The consensus among vendors and analysts is that an addiction to printing needs to be addressed. Everyone interviewed, whether manufacturers, managed service providers, analysts or procurement specialists, shared the view that organizations have far too many printers. End-users are happy to have the printers, but won’t take the responsibility for managing the costs, so they have to be reined in.

Auditing is the key stage of rationalization. This is where you need an outsider to come in and make the tough decisions to ensure objectivity. Most companies, unfortunately, have no knowledge of who prints what, how much their print fleet is utilized or which departments are paying for it. Larger companies have as many as one printer for every three employees. Auditing is difficult enough, for reasons which will become apparent, but acting on that audit is even harder. Few big companies are organized so that one person has overall authority.

The CIO who can tie up all these strands, or unify purchasing and management under one authority, is laying the groundwork for a much more effective strategy. Again, human vanity is at play so reverse psychology may work in persuading others of your wisdom. Ask budget holders if they want to absorb all the costs for consumables and they may well decide to relinquish control.

Once you have all departments on board, a solution is attainable and we can help you find the best MPS for your entire organization.  Call us today.