A managed environment is an efficient and successful one, and managing output devices is part of this. To do this, organisations should consider a distributed fleet management tool to help manage output by collecting data from all the printers connected to a network.
An effective distributed fleet management solution should be based on four key components. Combined, they form a powerful integrated set of tools to manage, organise and control output environments. These core components are asset lifecycle management, remote fleet services, onsite services and optimisation services.
While asset lifecycle services provide the basic foundation for the management of output devices, fleet management is a vital aspect in managing a distributed output environment. An output environment includes the printers that an enterprise uses, and if these assets are distributed over a wide area, it is essential that an effective management system be put in place.
With this in mind, organisations should consider a solution that offers both onsite and remote fleet management tools to help businesses monitor entire fleets of assets, wherever those assets may be located.
Onsite fleet management should be geared towards providing services for assisting administrative processes related to asset management. One of the benefits of outsourcing these activities is that it allows organisations to focus resources on the areas that directly support the strategic objectives of the business, instead of wasting money chasing after data.
An onsite fleet service is typically made up of five components services, which may be sold individually or as a package.
Remote fleet services help to shorten the time it takes to resolve problems.
Hans Horn, MD of Lexmark SA
Consumables management focuses on determining when and where customers need consumables replaced, and ensuring replacements are delivered in an efficient and timely manner. This service combines five key areas for the consumables management field, namely: early detection and ordering, order authorisation, fulfilment, recycling and toner reconciliation. Effective management of consumables can help companies save money by eliminating multiple purchase orders, ensuring supplies are on hand when needed and that devices are therefore always up and running. It assists in reducing the amount of excess or unnecessary stock, reducing storage and carrying costs.
Break/fix management provides a single point of contact for the maintenance of a business`s output fleet, with the primary objective being to maintain operational effectiveness of all output devices after acquisition. This means there is a central repository of device level break/fix information that can be aggregated to provide an enterprise-wide view of output fleets.
Lifecycle management tracks individual devices through each phase of their lifecycle, from acquisition to usage to service history, which provides information necessary when it comes to making informed decisions in the output environment. Lifecycle management can help to produce the documentation necessary for compliance, and can help organisations to maintain the correct level of investment in the output environment to satisfy the needs of the business.
Utilisation management balances the workload of devices in the output fleet. On the one hand it ensures devices are utilised to their optimum capacity, while on the other, over-utilisation is detected quickly allowing proactive management of the device`s maintenance costs.
Finally, training and support provides both once-off and ongoing services to ensure employees can operate at maximum productivity levels.
Onsite fleet management provides a support infrastructure for the output environment. However, it is not always possible to effectively manage assets on site at all times. This is where the remote fleet services component of the distributed fleet management service comes into play.
Remote fleet services enable many of the network-based tasks off-site that were previously required to be performed onsite. Output devices are monitored remotely and the correct personnel are notified if action needs to be taken. Supplies levels and device-specific conditions are identified, diagnosed and acted upon in order to provide fast and accurate problem isolation and resolving.
Typical component options in the remote fleet services are:
* Monitoring and diagnosis, where dedicated resources oversee the output device fleet at regular intervals via a secure VPN connection.
* Configuration management, which provides compliance monitoring for device configuration settings on managed devices.
* Service dispatch, whereby Lexmark organise to send service technicians to a device if remote resolution is not possible.
* Driver deployment, which provides for the remote deployment of drivers to individual customer workstations, helping to simplify the way network-printer definitions are managed on personal computers and print services.
Remote fleet services help to shorten the time it takes to resolve problems, and when combined with onsite fleet management, can provide businesses with greater productivity and satisfaction, faster problem resolution, and fewer help-desk calls.
All this can lead to significant savings, greater return on investment, and ultimately, larger profit margins.
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