Print management is the study of where and what type of print device a document is outputted on internally. Print management develops a strategy that best fulfills a company’s productivity and cost targets for printing documents (printers, copiers, multifunctional devices, print shop, fax units).
The Failed Promise
For many years the expert talked about the paperless office, unfortunately, reality has in most cases been the opposite. During the 10 year period from 1993 to 2003 paper use in the
U.S.
increased from 91.5 million tons to 98 million tons. Today, employees in large corporations print out an average of some 1,200 pages a month each, costing their companies about $850 per employee a year in expenses like printer operation and maintenance and supplies of paper, ink and toner, according to industry estimates. According to estimates, most organizations spend between 1% and 10% of their annual revenue on printing costs and for most, it continues to grow each year.
The Real World
While most companies spend much time studying, optimizing and managing many elements of their IT infrastructure they generally have paid little attention to their imaging, printing and document distribution environment. Often P&L responsibility for the various costs related to printing is so fragmented that it is next to impossible to track the total cost of ownership of all their printing equipment and the associated costs
The arrival of digital multi-functional copiers which, can be used as printers, fax machines and scanners have just added to the confusion among users as to what is the best solution.
The hardware vendors (Xerox, Canon, HP etc.) have started providing document workflow analysis services to their clients. Unfortunately, their inclination is to sell in the direction that meets their product advantages. This can quite often leave the client with a less than the optimal solution. Often when equipment is up for replacement the vendors will either attempt to up-sell the customer to the biggest box that they client is willing to pay for or replace based on the specs for the existing equipment and little effort is invested in determining the company’s current requirements. Frequently, the various quotes cannot be evaluated and compared as they focus on different equipment and result in an ‘’apple’’ to ‘’orange‘’ scenario.
The Savings
A print management strategy can reduce direct cost by as much as 35%. Your company can save substantially and improve productivity with zero investment. To do this, companies need to complete an Office Document Assessment (ODA) to identify print management opportunities. A complete analysis of workflow requirements will determine whether a company has an optimal print management strategy, and if not, what needs to be done to improve it. Although it can take several years to fully implement the necessary changes (existing equipment leases may have several years remaining) the potential savings are significant.
Only the very largest organizations can afford to have dedicated print management resources. The technology changes so quickly that it really is a full time job to keep up with the equipment market. For the rest, their best-case scenario is to have an independent expert carry out the ODA and develop the overall print management strategy and negotiate the best possible pricing for the equipment required.
