Below is the featured article from The Week In Imagining.

TGI Office Automation

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Year Founded: 1964

No. of Employees: 300+

Recent Performance: Grew 5-9 percent the past three years.

This Year’s Big Accomplishments: Receiving Toshiba’s Market Leadership Award for the Eastern Region and Lanier’s National Award of Excellence for the fifth consecutive year.

Primary Vendors/Product Lines: Toshiba, Lanier, Lexmark, DocuWare

Let’s start off by noting that TGI’s differentiating factor is its focus on premier customer service. As they say, “A satisfied customer is our most important asset.” We know plenty of dealers make that claim but the evidence shows that TGI truly delivers.

Things are changing at TGI and we like what we’re seeing. They’re in the midst of a major rebranding project, changing their logo, Website, and marketing materials with the intent of conveying TGI’s focus on advancing technology and enhanced customer service.

“We are in the process of positioning our Website to be a primary source of industry leading educational information,” says TGI President Frank Grasso. “We have seen an increase in traffic due to the addition of five value-added microsites that solely provide informative information. Additionally, we have transitioned into a new CRM program that allows us to set up predictive e-mail campaigns to our client’s based on the business intelligence we collect.”

Additionally, TGI is bullish on advertising and promotions and the mix includes Bloomberg Business Radio, sponsorship of the Brooklyn Cyclones and Long Island Ducks Minor League Baseball Teams and Outdoor Billboards on Major Highways throughout NYC. These efforts ensure that TGI is never out of sight, out of mind.

We’ve written about TGI’s managed print services program before—GPS (Green, Print, Save)—and that program provides a roadmap for businesses to successfully navigate the winding roads of a print strategy. It’s a strategic initiative that we feel make TGI stand out from the pack. TGI’S GPS offering was developed to help companies identify ways to reduce costs, gain control, and be more environmentally responsible with their printing devices.

Guarantees are commonplace in the office technology industry, and TGI has their Equipment Replacement and Performance Guarantee on all the equipment they sell. If a customer’s copier, fax or printer is out-of-service more than two consecutive business days or requires off-site service, a loaner machine is provided by TGI at no additional charge. Plus if a client’s machine or its accessories do not operate within TGI’s product specifications and if the equipment cannot be repaired TGI will replace the machine or accessory at no charge with a model of equal or better specifications. That may not be unique to the industry, but it further illustrates TGI’s commitment to customer satisfaction.

An active member and supporter of the community, we absolutely love how they speak at local board meetings on how businesses and households can pinpoint opportunities to reduce their environmental impact. They also practice what they preach. In May 2011, TGI installed Solar Panels at their Brooklyn headquarters. This is expected to produce 1,508,847 KWHs of electricity. Not bad.

TGI has also been recognized by its manufacturer partners. This year they were acknowledged with the Toshiba Market Leadership Award for the Eastern Region and Lanier’s National Award of Excellence for the fifth consecutive year.

TGI Office Automation’s focus on providing premier customer service embodies the principle of an Elite Dealer. As does partnerships with strategic accounts and preferred vendors. By creating a strong foundation and a scalable platform for conducting business, TGI has become a business partner that excels at helping its clients solve their business problems. Add up all these qualities and it’s easy to see why this 46-year-old, $50-million office technology dealership is Elite.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TGI OFFICE AUTOMATION HONORED WITH MARKET LEADERSHIP AWARD FOR THE EASTERN REGION FROM TOSHIBA AMERICA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS INC.

BROOKLYN/NEW YORK (June 22, 2011) – TGI Office Automation proudly announced today that it has won Toshiba’s “Market Leadership” award for the Eastern region at the 2011 National Dealer Meeting and End User Conference, held last month at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. This prestigious honor recognizes the leading dealer in this region that best represents continued sales success, technical service expertise and outstanding customer service and satisfaction throughout the previous year.

            “We are proud to present TGI Office Automation with Toshiba’s regional ‘Market Leadership’ award for their diligence and dedication to their customers,” said Larry White, vice president, Sales, TABS. “This dealership has proven that a high-level of service along with Toshiba’s superior products is a winning combination, and as a result we are thrilled to present them with this honor.”

            For more information about TGI Office Automation or to obtain additional product and service information, please visit: www.tgioa.com.

About TGI Office Automation

            TGI Office Automation is a comprehensive office technology provider offering scalable solutions to many of today’s complex business issues. TGI offers unparalleled, innovative technology from industry leading partners like Toshiba, Lanier, Lexmark, Kyocera and HP. These partnerships enable TGI to provide businesses with both cost effective and reliable multifunctional copiers, printers and fax machines. All of the products offered are backed by award winning, factory trained service technicians and certified network engineers.

            TGI is a privately held company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. With offices in New York, New Jersey and Florida, TGI has matured to become a premier provider of business solutions. In addition to hardware solutions, TGI focuses on helping organizations improve document workflow, ensure information security as well as provide control over device output. TGI provides a leading edge document management solution structured to help create, capture, store, access and secure documents more effectively and efficiently.

About Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc.

Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) is an independent operating company of Toshiba Corporation, the seventh largest electronics/electrical equipment company in the world. TABS is a leading provider of managed print and professional services (MPS and PS), and manages product planning, marketing, sales, service, support and distribution of copiers, facsimiles, multifunction printing products, network controllers, and toner products throughout the United States, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. MPS and PS are strategic focus areas for the company, which first developed and began marketing the Encompass™ MPS program in 2003.           

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TABS has five divisions: the Electronic Imaging Division; the Toner Products Division; the Document Solutions Engineering Division; the International Division; and Toshiba Business Solutions (TBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of TABS, that operates a network of wholly-owned office equipment dealers throughout the United States.
             Honored with the Channel’s Choice top award for “Superior Performance” twelve times by the Business Technology Association (BTA), Toshiba’s entire product line, customer support and marketing distribution policies are markers for the industry. For more information on Toshiba products, programs, solutions and services, please visit www.copiers.toshiba.com.

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TGI Transforms Itself into an MPS Provider

Visit Scott Cullen’s Blog here: http://www.strategydevelopment.com/blog/2011/04/tgi-transforms-itself-into-an-mps-provider

SIRIUS channel 130  |  XM channel 129  |  New York, NY AM 1130

TGI Security

TGI GPS

TGI Green

TGI’s Bloomberg Radio spot- GPS

TGI would like to connect with you!
Visit us on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. Also, take a look at our latest microsites for each of our main product offerings including Document Management, Security, Managed Print Services, Green Initiatives, & Mailing Solutions. Our goal is to offer you with valuable information that will help your business.

Join Us at Our Upcoming Lunch & Learns in Your Area!

We are please to announce our upcoming Lunch & Learn Events! TGI is hosting these events at our state-of-the-art showrooms, providing you with a special opportunity to learn about some of the industry’s most important products. At these informational, open-house events, we invite you to get ‘hands on’ with our products. We will guide the demonstrations towards your own particular needs and interests. We will be showcasing the latest advances in imaging technology, enterprise content management solutions, networking infrastructure and much more. We look forward  to seeing you at one of the events the first week in November. Click here for more information on the event in your area.

If you Google Business Process Management you get 90,000,000 results. The huge number of results is just the beginning of the barrage of disjointed information you will find if you click on any of the myriad links provided. Wikipedia offers its definition along with a handful of .org sites, numerous software vendors selling BPM software applications and even a BPM “institute”. Conclusion? BPM isn’t an acronym that can be described in a couple of paragraphs nor is it a single product that you can buy to improve your business. The best definition I found was from a book titled, “A Computer Scientist’s Introductory Guide to BPM”. It defines a business process as, “series or network of value-added activities, performed by their relevant roles or collaborators, to purposefully achieve the common business goal.” So BPM is the management of value-add activities within a business to achieve a common goal, simple right? Click here to read the full article.

 
In response to increased customer interest TGI has launched two new MFP Security services this summer. In an effort to better inform and educate our customers, TGI has created a new web site dedicated to security concerns as they relate to the products and services we offer, www.tgioa.com/sec. There you can find breaking news, security related media, educational materials, and answers to common questions. Feel free to ask any security questions that you may have. One question that we have been getting a lot lately is “what happens to the data in my copier when it is picked up at the end of its life?”  TGI now offers complete data destruction services which will help you protect your company’s information. For the most basic level of security, we will reset your machine back to factory defaults and if there is a hard drive, we will reformat it. For additional security we can sanitize the drive by overwriting any information on it multiple times with a pattern of 1’s and 0’s. For the most security conscious, we can shred the hard drive into particles and recycle them. We also offer these services for devices besides MFPs, such as server and PC drives. If you would like more information about these services, please contact us.

 
Companies are discovering that better management of printing activities can significantly lower costs and have a positive environmental impact. Managed Print Services (MPS), when extended to include electronic document management and workflow solutions, offer an opportunity for companies to eliminate up to 30% of their total print costs, increase employee productivity by enabling faster, paperless processes, and significantly reduce the environmental impact of their business. Read more…

 
TGI continues to “Think Green Ideas.” Our latest initiative is Paperless Billing.  We are offering our clients the option to receive their invoices via email. This not only has a positive environmental impact but also saves time as well as helps to improve the security of your information. To signup for TGI’s Paperless Billing, click here. To read more about green practices, click here.

 
TGI is proud to have announced a merger with PostaLogic Mailing Solutions in June. This merger re-emphasized TGI’s commitment to our customers by  providing technologically advanced product offerings, service, and support. Our clients now have direct access to PostaLogics’s unparalleled mailing solutions including postage meters, digital scales, folder-inserters, letter openers, mailroom software, mailroom furniture, and paper-handling products. No matter the size of your business, PostaLogic offers innovative solutions for every budget. Visit PostaLogic’s new website for more information.

 
I.T. Solutions provides companies like yours the ability to become more productive and more efficient, while also helping with any technology needs to grow your business!  Some of their services include; Technology Management, Flat Rate I.T., Structured Cabling, Backup & Disaster Recovery, Hardware Solutions, Vendor Management, EMR, and more! Contact I.T. Solutions today at 561.582.9467, or visit online at www.ITSolutions247.com.

Brooklyn, NY · New York, NY · Melville, NY · Fairfield, NJ · Pompano Beach, FL · Boca Raton, FL

1.866.go.tgioa     www.tgioa.com

A decade or so ago, not many businesses had heard of managed print services, let alone outsourced the management of their print resources to a company specialising in this service. Today, companies all over the world have begun to realise the value of managed print services (MPS) however, and slowly, businesses are starting to take stock of the volumes of printed material that is produced and wasted each year. From a financial point of view, it is easy to see why MPS have become so important – saving companies thousands each year as they learn to prevent waste due to printers, fax machines, copiers and other print-based appliances. Then there is the practicality of having print resources managed, rather than trying to do this in-house. From an environmental point of view, green printing has taken the world by storm as a way of saving paper and ink, and reducing the environmental impact that mass printing has caused.

The print management field differs in each country however, with first world areas such as the US and Europe being among the first to recognise the huge demand for MPS solutions. Over time, countries such as South Africa, Australia and Asia have also begin to implement MPS solutions, which is slowly helping to address the balance and save costs, time and precious resources all over the world. A look at how each area is implementing MPS practices offers an interesting comparison of how MPS differs across the world:

• South Africa
  The managed print services industry in South Africa is still developing, however many MPS companies are slowly starting to change the way the local South African businesses operate in terms of print resources. The demand for increased corporate governance and sustainability in the country has been a huge factor in the growth of the industry, especially in large companies such as government institutions, educational institutions and other large multi-national organisations. Many companies still view print management services as a back office function however, and awareness is still something that needs to grow. The green advantage has helped many businesses consider MPS, and the cost savings is another huge factor in companies choosing MPS in South Africa.
• Asia/Pacific
  The demand for print management solutions across the Asia/Pacific realm is massive, with recent reports showing that the industry is expected to reach US$530 million in 2010 and surpass US$990 million in 2014. With a growth rate of 17%, the industry has had a huge makeover, with outsourcing and cloud technology proving a huge factor in the demand for outsourced print services across the region.
• Europe
  Events such as the annual MPS Conference bring together print management manufacturers, resellers, corporate decision makers, software providers and other print experts from all over Europe to discuss new trends and insights. Xerox is one of the top MPS providers in Europe, and is worth billions.
• USA
  MPS in the United States is a huge, multi-million dollar industry with many key players. Copy houses such as Canon, Minolta, Dell and HP are all key players, with many specialised print services offered on corporate level. The Managed Print Services Association acts as a governance and advisory board, regulating MPS operators and offering resources within the industry.

By Bob Jones
December 16, 2010

For more in formation on Managed Print Services contact TGI today.

There has already been some movement towards additional regulation that could affect the managed print services industry. It is unclear exactly what measures the managed print services (MPS) providers might be compelled to implement in order to satisfy the privacy concerns that have gained steam in recent months, but vendors should be watching as developments unfold. Considering some pre-emptive action might be a good idea.

The United States Federal Trade Commission is looking into document security in the wake of a CBS News investigation where images of sensitive documents were recovered from devices stored in a New Jersey warehouse. The State of New Jersey is considering legislation regarding the protection of private information stored on copy machines and multi-function devices. Other jurisdictions could follow their lead.

In the meantime, this presents an opportunity for MPS providers. By acting as a partner and trusted advisor, MPS vendors are in a position to educate customers on the potential security risks that are present and find solutions. There are a number of ways to increase security such as: image overwrite (electronic form of shredding can be invoked automatically after each job, on a regular schedule, or manually), user authentication and authorization, hard drive removal and employee training on document security and privacy policies.

Regulations may be coming in the future. Regardless of when they are enacted or what MPS providers will be required to do, addressing the privacy debate head-on can be an effective strategy that helps retain customers and generate referrals. Helping customers take appropriate actions now can benefit the MPS vendor, their customers, and the individuals whose private information may be at risk.

By: Scott Hornbuckle  |  July 30th, 2010  

For further information on Security contact TGI or click here to visit our microsite dedicated to educating our clients on Security.

By Steve Nicholls, CSA Waverley

The tough economic period means that both public and private sector organizations are looking internally to become leaner, more efficient and reduce costs. Amidst all the internal cuts that can be made, printing is perhaps the most overlooked, unaudited expense. This is surprising as printing activity can create a huge, unnecessary overhead – typically consuming 3% of total revenue for businesses.

Within a work environment, the need to print emails, pictures, texts, and web pages, means that print volumes are growing – with an increased demand for color output. Many organizations are also using high end color printer and copier devices to print material – previously the preserve of print houses. Many organizations also possess too many print devices, which are often old, inefficient and expensive to operate.

It is therefore essential that an organization fully understands how efficient its printing activities actually are. Once this awareness is achieved, by employing a best practice’ management approach to controlling printing, will dramatically reduce these potentially high costs.

The Problem Areas

Most organization’s possess an uncontrolled print environment, where ownership and management of printers, scanners and copiers is fragmented across business departments and locations. There may be no centralized record of who owns and uses the equipment, and no information on the most appropriate service contracts. Additionally, few organizations have document tracking systems that accurately measure the true usage for print, scan and copy output.

These chaotic scenarios mean that in the majority of organizations, there can be general lack of control or consideration when printing, coupled with a high level of wastage. The cost of printing per page may seem relatively low, but when you look at the overall volume it represents a substantial overhead.

Whilst the majority of printing consumption comes from normal daily work, there are also common instances of personal use. Organizations that use a large volume of printing and copying – with a high number of individuals using the systems, usually increases the potential for this misuse.

Uncontrolled printing is another factor, which includes costly color printing, to completely unnecessary single sided printing. This really is a criminal waste of company money.

Identifying the true costs of wild, unnecessary printing can be very difficult, especially where companies have multiple offices. However, the bottom line is that printing creates a huge financial drain, so the cost impact shouldn’t be ignored – whatever the size or complexity of an organization.

Another area to examine is the printers themselves. Organizations may think they are saving money by continuing to use old printers but this can be a massive false economy as business efficiency is significantly impacted by printer downtime. Older printers are prone to more chews/jams and can then take forever to print. They can also be very expensive to run due to increased maintenance and supply costs.

Solutions

Most companies may have some form of basic print and copy control systems in place, but they are rarely fully integrated and have little or no management. There is no question that there are real cost savings to be achieved from managing print better. Many businesses are turning to managed print services partners to eliminate inefficiencies and enhance the print process.

Managed print solutions come in different formats, from complete service charges, and ‘cost per click’ contracts. To leasing or outright purchases, or even no upfront costs, and a percentage of annual company savings.

The management and software that is included in these services is so powerful, that money, consumables, resources and green IT issues it solves, can be considerable. For example, the software can enforce duplex printing, black & white or even cancel unwanted jobs.

These services can also be constantly monitored and modified. Allowing printing preferences across specific applications. For instance, all mail and word documents are forced into b/w duplex, PDF on a permissions service and color on PowerPoint.

Another large saving can be generated from permissions and pull printing. This is where company employees have the site access cards programmed and can only collect prints from specific printers by swiping their cards, or via number keypads. The sheer volume of print jobs and thus consumables, saved by only collected, wanted jobs, would surprise even the most conservative organizations.

Clever print reporting tools can then relay very powerful information back to IT and procurement teams. This can then help facilitate print usage training and education for the staff that create this overhead.

Organizations must not be afraid of upgrading and consolidating their printer hardware, as on average, the hardware price of a printer represents just 5% of the total cost of ownership. The remaining 90% of the ownership expenditure covers support and operating costs.

Thankfully, the emergence of Multi-function (MFP) printers has enabled companies to significantly cut ‘ownership’ costs by replacing outdated standalone printers. MFPs provide network printing, copying, faxing and scanning in one device so this efficiency reduces operating and inventory expenses. These highly optimized machines can also save hours in a person’s working week.

Benefits

Making the switch from unrestricted copying and printing, to a system where every page is controlled and accounted for means, as well as reducing usage volume, the amount of waste will be cut.

Savings can be made by reducing print volumes and decreasing the use of other consumables such as ink and toner. The resulting reduction in paper waste and energy consumption will also help organizations become more environmentally friendly.

By investing in a more modern and efficient print environment will improve will enable organizations to quickly save significant costs, which is essential in these challenging times.

For further information on cutting unnecessary printing costs contact TGI Office Automation today.

By Patrick Marshall- Government Computer News

Apr 01, 2010

Printers are the Rodney Dangerfield of information technology. They get no respect — at least when it comes to establishing IT investment priorities.

While the big bucks go to building green data centers and fiber-optic networks, many agencies have left their fleets of printers, scanners and copiers largely unnetworked and unmanaged. Agencies continue to do so even though, according to independent analysts, they could save at least 25 percent of their printing expenses by moving to managed print services. In some cases, the savings can be even greater.

In addition to direct savings, some analysts estimate that organizations with managed print services can improve efficiency by 10 percent to 30 percent, through reduced tech support and help-desk calls, reduced paper flows, and other factors. You also can improve security by gaining greater control over printer access.

As agencies look to cut costs, improve efficiency, go green and improve security — and who isn’t these days? — better management of printers is a tangible, low-hanging fruit that has largely gone ignored.

In a broad sense, the term “managed print services” simply means having a strategy to monitor and control the flow of documents and their output. That could, of course, be accomplished in-house with the right software and policy directives. But generally, adopting a managed print solution, or MPS, means turning to one of a handful of vendors that offer software designed for the job.

The potential benefits of an MPS are many.

For starters, after you network and monitor printers, you can easily track which individuals across an organization are printing. “You can get detailed statistics by user or by department, the amount of print volume, the amount of cost, [and] you can break it down by color and black-and-white,” said Craig Le Clair, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, a consulting group. In addition to being an asset to any security effort, this capability can help administrators spot unusual usage patterns in an effort to control costs or environmental impact.

After analyzing usage patterns, administrators can deploy printers more effectively. For example, one recent study based on an informal survey of 30 companies found that there was one printer for every two or three workers rather than one for every eight to 10 workers, which MPS vendors cite as the ideal range. As a result, equipment has low utilization — on average about 15 minutes per day — even though the devices are consuming energy and budget dollars all day long.

And better deployment of printers could eliminate some printing altogether. Jim Joyce noted that many printed documents have a lifespan of only five minutes in many organizations. “If I do have to get up and walk eight, 12, 15 feet [to reach a printer], it’s more likely I’m going to change my own process, and I’m going to be willing to look at the PDF on the screen and never print it,” he said. “That saves a lot of money.”

Administrators often can remotely manage centrally managed devices. Because the monitoring software can report the configuration and status of printers and multifunctional devices, technical support staff members don’t need to embark on time-consuming trips to check devices.

John Whittaker, computer operations manager at the New York City Housing Authority, said that capability has been a major plus for his staff.

“For example, someone calls in and says they need more toner because their printer is printing too light,” Whittaker said. “I can log in and take a look at the printer and see the toner level is still at 50 percent. I can tell them just to take it out, shake it up and put it back in again. I don’t have to send somebody to go out and take a look at it physically.”

One recent study found that technical support for printers without MPS accounts for nearly 30 percent of help-desk costs.

Support of devices also is more efficient when the fleet is more homogeneous, which happens naturally. Although MPS systems are designed to handle equipment from other vendors, organizations often choose replacement equipment from the MPS provider.

Vendors and analysts say centralized purchasing of devices and supplies across an organization also tends to work in an organization’s favor.

Whittaker agreed. “During the last three-year contract, we saved about $1.2 million just on toner, just by virtue of eliminating people stocking up on toner that they may never use,” he said.

He said that before adopting an MPS, the housing authority didn’t know how many printers it had. “We didn’t know where they were located, we didn’t know the volume of printing being done on a monthly basis, we didn’t know how many cartridges were in users’ possession,” he said. After implementing an MPS, the organization went from having about 1,300 printers to about 650 printers.

Hidden Obstacles

With such obvious benefits and increasingly tight budgets, one might think managed print solutions would be all the rage at federal agencies. But analysts and vendors say fewer than 10 percent of agencies have implemented an MPS.

“The majority are in an unmanaged state where they have distributed purchasing, and there’s no real governance around use of the devices,” Le Clair said.

So what’s holding back adoption?

Experts cite four main factors: invisibility of the problem, distributed budgets and purchasing responsibilities, turf battles, and complex pricing schemes.

“Factor No. 1 is the [lack of] visibility of the problem,” said Brian Henderson. “The costs associated with printing are scattered around a bit. So when the agency looks at what it is spending on printing, it doesn’t get a good feel for what the total expense is, including the devices, the toner, the maintenance, the IT support.”

In short, with scattered costs, an organization might not know the magnitude of the problem or make fixing it a priority. Scattered costs also mean scattered responsibility.

“Problem No. 2 is the way budgets are allocated in federal agencies,” Henderson said.

One department, such as the IT department, usually buys printers, but other departments or individual offices can purchase consumables. Yet another department could be responsible for buying copiers and fax machines.

“With budgets being distributed like that, if someone wanted to really employ print managed services, they would need to consolidate all those buckets together,” Henderson said. “That is a very difficult step for the federal government to take.”

The distributed nature of purchasing also means each department is making decisions based on limited information. When one department buys a printer, it might not be aware of the cost of maintenance, supplies and other hidden consumables, such as energy. “What they report as their cost of printer or copier device ownership is at least 30 to 40 percent understated, relative to the overall cost,” Joyce said.

Pricing Problems

Le Clair said another major hurdle to implementing an MPS — Problem No. 4 — is the complexity and unfamiliarity of pricing models. A typical MPS contract includes a fixed charge for hardware and a per-click charge for services, including consumables and maintenance. And most contracts have different rates for different volumes of printing or scanning. But many agreements also factor in page coverage, or the amount pages that are covered with ink. In short, it can get complicated.

“At a lot of organizations, the people who get involved in these projects are used to doing pretty straightforward hardware purchases,” Le Clair said. But MPS agreements can be anything but straightforward.

“The pricing can be challenging because if you build one of these agreements, you’re going to be using some kind of price-per-image model based on a volume commitment,” he said. “It’s tricky to get the advantage of the volume you’re committing to but not overreach and trigger a higher price.”

Many organizations might not even have staff with the necessary experience to make such an agreement. “There’s a lack of expertise,” he said. “There is a whole level of complexity that is just being understood about how to devise these agreements.”

Finally, Le Clair said, after an organization successfully moves to an MPS, it also needs to consider how that will affect the way people work. “It changes people’s jobs,” he said. “You have people who are responsible for some of these things, and now you’re going to turn it over to an outside entity. So change management is an issue, and you have to get everyone on board. You need to have senior sponsorship, and you need to communicate broadly the goals.”

In addition, the change depends on budget administration. “You’re going to be including more discipline, which means pain,” Le Clair said. “You’re going to make somebody walk around the corner [to get to a printer] instead of having one on their desk. So you’re making their life a little bit less comfortable. So you need to communicate that it’s about more than just saving a few dollars.”

Turning Point

Despite the obstacles to implementing an MPS, recent trends seem to favor a move in that direction.

First, technology has made an MPS easier to implement and more effective.

“In the last year, these devices have gotten so smart,” Henderson said. “For example, you can program the device itself to scan a piece of paper to be able to read certain parts of that piece of paper to make decisions about where to route it. Or if it can’t read the paper, maybe it’s programmed in a way to know what to ask the user so that it knows what to do with the document. It’s the intelligence of the device and the ability to move information quickly and easily.”

Some vendors also point to the growing pressure on agencies to trim budgets and reduce environmental impacts. And with an MPS, Joyce said, “people have awakened to the fact that they don’t have to give something up in order to achieve these benefits.”

“It’s a groundswell,” he said. While noting that the federal sector is generally slower to move, he said his company is seeing growing adoption among state and local governments and school systems.

“We’ve got school systems that are out of money and are laying off teachers,” Joyce said. “And we can tell them, ‘You know what? If you just print a little better, you can save $8 million a year.’” And they are responding. “If you can refresh the client environment and bring in new technology that is environmentally sustainable and you still save money….what is the downside?”

For more information on MPS contact TGI today.

All kinds of technological tricks are being used to reduce the cost and environmental impact of office printers

The Economist
Sep 2nd 2010

The dream of the paperless office has been around for years, but it has remained just that, despite the rise of e-mail and the web. True, paper consumption in American offices peaked in 2001, but since then it has declined only slightly from its high of around 150 pounds (68kg) of paper per worker per year. In Europe, meanwhile, each worker prints an average of 31 pages a day, seven of which were not even wanted, according to recent research by Lexmark, a printer manufacturer.

The cost of all that paper, toner and ink quickly adds up. Which is why, earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay adopted a novel strategy to save money on print supplies: it changed its fonts. Programs like Microsoft Outlook default to Arial, but a thinner-lined typeface such as Century Gothic requires less toner or ink to form its characters. A study in 2009 showed that switching to Century Gothic could save businesses as much as $80 per printer per year. The university predicts that this year it will reduce its $100,000 print-supplies bill by around 10% by making this simple change.

“No one had put the facts together, namely, that ink or toner is very expensive, that people still print a lot, and that there is a lot of variance between fonts in how much ink they use,” says Diane Blohowiak, the university’s director of computing. So far no students or staff members have complained. And the FBI, local governments and even America’s space agency, NASA, have all come calling, hoping to make similar savings too.

Thrifty though a font like Century Gothic may be, a Dutch company, Ecofont, has found a way to make a font that is even thriftier: by punching holes in the letters. The firm did this by creating a new version of a popular font called Vera Sans which is shot through with tiny holes. The firm says this can reduce the amount of ink or toner needed by 25%, with no effect on legibility. (Ms Blohowiak and her colleagues disagreed, deciding not to use the new font because it was sometimes difficult to read on screen.)

Ecofont’s new software goes one better, letting people use “normal” fonts on screen and inserting the holes only at print time—and then only for small type sizes, where they are less apparent. Ecofont recently picked up a European Environmental Design Award for its work.

A further way to cut costs and reduce environmental impact is to use less paper. These days it’s usually a matter of a few clicks to print out a document on half as many sheets, simply by rotating and squeezing two pages onto each one. But this can be hard on the eye. So a better option is duplex printing: printing at full size, on both sides of each sheet. According to a recent European Union “green purchasing” guide, duplex printing can cut costs by 38% over the life of a printer. Citigroup once estimated that it could save $700,000 a year and eliminate 76 tons of solid waste if every employee saved only one sheet of paper per week by using duplex printing or copying. Duplex printing is a common feature on modern printers and copiers. But when was the last time you used it? The real challenge, as the EU guide notes dryly, is persuading people to “actually use the duplex function”.

Using clever fonts and saving paper are all bottom-up ways to cut printing costs. There is also an increasingly popular top-down option, known in the trade as “managed print services” (MPS). This involves outsourcing the operation and management of office printers and copiers to an external supplier. That supplier is paid a monthly fee, and then has an incentive to cut printing costs by exploiting economies of scale in procurement, replacing printers with more efficient models and so forth. Some MPS suppliers even monitor individual employees’ use of printers or copiers in order to identify particularly wasteful or inefficient practices.

 The industry’s rule of thumb is that MPS can cut costs by around 30%. As companies look for ways to save money, it is not surprising that the global MPS market grew by 27% to $25.8 billion in 2009, according to Photizo Group, a market-research firm.

Of course, the best thing, from both a cost-saving and an environmental point of view, would be not to print at all. In parallel with efforts to cut costs within their offices, many firms have also introduced automatic e-mail signature lines that ask external recipients to “consider the environment before printing this e-mail”. Does this work? Nobody knows. But until the paperless office finally comes along, it is at least a cheap way to look environmentally conscious.

For further information on reducing print costs contact TGI.