MCPc Blog

5-Step Printing Assessment, Step 1: Gather Data

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Over the next several days on the MCPc blog, we’re taking a deep dive into the Imaging & Printing Assessment process. We’ve already discussed how assessments can help companies save money on imaging and printing costs, and also how to determine whether to insource or outsource the assessment. In looking at the assessment process itself, we’ve put together a five-step approach, each of which will be covered in a seperate blog post:

• Gather Current-State Analysis Data
• Crunch the Numbers
• Validate Findings
• Develop Future-State Recommendations
• Develop Your Implementation Plan

So, to get started on your Imaging & Printing Assessment, you need to perform a current-state analysis. To do so, you want to evaluate all copier contracts, monthly service invoices, toner purchase history, device usage patterns, device physical location, and various operations or workflow processes that affect end-user productivity. These data points are the raw data used to calculate your current-state costs, and will be used as a benchmark against which to measure cost savings when assessment recommendations are implemented.

Step 1: Categorize Your Spend

Because there is a lot of data to collect, it’s a good idea to break up the data into buckets. This makes it easier to understand and also helps you identify gaps in your data.  Below are some recommended buckets and their associated costs. Depending on your preferred procurement processes, these buckets may be easy or more complex to decipher. 

• The Copier
  • Monthly Lease Costs
  • Monthly Service Costs (base charge)
  • Monthly Cost / Page Costs
  • Lease Term / Asset
  • End of Lease – Return Costs
  • Lease Early Termination Costs
  • Excess Toner Costs
• The Printer
  • Printer Purchase or Lease Costs
  • Lease Early Termination Costs
  • Toner Purchase Costs (look back 12 months)
  • Break / Fix Contract Costs
  • Time & Materials Costs
  • Additional Maintenance Costs
  • Self Maintainer Costs
• The Fax Machine
  • Fax Machine Purchase or Lease Costs
  • Lease Early Termination Costs
  • Toner Purchase Costs (look back 12 months)
  • Service Contract Costs

Step 2: Collect Device Usage Data

In addition to collecting all of your cost data, you need to collect information about device usage. This information is both objective and subjective.

The objective information is the monthly usage data. Like reading the odometer on a car, all printers, copiers, and fax machines contain an odometer that can be read by installing a software-based, data-collection agent on network-connected devices. The subjective information comes from talking with end users. It is important to gain departmental feedback, especially from department managers, and to understand their needs for special finishing features, color use and quality, and workflow habits. Incorporating departmental information in your current-state analysis can bring extra credibility to the assessment.

Step 3: Evaluate Floor Plans

Lastly, it’s important to document physical device location with a floor plan. The goal of floor planning is to evaluate device placements, so that you can ensure that they are in the most optimized physical locations. Documenting the current floor plan helps you visualize where departments may lack features, where bottlenecks exist, and where you have too many devices.

Sample printer floor plan - Click here to view a larger image.

Conclusion

While collecting the data can be time consuming, your assessment will reap the benefits of your hard work. Also, while you are collecting subjective date, you can communicate the positive aspects of the assessment to each department, and slowly build company-wide buy-in.

After you have collected all of the raw data it’s time to begin crunching the numbers, a topic that will be discussed in tomorrow’s post.

5-Step Printing Assessment Series:

1. Gather the Data

2. Crunch the Numbers

3. Validate Your Findings

4. Build Final Deliverables

5. Implementation

Jeffrey Goldstein is Senior Consultant at MCPc and is responsible for the delivery of hardcopy and value-added services within the Lifecycle Management Group. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.