Seize the Golden Opportunity to Slash Your Office Printing Costs Now

By Pete Bailiere, drawing on office print research conducted by Ken Weilerstein, both of Gartner

Every HVTO organization does office printing but few manage their office printing as well as they could. Gartner consistently finds that even well-managed businesses, in all sizes, regions and economic sectors, consistently fall short. Is yours one of them? What can you do about it?

The economic recession presents you with a golden opportunity to manage office printing. Executives and stakeholders that rejected or took no interest in past efforts are more likely to support the effort and cooperate.

Office printing remains an underexploited savings opportunity, and actively managing it will reduce your spending by 10% to 30%. The failure to rein in your office printing costs risks having them spiral even higher as users print more image-rich and color-intensive documents. For example, some organizations have seen the percentage of color pages double over the last five years, while others report some color on 40% or more of their pages.

Active management of office printing can reduce your costs but only if you have a strategy and then carry it out, which is easier said than done. Some organizations try to rein in their office printing but encounter many obstacles and, thus, give up in frustration. Others are overwhelmed from the outset by numerous and tangled problems and never even try. A basic strategy must anticipate and then overcome the obstacles.

Gartner’s basic three-step strategy, found in Ken Weilerstein’s report “The Golden Opportunity to Slash Your Printing Costs: Seize It Now,” addresses the various obstacles and helps you reach your goal:

·         Rightsizing removes poorly matched, outmoded and redundant equipment and leaves behind an optimum match of equipment for your needs. The right mix of equipment begins with a clear understanding of your need and must take into consideration your goals for cost reduction and user service levels, as well as environmental, security and other considerations.

·         Competitive purchasing consolidates the fragmented purchasing and proliferation of different makes and models, so as to maximize your purchasing clout.

·         Managing and monitoring over time means developing permanent policies to keep your printing environment optimized. Even recently optimized printer fleets may slip out of alignment with the organization's true needs as the economy reduces the workforce and results in changes to roles and processes. Success requires earning the executive and departmental backing you need to enforce those policies over time. 

Management and stakeholders are more likely to support you than ever before. Ken Weilerstein’s extensive research into successful office print optimization efforts reveals the four keys to your success:

·         Carefully research and build your case to manage office printing. The more knowledgeable you are about your starting costs, and your organization's office printing needs, the better your chances for success.

·         Do not take today's economic pressures as permission to impose policies without first involving and winning over organizational stakeholders.

·         When deciding whether to invest in tools and services to actively manage office printing, balance the investment against the costs of doing nothing, because an inefficient starting state is also costly to maintain.

·         Use the environmental benefits that tend to accompany an office printing optimization to help sell the idea.

Management and stakeholders are more likely to support you than ever before. Office politics that worked against actively managing print now favor it. Seize the moment and begin the effort to reduce your costs.

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To learn more about this topic, attend the 2009 Print & Imaging Summit, where you will join Pete and Ken for a can’t miss conference agenda.

Pete Basiliere is research director in the Technology and Service Provider organization, providing research and advice on production printing systems and applications, including best practices, market strategies and technology trends. He also writes the ongoing column “Pete’s Perspective,” covering high volume transaction output topics, at OutputLinks.

Ken Weilerstein is a research vice president specializing in document-related technologies. He closely tracks the printer, MFP and electronic output industries. Mr. Weilerstein advises Gartner's thousands of end-user clients on these subjects, helping them make decisions and prepare their strategic plans. He also takes the lead role in setting the agenda for print and related subject for Gartner's end-user clients. Mr. Weilerstein speaks at Gartner conferences and at other industry conferences, such as Xplor.