategy boosts productivity. At the most basic level, employees face less distraction from printers that are broken or out of toner. Unlike most IT departments that simply respond to broken systems, a preventative maintenance strategy combined with an automatic supply restocking programme ensures your fleet is operating consistently. Re-deploying the right systems to high-volume locations can also enhance productivity.
Perhaps the biggest cost savings can be found in a more productive IT department. IT resources are costly and it doesn't make sense to use them to fix mechanical devices such as printers. Instead of fielding calls from frustrated users with printer issues, IT employees can focus on core initiatives like security and new software deployments.
As someone who has been involved on the implementation side of MPS for many years I have often heard the sales rep pitch MPS with the line that some large percentage (the number varies over time and which source they want to quote but lets say 40%) of IT support activity is print related, so by implementing an MPS solution they will free up their IT staff to be focused on more important activities. The unstated conclusion they wish to plant is that by putting the printer fleet under an MPS contract the company can cut their IT support needs by a similar amount. What customer is going to say no to such a proposition?
ReplyDeleteWhat I've never seen is a study published that follows up with MPS customers to see how their IT support calls are affected after the new solution is in place. Do IT help desk calls drop 30%? Do they drop 5%? I suspect that the result is a very small reduction in the number of IT help desk calls. After all your average printer is actually quite reliable. Most of the things that prompt a help desk call are situations not covered by the MPS agreement like "I can't get this publisher doc to print the way I want it to", or "the printer says its ready and its full of toner and paper, I just can't get my job to print".