Most corporate organisations have far too many printers, which leads to wastage on many fronts. In the first of two Industry Insights on the topic, this month I look at the case for consolidation in this space.
Look around any sizable corporate today and you will see a plethora of printers: desktop printers, inkjet printers, workgroup-class laser printers. They typically come from a variety of sources, with every brand name represented.
They have one commonality: they are difficult to control. They represent one of the greatest and quickest areas for corporate savings, yet few companies have begun to grasp the issue, and push for its resolution.
Those companies that have grasped the issue are realising savings of millions a year. Those savings go straight to the bottom line; and the longer it runs, the greater the savings.
The issue is printer consolidation, and it involves the removal of hundreds, if not thousands, of standalone printers and workgroup printers and their replacement with more easily controllable high-speed, high-volume printers.
Out of control
The problem with printers is a common one, and it has its roots in the same paradigm that makes PCs so hard to manage: client/server computing.
Client/server with its decentralisation bestows great personal freedom on users, but not on management!
The problem with printers is a common one, and it has its roots in the same paradigm that makes PCs so hard to manage: client/server computing.
Ashley Groenendaal, sales and marketing support manager at Bytes Document Solutions
In large corporates there is a proliferation of servers and PCs, and they become quite impossible to manage and for IT to reduce total cost of ownership.
One of the ways to restore control is to recentralise, in effect offloading applications and databases to central servers, a trend that is taking off worldwide.
Similarly, control is restored in the printing field with printer consolidation. Here are the primary indicators driving printer consolidation:
* Rogue procurement: Because printers are so cheap, they easily sail in under spending limits, and just about anyone can and does acquire one. This typically means that employees and departments are stepping outside of and thereby nullifying volume purchasing agreements.
* As we know, the greatest cost in printers lies not in their acquisition but in their operation. Here we are looking at two major costs - toner and paper. Studies have shown repeatedly that toner cartridges are stockpiled, bought inappropriately, or stolen. Paper is stolen in vast quantities, or wasted through inappropriate printing and prints not being collected.
* Management`s inability to gain a view of the assets they own. With the best will in the world, management cannot gain visibility into the printing assets for inventory purposes, for the asset register, or for depreciation purposes.
* Slowness or inconsistency of printing. We all know the feeling when we`re rushing off to a meeting and we`re waiting for a slow printer to pop out its pages.
* Irresponsible printing: With each person having their own printer, there are times when people simply print too much. This is difficult to control when hundreds of people have their own printers.
With printer consolidation, all of these problems, and others, are addressed:
* Many machines are replaced with a few. This eases the issues of cost and asset management, and provides clear visibility into total cost of ownership.
* Theft of toner and paper: as toner is proprietary, and cannot be used at home, there is no incentive to pinch it. Similarly, paper bins are tightly controlled and reams cannot be taken for home use or scrap paper around the office. These printers support a wide range of media and have expandable paper capacity. Many features are incorporated into one, streamlined system - and the more functions users have at their fingertips, the faster and easier the workflow will be.
* Only authorised users may print on the centralised machines, and with the addition of third-party software, before they commit a job, they are informed of the cost of the print job. Only when they accept the cost, is the job printed - this has the side benefit of helping management see costs in each cost centre.
* If confidentiality is a concern, features such as secure print and delay print increase the number of available options while protecting critical information.
* Uniform speed: Everyone knows when and how quickly a job will be printed. And because the centralised printers are industrial-strength, they are far faster than any desktop printer.
Is printer consolidation easy? Does every corporate environment want to rush out and embrace it? The answers in both cases are "no", and in next month`s Industry Insight, I will look at the reasons why and what to do about it.