HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog

Connecting with Enterprise Customers

2008-08-14T22:16:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

I am in the nation’s capital this week (actually Georgetown but very close to DC and on Pennsylvania Street) with our East Coast Enterprise Customer Advisory Council (EAC). There is nothing better than time spent with customers – staying on the ground with the issues and challenges they’re facing. And, it’s exciting for us – from the perspective of what HP has to offer – to help them manage the challenges, improve workflows and save money.

Our customers here are telling me that cost containment, green IT and green printing are still the hottest topics. Customers love HP’s Web Jetadmin and Univeral Print Driver and we are committed to providing a best-in-class experience with these important software platforms. Scanning is also on the rise and our customers are successfully replacing copiers with HP MFPs and in many cases, relying on HP’s Managed Print Services.

We are so lucky to have great large enterprise customers who will take 2 days out of their busy schedules on a regular basis to meet with us and give us invaluable feedback. Tomorrow we will cover the product portfolio and future direction as well as our green printing solutions. I am looking forward to more great feedback. These customers shape our investments and directions. Coming up next month we will be in Berlin, Germany and Calgary, Canada for more customer councils. On the road again – and enjoying every second of customer interaction.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, universal print driver, web jetadmin, managed print services

HP Broadens Portfolio of Imaging and Printing Solutions for Enterprise Customers

2008-08-12T16:02:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

At the risk of sounding like a marketer, our portfolio of imaging and printing solutions for enterprise customers is impressive – and growing fast. Today, HP announced five new solutions. Check out the media alert for more information. All were designed to help customers maximize efficiency and improve business processes, and all were created by HP Solutions Business Partners, working through our industry-leading Solutions Business Partner (SBP) program.

We’ve talked a lot about the program since launching it back in May of 2007 – and it just keeps getting better. The program’s success is a testament to our commitment to enterprise customers and to our solution partners – independent software vendors and system integrators. Now, we have more than 100 partners offering 300+ solutions. Our solution quality assurance program, called the HP Solution Business Partner Accreditation, Certification and Test (ACT) program, is also gaining momentum, with 13 accredited partner companies and 20 HP-certified solutions.

One aspect of the program our partners find particularly valuable is the HP Open Extensibility Platform (OXP). This platform – it’s really a next generation software development kit – delivers important business and technical benefits for HP customers and our partners who develop and integrate their solutions for HP printing platforms.

Last, but not least, customers can easily integrate document management applications and improve productivity with the recently announced HP Scanjet N9120 Document Flatbed Scanner, which is now certified with document capture solutions from three HP Solutions Business Partners: Kofax, Omtool and ReadSoft. The scanner, now available for purchase, is ideal for users looking to enhance productivity, efficiency, document handling and reliability.

There’s so much more going on in the program – all good stuff, a lot to write about. I’ll keep you updated here, and of course, HP and our partners will continue to do great work together.

Learn More: HP Broadens portfolio of imaging and printing solutions for enterprise customers

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, Solutions Business Partner program, HP Scanjet N9120, HP Open Extensibility Platform

Reaching your green fatigue threshold? HP's committed to the environment.

2008-07-23T20:37:00Z

Alison Graves
Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s Enterprise Imaging and Printing Business

Are you beating yourself up for infractions like pitching a soda can in the trash or forgetting to bring your own travel coffee mug into Starbucks? If you answered yes, then you might be suffering from “Green Guilt.” Are you skeptical of every green marketing claim and more interested in the U.S. presidential election and Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby? Then you probably have “Green Fatigue.” The New York Times reports the green fatigue threshold has been reached. PR and marketing professionals are trying to figure out what to do about it as experts worry the trend will soon die off. “After 18 months, levels of concern on any issue tend to drop off,” said Jonathan Banks, business insight director in Britain at Nielson, in an interview with the Times.

According to PR industry e-zine, Bulldog Reporter, “The problem boils down to misleading and exaggerated environmental claims and ties by advertisers that have consumers caught on an overgrown lawn of green skepticism.” For example, the Times points out that The Advertising Standards Authority received 561 complaints from consumers about green claims in 410 ads in 2007, up from 117 complaints about 83 ads the year before.

Where does that leave HP? Our commitment to environmental stewardship isn’t just a passing phase – in fact, it’s built into our DNA as a company, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were pioneers in recognizing that beyond making a profit, a company has a responsibility to enrich the businesses, lives and communities of its customers, partners, employees and stakeholders. Sure, like almost everyone else, we amped up our green marketing in the last year, but our claims are very real. They not only relate to our own commitment to the environment, but also our work to support our enterprise customers green goals. And speaking of our own commitment: Last week HP’s Corvallis site was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as exemplary steward, for making efforts, both internally and externally, to go above and beyond legal requirements for protecting the environment. The Corvallis site has reduced the total amount of electricity use by 6 percent, accounting for 9.7 million megawatt-hours, and invests in 4.2 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year. Congratulations HP Corvallis!

HP Becomes a Certified IT Asset Disposal Vendor

2008-07-16T15:20:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

Great news today from HP Financial Services group: Leading global IT industry analyst firm, IDC, certified HP as an asset disposal vendor. What exactly does that mean? “Asset disposition” refers to the re-use, recycling and de-commission of the IT assets a company no longer needs. Those assets run the gamut of computer hardware, including printers, monitors, disk-drives or even servers.

Being a Certified IT Asset Disposal Vendor means IDC has evaluated and certified that business customers can have confidence in HP’s ability to safely and securely dispose of their IT assets – whether they’re made by HP or another manufacturer. IDC’s certification criteria covered 34 separate functions and tasks, including manufacturing processes, end-of-use practices, environmentally sound practices and ability to help customers safeguard proprietary information.

HP Financial Services is the company’s asset management and leasing subsidiary and a very important partner to our WW Sales & Services organization. Intelligent disposition of older IT assets is critically important to our customers. The IDC certification provides additional assurance that HP is the ideal partner for optimizing their imaging and printing infrastructure, managing the environment, improving workflows or supporting their environmental stewardship.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, HP Financial Services, certified IT asset disposal vendor

HP's Carbon Footprint Calculator is Now Available

2008-07-03T21:41:00Z

Michelle Price

Manager, Worldwide Environmental Strategic Marketing, Imaging and Printing Group

On May 22nd, HP’s Imaging and Printing Group made a huge environmental announcement. As part of the announcement, we introduced the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator and indicated that it’ll be available at the end of June. Well, it’s now available. It takes about a minute to load. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

The HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing helps you compare the carbon footprint of an existing sample printer fleet to that of a new, optimized LaserJet-based fleet. The calculator helps you understand how you can reduce your impact on the environment. It assesses printer energy and paper use, the carbon impact of usage and associated monetary costs based on geographical energy assessments.

If you are interested in learning more about the recent HP environmental announcement, click here or check out Mike Feldman’s blog about the announcement.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business, carbon footprint calculator

HP Imaging & Printing Group restructuring and what it means to you

2008-06-26T16:42:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

The HP Imaging & Printing Group organizational changes you may have read about last week are great news for our enterprise customers. Most of the press coverage has accurately reported on the reorg, including this article in The New York Times, as a continuation of IPG’s Print 2.0 strategy. I’ll write more about customer benefits later in this post, but first, an overview of the new structure:

HP’s Imaging & Printing Group (IPG) will now have three global business units: LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, Graphics Solutions, and Inkjet and Web Solutions.

Bruce Dahlgren will continue to lead IPG enterprise sales, but the business unit is expanding beyond the Global Enterprise Business, and will be re-named, the Worldwide Sales & Services team. I’ll continue to lead our enterprise sales and marketing team, but our charter is expanding to include both direct and indirect sales.

Benefits to Customers

The new, simplified organization updates IPG’s structure to sharpen our customer focus. We will continue to streamline and strengthen the delivery of fully integrated offerings – solutions that will help customers manage the challenges of their imaging and printing environment – optimizing the infrastructure, managing the environment and improving workflows.

We remain 100 percent focused on helping customers solve business problems – whether it’s lowering costs, managing risk (compliance and security), enhancing productivity, or speeding time to market. Customers already benefit from the scope and scale of HP’s distinction as the largest IT company in the world. Now, they’ll benefit even more from efficient delivery of imaging, printing and services that are crucial to their business and to customer satisfaction.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard

Final Thoughts from the HP Tech Forum

2008-06-20T19:08:00Z

Karla Winter
Marketing Program Manager
HP Imaging and Printing Group

Hello again from the HP Tech Forum in sunny Las Vegas. Today marks that last day of the forum and I was very pleased to see lots of people in attendance at the closing general session this morning. It really says that people are willing to put in the time investment to stay engaged.

The closing session featured presentations from AMD, Brocade and Intel, continuing the discussion on data center transformations and showing the power that these vendors, along with HP, can bring to the data center of the future.

The highlight of the closing session was a visit from comedian Howie Mandel. Very funny – in fact, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. What a great way to perk up a crowd of people who had the look of “too much Las Vegas” on their faces! Tonight the HP 2008 Tech Forum wraps up with a concert featuring Matchbox 20.

As I’m working the last few hours in the expo area, I continue to be impressed with the number of vendors that are here to help round out the story and showcase the capabilities they bring to the table along with HP.

The Universal Print Driver continues to be the hot topic in the booth. This is the strategy moving forward for HP – one print driver instead of individual drivers – so get on board with the transformation! The HP Universal Print Driver for Windows ® is a single, intelligent print driver that gives users instant access to a wide range of HP print devices, replacing individual product drivers. The HP Universal Print Driver makes it easy to connect to HP printing devices without having to download separate, product-specific drivers. And a more streamlined imaging and printing environment means less strain on the network and easier installation of new printers and queues. And the Universal Print Driver will help you optimize and better manage your printing infrastructure. And it’s free! Check it out at www.hp.com/go/upd.

Another major highlight of the printing and imaging section of the HP booth was the HP Retail Photo Kiosk – a walk-up device being deployed in major retailers, where customer can walk up and print their photos. Attendees have been walking away with pictures stating how “cool” it is.

Attendees were also looking at many of our consumer printers for home use to print pictures and to use in their home offices. Featured models were:

HP Office Jet Pro L7590 all-in-one
HP Office Jet Pro K8600
HP Photosmart Pro B8850
HP Photosmart C8180 all-in-one
HP Photosmart D7460

All-in-all, it was a great week, with great customers and vendor partners. Remember to Get Connected – People, Technology and Solutions from HP.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, HP Tech Forum, universal print driver

HP Tech Forum 2008

2008-06-19T18:57:00Z

Karla Winter
Marketing Program Manager
HP Imaging and Printing Group

Greetings from the HP Tech Forum in Las Vegas, where things are hot. Not only is the temperature hot, 107 degrees, but so are the offerings from HP.

We’ve taken over the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center for HP Tech Forum 2008. HP Tech Forum is a technical training event and showcase where customers and resellers can learn about the latest HP enterprise technologies, products, applications and services as well as participate in discussions that will shape future offerings. Numerous breakout sessions, hands-on training and demonstrations are available.

The event started with a general session Tuesday morning featuring Randy Mott, HP’s CIO, sharing the story of HP’s IT transformation. Ann Livermore, HP’s Executive Vice President for the Technology Solutions Group, then took the stage and continued the story. Mark Hurd made a quick appearance to answer some questions and to thank everyone for their business and for coming to the event. The room was packed, with many people standing. Live music blasted from the stage and created a party-like atmosphere. The “host” of the event had the audience dancing and shouting “HP Rocks”. One customer from Canada was put on the spot and asked to do some dancing. He was a great sport and had the moves!

I’m helping to staff the expo area where the power of HP is on display. We have servers, storage options, software, services, PCs and printing – the one place where a customer can see everything HP has to offer. The expo area also has several companies demonstrating how their products and solutions work with HP.

On the printing side, we’ve seen great interest in the Universal Print Driver and multifunction printers, and how MFPs can be an alternative to a copier. We’ve also talked to customers about the importance of having a printing and imaging strategy in place and how a better optimized printing and imaging infrastructure can result in cost savings.

I am looking forward to meeting more customers and hearing what their needs are and discussing how HP can help them.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, HP Tech Forum

Awards

2008-06-16T18:02:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

The Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, the CMT (Country Music) Awards; the Tony Awards, the MTV Movie Awards, and finally, six months into 2008, the biggest award of them all: The BLI (Buyers Laboratory Inc.) Spring “Pick” Awards.

And the winner of the BLI Special Achievement Award for Innovation goes to:

The HP CM8060 Color MFP with Edgeline Technology

This acknowledgement from BLI, coming a full year after the product hit the streets and started to aggressively capture copier pages for HP, is especially gratifying. A few quotes from the review:

“The CM8060 Color MFP proved itself admirable in BLI’s testing, separating itself from the pack with innovative features not regularly seen on its copier MFP competitors for a price that is the lowest of competitive models. Featuring a very large, well-labeled color touch-screen control panel, the CM8060 Color MFP also raises the bar for ease of removing misfeeds, providing live-action video on the control panel and LEDs throughout the device to guide users.

“The HP CM8060 Color MFP takes leaps and bounds forward in regard to being an environmentally friendly machine as well. Whereas the photoconductors used by competitive models have to be disposed of, with the HP CM8060, the imaging unit is the print head. The device also ships with no Styrofoam and no cardboard.”

Buyers Laboratory Inc. is the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions. Presented semi-annually, BLI’s prestigious “Pick” awards identify the best products tested in their respective categories in a wide range of performance areas, through a series of rigorous evaluations.

Since the blockbuster launch of HP’s Edgeline MFPs in April of 2007, we’ve racked-up considerable acclaim for its high-performance and innovative design. The HP CM8060 Color MFP with Edgeline Technology garnered a “Must See ‘em” award at the recent Graph Expo trade show and received the “Technology Award” from the Microsoft Vendor Program (MSVP) Excellence Awards.

Awards are great, but the most important acknowledgement is the one we receive for helping solve a customer’s business problem. The best type of acclaim is when our innovation adds value – whether it’s a breakthrough in print quality and total cost of ownership, or a software solution that streamlines a billing process.

Click here to read the case study and find out more about how California-based law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati realized immediate benefits with Managed Print Services from HP, and by replacing its previous generation of MFPs with the HP CM8060 Color Multifunction Printers with HP Edgeline Technology.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, BLI Spring Pick Awards, edgeline technology, CM8060

Thoughts from the "Managing the Challenge" enterprise printing event

2008-06-05T16:06:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

On the road again -- I’m on the beautiful island of Sardinia, Italy, at our marquis European enterprise printing customer event, called “Managing the Challenge.” We have more than 250 large enterprise companies in attendance. Keynote presentations this morning by senior executives from HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) covered key trends in the printing market and HP’s strategy for working with customers to help them build a Print 2.0 plan. HP’s Alternative Thinking About Printing is all about helping customers reduce cost and improve productivity by optimizing the infrastructure, managing the environment, and improving workflows.

Following the keynotes, I hosted a panel with four customers: Imperial College (Charles Page, Campus Support Manager), Sahara Petrochemical (Ihab
Hawari, CIO), ITV (Nick Leake, Director of Operations and Infrastructure), and the Petroleum Development Oman (Saif Naaman, Head of Customer Services). These customers inspired the audience by what they have achieved through working with HP. They have all right-sized their printing and imaging fleets and standardizing on HP’s MFP’s and printers. They’re using our tools, such as Web Jetadmin and Universal Printer Driver, and they are implementing managed print services and using key security solutions with pull printing. They’re a great example of how customers are managing the challenges, increasing productivity and saving money. And they’re doing all that while delivering key Eco Solutions for Green IT. It’s really gratifying to get to connect with these customers and see that they’re getting results from the work we’re doing. All in all, this has been a great event.

HP Blogs are moving to a new platform

2008-05-21T20:18:00Z

The Enterprise Printing Team

We wanted to let you know that HP blogs will be migrating to a new platform over the next week. As of Friday, May 23, we won't be posting to this blog and won't be able to receive any comments submitted. Please hold your comments until June 1 when our new site will be live.

Today’s Environmental Announcement

2008-05-21T18:54:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

It’s great to see HP’s Imaging and Printing Group continue to make the public aware of our environmental programs. Few companies can match HP’s legacy of responsible corporate citizenship and environmental stewardship. It’s in our DNA to be an asset to the communities in which we live and work, and I’m proud of that heritage. The adage, “do well and do good” rings true. Smart companies realize that what’s good for the environment is also good for business.

It’s important for HP to show the positive steps we’re taking as a company to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s equally critical to proactively help our customers cope with their environmental footprint and improve their environmental responsibility. When we step-up, speak-up and support important issues, whether it’s global climate change or disaster relief, it increases awareness and encourages people – from individual consumers to executives in large companies – to pay attention and do whatever they can to make a difference.

Our enterprise customers are definitely paying attention and are inspired to make dramatic changes. Environmental innovation isn’t just the purview of a company’s corporate social responsibility department. It is happening throughout the organizations we do business with – at every level, including the CIO, facilities, procurement and business process owners. That’s why more than 80% of the requests for proposals (RFPs) we’re seeing for Managed Print Services include environmental impact as part of their vendor selection process.

I’m sure we’ll continue to see this number grow – and we’ll be there every step of the way. Our approach to environmental sustainability is about helping enterprise customers drive cost savings through efficiencies and securing competitive advantage. Our solutions range from helping customers with energy and resources savings to digitally green alternatives, to reuse and recycling.

Most of my fellow bloggers in HP are also writing about today’s announcement. You can get all the news of the day in our press release. Instead of repeating here what you can read there, I’ll focus on one aspect of the news that I think is exciting and cutting-edge for our enterprise customers: The HP Eco Printing Assessment.

We’ve been using the Eco Printing Assessment with several large customers over the last few months to help customers assess their energy consumption, paper usage and carbon emissions in addition to recommended ways to use less energy, recycle more and reduce the impact of imaging and printing. In using this assessment service, as well as a host of existing tools like Instant-on Technology, duplexing, Universal Print Driver, Web Jetadmin, and pull printing solutions, these customers see at least a 30% reduction in their carbon footprint.

The Eco Printing Assessment begins by taking a representative sample of a customer’s printing environment. HP uses the current printing infrastructure as a benchmark to capture the environmental impact of the printing fleet. HP then recommends best practices and identifies a roadmap of recommended changes, helping customers reduce costs, save resources and deliver results that are good for business. For more information, click here.

Also, if you have a little more time, please check out these case studies from some of our enterprise customers who are working with HP to make a difference.

We’re all in this together. “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

An Inconvenient Truth About Solid Ink: The Polar Bears Have Spoken

2008-05-20T21:13:00Z

David Murray
Enterprise Marketing Program Manager

With some of the recent discussion on the blog about environmental topics like “greenwashing” and the recycling of supplies, I thought I’d share a video about Xerox solid ink titled “An Inconvenient Truth About Solid Ink”:

I’ll let the video speak for itself, but hopefully people will start looking at printers from an energy consumption standpoint as opposed to just paper and supplies (also important). The key differentiator here for HP is Instant-on Technology. If you want to learn more about Instant-on Technology and print speeds, check out this post from Vince Ferraro's blog.

Technorati tags: Business printer, printers, solid ink, Xerox, printing, HP, Instant-on Technology, energy savings, carbon footprint, inconvenient truth, recycling, greenwashing, supplies, youtube

HP and EDS

2008-05-14T22:04:00Z

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

These are exciting times. Not surprisingly, press and industry analyst response to HP’s announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire EDS has been both massive and mixed. Whether pro or con, every article I’ve read reports on the surge in profits since Mark Hurd joined HP three years ago. Because of that success, I suppose it only stands to reason that we’re facing some skepticism. Plus, the story wouldn’t be as compelling if every reporter and pundit agreed with our positive outlook. That said, it’s hard not to prefer coverage like Fortune’s “Big Tech” Blog by Jon Fortt, “Why HP is smart to gamble on EDS.”

I’ve been through the successful integration of several acquisitions over the years, including the highly-charged $20 billion purchase of Compaq Computer. What I see with this acquisition is an integration that plays to our strengths in operational excellence and execution. This deal is consistent with both HP’s and EDS’ commitment to delivering value to customers. We are 100% focused on helping customers manage and transform their technology for better business results.

HP has a stated objective of increasing our services business. This acquisition will more than double that business and bring scale and reach to our offerings. As it relates to enterprise imaging and printing, this deal represents a significant opportunity for our go-to-market capabilities as more and more customers chose to outsource their printing environment and pursue a Print 2.0 strategy. The combination of EDS and HP will bring together best-in class hardware, software and services and will expand our reach in vertical markets such as public sector and healthcare.

This deal is good for our customers, good for HP, and good for EDS.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, EDS

Governance by the People, the Page or the Cartridge?

2008-05-13T21:34:00Z

Morris Wallack
Director, Presales support; HP Imaging and Printing Americas

“It turns out you have two choices: You can try to control people, or you can try to have a system that represents reality. I find that knowing what's really happening is more important than trying to control people” ~ Larry Page, NY Post, 8/24/04

In my prior posts, I focused on: what MPS is (definition),how to build a solid plan or output strategy, and most recently, a discussion of assessments as part of the process for developing a data driven business case for change.

One question I often get from MPS customers, users and sponsors is how to keep something they have started “on track” and ensure that the results expected from an endeavor like MPS are realized.

The answer? Some people call it metrics, some call it governance, some call it measurement – in reality all of them are part of an overall governance process needed to ensure results are realized and sustained over time.

Managing a project can be episodic; managing a process is a never-ending thing.

We all know what well managed projects look like: defined outcomes, clear deliverables, clear budgets and committed timelines. Those are relevant factors to track if you want to know if something is getting done according to plan. However, if you want to know if the system you’re using is working as intended, you may need others. In MPS environments, the challenge comes down to “how much do I need to measure and control to get the results I want? “

Here are some guideposts:

System metrics: overall only a few high level metrics are needed to know if an MPS project is yielding expected results:

Overall total costs (in $$); before and after optimization, and trend thereafter
Overall costs per page (total costs to produce pages divided by total pages produced)
Number of devices in the fleet; before and after optimization and trends thereafter
Ratio of employees to devices
Percentage of devices shared/on network
Percentage of users satisfied with MPS service/availability of technology

Armed with data on those key measures, you can see trends related to the entire fleet, employee or user satisfaction, and whether or not the overall design is working as intended. Here’s an example: if initially the percent of devices shared vs. personal goes up and then over time starts to creep back down, it’s likely people are buying personal printers despite the best intentions of your MPS program. If the overall costs per page are rising – either you have too many devices (underutilization), page growth beyond expected device range (wrong device for the job), or other costs not under control.

Performance metrics for ongoing optimization:

At a lower level you can institute device by device or group by group metrics to actively tune performance. Now the relevant metrics include:

Pages per device printed per month
% duplex (particularly relevant today if you are tracking green or environmental initiatives and their impact
Device uptime as % of workday available
Color/mono mix (if applicable)
Media size mix (A4, A3, 11x 17 8.5” x 11)
Page coverage percentage
Percentage of print/copy/fax

Ideally, all of these metrics would have predetermined targets or forecasts. Deviations from the target would trigger corrective action. Sustained deviations over longer periods of time might be reason to change the fleet, usage guidelines or practices.

Instituting metrics: keep it simple

Remembering that metrics should be used to help really understand what’s going on (rather than only for control) – you don’t need a long list. Focus first on the things you can measure, next on items uncovered by other lists, and finally, on any critical items that must be tracked (either for compliance, legal audits, or business critical applications that need tracking). Too many metrics likely mean you aren’t sure what’s critical for tracking. Simple metrics increase the likelihood employees will understand them when communicated, remember them if important, and align with them if meaningful.

Things to avoid:

Measuring things you won’t change even if you had the data. For example - if you won’t pull out a personal printer from a Sr. Vice President’s office even if it printed only 10 pages per month, why spend lots of time tracking it?
Focusing on data that’s more a dial than a knob. Cost per page really is just a dial, not a knob. You can’t really “manage” cost per page – any more than you can “manage” the cost per device (or profits…which are just the difference between revenues and expenses). What you can do is manage the usage – by giving people the right tools to know how and when to print. You manage the supply chain that supports the devices to get lower unit costs per page by reducing waste and redundancy. Those are examples of knobs you can turn.

Governance and dialogue: “without data we’re all folks with an opinion”

Finally, the enforcement of guidelines, particularly who can purchase what kind of printer, when a new device is added to the fleet or when exceptions are made to published guidelines is the acid test for whether policies are real or just words on paper. To make those policies come alive and for them to have teeth, leaders need to be well informed with the right system or performance level data and then make informed judgments supported by facts. Employees asking for new a printer “because I need it” without the data to support the request is no longer an acceptable perspective in many companies, and with environmental concerns reigning large in many offices, is no longer a hard thing to deny.

I’d recommend regular reviews (quarterly maximum, semi-annually more likely, annually at a bare minimum) to review policies and progress compared to targets or forecasts. In the first year of an MPS implementation, I’d suggest quarterly, and only after the environment is stabilized. If you want to read more, see HP’s whitepaper on this topic.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, multi-function printer , MFP, Managed print services