ROI Print Manager

ROI in Print Assessment mode will have shown all of the hard costs of printing on the network. Yet to create the perfect print strategy the soft cost of printing must also be taken into consideration. For instance, it may take 10 seconds and cost 10c or more to print one page to an inkjet on the desktop as opposed to less than 1c to print to the nearby Multi Function Device (MFD). However, if the user now takes 2-3 minutes to print that 1 page on the MFD because they have to get up from their desk, walk to the device, punch in a pin code, wait for it to print and then return to their desk, the additional soft cost of lost productivity could be many times more than the physical 9c saved by printing to the cheaper MFD (assuming even the cheapest user costs a company a minimum of $10/hour, 3 minutes = 50c so net loss to the company of the new print strategy is now 41c per 1 page document compared to the old desktop strategy!).

Taking the above into consideration the ideal print strategy would certainly include end users keeping their desktops, so why doesn't it happen? The answer is because the users typically don't associate a cost with printing so they just continue to print everything to nearest convenient printer regardless of cost and printing initiatives..

To break this cycle ROI Print Manager subtly changes end User behaviour by informing and empowering Users every time they try to print a document to an inappropriate device. This means users can freely print very small documents at the desktop without intervention, but will be encouraged to select a cheaper alternative offered by ROI if they try to print a larger document to an inappropriate and expensive device. Multiple thresholds are easily configured giving enormous potential for productivity gains and further big savings on the cost of printing. All thresholds are fully configurable and can be made mandatory or advisory depending on the User status. ROI means 50 page colour documents will never be printed on 4 page per minute ink jets again!

ROI Print Manager also features extensive on-going reporting detailing activity and costs for every group, User, workstation and printer on the network.

Gartner estimates that by year-end 2005, 60% of all enterprises will have initiated an enterprise wide effort to optimize spending on their output fleet. To do so companies will be looking for solutions and services that will help them manage a diverse output fleet effectively, including the capability to:

• Match output device resources to users - adding or eliminating devices as required
• Consolidate multiple older devices (scanner, printers, fax) into single, networked multifunction devices
• Identify and track all print activity across the enterprise - including personal and networked printers
• Shift page volume from personal and workgroup printers to high-volume, more cost-effective multifunction devices - where appropriate
• Identify those users who account for the most waste and abuse of the print resources

Sometimes however, this is easier said than done. The biggest hurdle is when the User base feel excluded from the modernization process or even downright threatened. Users become very attached to their printers, often seeing them as badges of rank or trophy printers. Removing a personal printer is often emotive and done at your peril! Ideally any new print strategy should include educating and empowering the end Users. It should take into account the soft cost of printing (because removing every desktop may not be the most cost effective solution) and it should make substantial cost savings and efficiency gains.

Unfortunately, many have tried but few have succeeded in implementing such a strategy. Educating Users to know which is the most cost effective device to print any given job to is expecting a lot, but to then expect them to actually do it every time is almost certainly not going to happen - that is until now and the advent of ROI Print Manager