Managed Print Services Improve the Core Business
It’s never been cheaper to loose money in printing. Printer and similar hardcopy device (multifunctional devices, faxes etc.) along with toner, ink and/or click prices are continuously going down. Hardcopy documents are said to be of less and less importance. So, why should anybody in any company make any effort to tightly control and effectively manage the printer fleet?
Reality reveals a different picture: printing more and more becomes an issue for companies’ optimization initiatives. First, because printing is one of the last domains in which enterprise IT governance finds substantial potential for improvement. Only a couple of years ago the former “copier” has actually been added to IT management’s responsibilities. It has officially become part of the “output peripherals” which the “ordinary” printer belongs to since long. All of sudden, there is joint view on the complete device fleet which provokes questioning if it really meets the company’s business needs – or rather the individual inclinations of many single users. “Right-sizing” is the keyword driving optimization projects in this respect.
Second, it comes to mind what it means to operate an organically grown fleet of “cheap buys”. What has long become strategy for providing the workers with PC workstations is now sought to be applied for printers and other output peripherals, too. Always buying the same limited set of models might bring higher purchase prices. But savings in administrating and supporting, in building internal know how of users and user helpdesk staff, of unifying commercial processes are more than justifying. This is a fact that only controlling external spending will rather likely never reveal. An internal or external consultant will be needed to deeply look into the related process cost to identify whether it’s cheaper to work with one professional service provider or to burden each business unit with doing their own analysis and optimizing their individual sub-targets.
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