Businesses today are adopting a myriad of print “solutions”. These are basically hunts to find the bigger, faster machine for the least price. While there is no doubt that more sophisticated machines can solve more printing challenges, and are thus, “solutions” to a certain extent of the word – there is a lot more to it than just the hardware itself.

A commonly centralised device, like the huge copier-type machines that sit at a dedicated corner of the office, form only part of the solution to reducing costs and achieving productivity gains. The fact is, no single form of deployment, be it centralised or decentralised, has demonstrated the ability to bridge the polarity between productivity and low running costs.

A true solution, thus, needs to take into consideration a variety of factors so that maximum benefits can be reaped from your investments. That’s basically what Balanced Deployment is all about – Putting Print Technology within reach and achieving maximum productivity with a minimum cost of ownership.  

Getting It Right

In the past, organisations typically assess the effectiveness of their imaging and output infrastructure through TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). This measure would take the cost of purchasing the machine, print volume, warranty, servicing agreement and consumables into consideration, to determine the success or failure of their imaging and output strategies.

However, by simply calculating the cost to produce a page, while ignoring factors such as the soft costs - for example, time walking to and waiting at the device, single point of failure etc, - ignored the hidden opportunity and productivity costs. (Fig 1)

In order to factor all these issues into consideration, so that costs and productivity can co-exist in harmony within an organisation, a methodology needs to be applied; this is Balanced Deployment. Balanced Deployment is conducted by a consultant to assess the IT setup, organisation workflow and imaging requirements of the company. From the data gathered, he will recommend the appropriate hardware and software configuration required to optimise the needs of that specific organisation.

The benefits of a Balanced Deployment are multifold. These include:

• Improved imaging efficiency between staff and between departments
• Optimised distribution of machines for individual and shared needs
• User-friendly software management
• Scalable investments
• Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with high productivity

How It Works

The first stage of this methodology is the assessment of existing imaging infrastructure. This analysis highlights clearly where productivity and cost savings can be made. The five leading “issues” surrounding imaging and output for any organisation include:

1. Lack of knowledge concerning costs associated with imaging and printing hardware
2.  Difficulty in assessing device utilisation
3. The cost of consumables
4. Maintaining and repairing hard copy devices
5. Higher costs associated with an aged hardcopy device fleet

A basic understanding of the above five points will allow the organisation to gain a macro perspective on its operation challenges, and pave the way for effective Balanced Deployment aimed at maintaining even utilisation.
The actual Balanced Deployment is an assessment of usage and business workflow process around three main areas:

1. Document hard copy – print, fax, copy and scan
2. Associated hardware costs – device, consumables and maintenance
3. IT support costs – help desking, upgrade programmes and services

These are analysed taking into consideration employee productivity issues, like distance to device, frequency and volume of use and device features.
To gain a deeper insight into the operations, the following checklist will help the consultant in gathering much of the background information. A typical list is as follows:

• Copy volumes and trends over the past six months
• Printing volumes and mix over the past six months
• Fax volumes and trends
• Combined usage by department
• Combined usage by heavy users
• Productivity issues and bottlenecks
• Document storage and retrieval practices
• User support mechanism
• Power consumption
• Space utilisation

From the data collated, an assessment survey will be conducted, detailing a comprehensive study of the company’s current imaging, printing and output environment. This is conducted as follows: - Needs Analysis (Survey) – looks into different needs, imaging volumes and requirements, and demands of departments and individuals - Assess Analysis (Survey) – looks at floor plan, movement, waiting time, single point of failures and users’ behaviour - Design Analysis (Process) – optimise deployment across the surveyed area

- Strategic Implementation (Process) – achieve balance in resource utilisation

- Management Tools (Integration) – administrative, job accounting management

A good appreciation of all these points is essential before any recommendations for improvement can be made. (Fig 2)

Improvements

After the background research and analysis are completed, the most crucial question remains. What does all the work translate to?

As mentioned, the gains for a Balanced Deployment are multi-fold.

From the Print perspective, it is likely that print volumes will decrease as the printing and imaging technologies are effectively utilised in the organisation. Gartner predicts that up to 70% of office documents are three pages or less.

The major concern is not the cost of actual printing, but the cost associated with submitting and retrieving the required pieces of paper. Most printers need to be distributed among workgroups in order to maximise user productivity.

With Balanced Deployment, integration of new printer technologies into the workplace can be achieved. This translates into more effective use of technology to improve running cost and productivity.

This is also going to be the case for Copying and Scanning. IDC predicts that physical copy volumes are declining at 5% per year. This is in contrast to digital copying, where softcopies of documents are distributed via emails, read online or archived in servers.

Balanced Deployment will take into consideration the areas where digital documents can be most effectively used, and recommend machines with features like Scan-to-email, where physical documents can be scanned and immediately transmitted to the required recipient via email.

Another area of high paper consumption is through Fax. This is a very convenient method of communication, and will continue to be a crucial component of any organisation. To improve on the effectiveness of faxing however, the consultant can recommend utilising the PC Fax function that is standard in all Brother’s Multi-Function Centres (MFCs).

Here, the user can send his fax documents from his PC without having the need to print out any hard copy. The function can be shared by other users via a network, and best of all, the software allows the user to easily configure many send and receive options according to his needs.

Conclusion A Balanced Deployment is able to strike an optimal balance in an organisation’s workflow with regards to (Fig 3): Printers and multifunctional peripherals – to meet the forecast printing, faxing, copying and imaging requirements Large central machines to process large print jobs cost-effectively, while smaller distributed machines maintain the productivity of the general office Devices to support the current working practices, which can also be easily integrated into the IT infrastructure, supported and maintained.

Productivity gains where time management is improved through less time spent waiting for other print jobs to be completed, coupled with strategically positioned devices to cut down on travel time.