 Desktop and network printers are one of the largest sources of printing expense. U.S. companies spend an estimated $100 billion each year to print and manage office documents. In addition to the direct printing costs, network administrators claim they spend 15% of their time on printing-related issues. Printer installation and driver management are their top two support issues.
Most corporations have loosely organized methodologies for acquiring and managing office printers. However, few have effective utilization and expense tracking capabilities. Printer fleets often grow by default. This chart portrays the current state of most desktop and networked printing environments and offers a profile of the optimal future state for the local printing environment.
Current State
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Optimized State
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- Too many disparate devices
- Over-purchased & underutilized (1:1 employee to device ratio)
- Unknown costs
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- One/fewer vendors
- Right-sized, digital fleet (>12:1 employee to device ratio)
- Fact-based lifecycle costs
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- Too many clicks
- Internet & e-mail printing out of control
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- Demand management
- Behavior change
- Electronic job submission to simplify & encourage desired behavior
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- Too many vendors
- Bad contracts, especially supplies & paper
- No access to benchmarks
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- Aggregated volume beyond customer
- Renegotiated, more flexible contracts
- Library of benchmarks & best practices
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- Least-cost routing identifies costs, incents work to flow to optimal output device
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PathForward can help you close the gap between your current state and an optimal office printing environment. Experience has demonstrated that companies can realize hard dollar savings of 24-79% in this environment, with a return of investment in six months or less.
Recognizing that each organization is unique, we examine your operations, developing a profile of your current state, then provide you the resources, technology, and subject matter expertise to lead you to an optimized state.
Desktop Fleet Optimization & Management
We optimize management of your entire fleet of printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines and multi-functional devices, looking at employee to device ratios, workflow demands, usage, floor plans, equipment placement and how they are networked to reduce costs and better support your workforce.
Once implemented, we provide the reporting tools to continue to monitor fleet usage and costs. With the support of PathForward’s PrintConcierge®, you can be assured fleets are aligned with workforce needs and corporate goals, sharing best practices and offering alternative print solutions as your organization changes.
To learn more about how we help you achieve savings here and across your enterprise, read about our time-tested methodologies now. Or, contact us now to discuss the document management challenges you face with a PathForward professional.
Also see Enterprise Services.
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