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fficeFLOWOptimized Document Workflow
cost reduction
workplace efficiency
environmental sustainability
The officeFLOW Model FINANCIAL BENEFITS
however they didn’t necessarily solve all the problems
The prevalence of smaller single function
printers (SFPs) in the office environment
symbolizes a level of inefficiency.
... however they didn’t necessarily solve all the problems.
officeFLOW FINANCIAL BENEFITS
Traditional managed print services did cut some costs ...
officeFLOW Model White PaperThe advancement of real-time communication methods
and information technologies has created countless
opportunities for companies to minimize their spending,
become more sustainable, efficient and productive.
However, there are still a lot of inefficiencies in the office
environments which leave room for significant
improvements and savings.
Many companies want to leverage their existing
infrastructure and applications to cut their costs. A few
years ago, Gartner announced that printing is one of the
areas where operational efficiencies can still be realized.
Shortly around this time the OEMs and third party vendors
started positioning that now they are able to save their
customers up to 30% in printing costs if they let them
manage their print fleets.1 Studies show that traditional
managed print services did cut some costs and some
benefits were delivered, however they didn’t necessarily
solve all the problems or live up to all the hype. With
traditional MPS, the print fleet was now managed, but not
optimized. The resources freed up but traditional MPS did
not do much for process improvement.2 And finally the
extensive focus on costs potentially came at the expense
of environmental initiatives.
An optimized document workflow provides customers
with a set of functional, financial and environmental
benefits that delivers true value to every aspect of their
business.
Efficiency Compromising SFPsMFPs have become the workplace standard not only for
copying, printing and scanning, but also for integrating
into existing business applications allowing the users to
streamline their jobs, create workflows and increase their
overall productivity. However, their value is still under-
appreciated and sometimes it is difficult for the customers
to understand their ability to drive even greater cost
savings and productivity.3
The prevalence of smaller single function printers (SFPs) in
the office environment symbolizes a level of inefficiency.
As more and more SFPs are introduced into the
environment, they bring with them indirect, hidden, and
opportunity costs. The proponents of single function
printers claim that relatively low acquisition cost and
convenience are some of the benefits deriving from SFP
usage.4 However many fail to analyze the hidden costs
and inefficiencies SFPs create as these are hard to
quantify.
This paper is intended to help you understand how your
customers can benefit from optimizing their document
workflow with multi-functional devices taking the lead. It
reveals numerous inefficiencies of mixed print fleets (MFPs
+ SFPs) and shows what the true hidden costs are that
have a significant impact on Companies’ bottom line.
1. http://www.gartner.com/id=1084212 accessed on March
14th, 2013
2. http://www.nuance.com accessed on April 6th, 2013
3. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/CAP+Ventures+Finds+M
ultifunction+Peripheral+Sales+Continue+to
...-a019658531 accessed on March 17th, 2013
4. http://www.computershopper.com/feature/help-me-
decide-which-type-of-printer-do-i-need accessed on
March 6th, 2013
The average printer, copier, scanner and fax operate
well below 5% of their capacity (Gartner Dataquest).
Printers are just output devices and if a company
is looking to implement digital workflows, they need
to be able to digitize hard copy documents.
Opportunity CostIn larger companies, according to IDC Research, IT
Departments spend on average 15% of their time on
printer related issues,5 and up to 50% of all Help Desk calls
are printer related as discovered by Garner.6 This
generates significant opportunity costs for any
organization as the IT department instead of focusing on
real tasks, dedicates its precious time to taking care of
office equipment.
Let’s consider an example. The robustness and durability
of a typical enterprise level MFP could potentially replace
6-10 SFPs without issue. Consider an office environment
that has 120 single-function printers. Let’s be conservative
and assume that in this example an MFP replaces eight
SFPs. Theoretically, you can go from having 120 devices
on the network (120 IP addresses) down to 15 devices.
Considering that IT personnel spends extensive amounts
of time answering to the printer related calls, wouldn’t it
make sense that less IPs to manage would free them up to
complete mission critical tasks or projects?
According to Gartner 55% of network traffic is printer
related,7 which is a significant number and may truly be
realized when trying to implement new solutions like for
example VoIP. Although many companies may think that
this isn’t an issue today due to existing bandwidth levels,
as future initiatives are implemented the demand for
bandwidth will increase. Does it make sense to spend so
much bandwidth on printer related traffic? Additionally,
Canon MFPs come standard with Compact PDF which is
of a great value when digitizing the files and transferring
them over the network.
Printing is a background activity. It is a tool to achieve
greater results. By simply focusing on optimizing their
printing and document management, most organizations
could dramatically improve the workflows process, taking
days and weeks off critical business functions and
reducing infrastructure cost by 8-41% (IDC),8 and imagine
the business results that could be achieved if only the IT
Department and all employees could focus just on the
business not on fixing the tools.
Over Acquired ... Under UtilizedThe average printer, copier, scanner and fax operate well
below 5% of their capacity (Gartner Dataquest),9 which
raises an alert for organizations to rationalize their fleet.
The more devices you have the higher your carbon
footprint, not mention capital costs. Having a bunch of
single function devices not being able to complete
specialized tasks is inefficient. Wouldn’t it make sense to
have much fewer devices which have been fully
configured with all the necessary options? Less truly can
be more. Additionally, with a lot of printers scattered in the
office it is difficult for the companies to track their assets.
Some of the single function devices may get lost or may
not even be networked, which means they remain
undetected by the IT department.
Employee Productivity Employee productivity is another cost that is difficult to
quantify. Companies often decide to outsource their print
management in hopes of reducing their direct and indirect
costs related to office equipment. However, when
focusing strictly on cost cutting initiatives, some other
aspects of the business may be compromised. For
instance loss of productivity and low morale among the
employees could result in additional inefficiencies if the
right tools are not available. It seems like it is very
convenient to have a desktop printer nearby, but lack of
important features and functionalities may in fact have an
impact on our efficiency.
5. http://www.copytronics.com/files/CaseStudies/10-ways.
pdf accessed on March 11th, 2013
6. http://www.sovran.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/
Managed-Print-Discussion-Paper.pdf accessed on
March 12th, 2013
7. http://www.mtcweb.com/pcprinter.aspx accessed on
March 9th, 2013
8. http://www.uptimeresources.com/documents/UTR_
prntsmrtr_wp_final.pdf accessed on March 16th, 2013
9. http://www.uptimeresources.com/documents/UTR_
prntsmrtr_wp_final.pdf accessed on March 16th, 2013
50% of all printer fleets are 5 years old
or more (Information Week).
What is more, according to Information Week, 50% of all
printer fleets are 5 years old or more (Information Week).16
Older equipment wasn’t necessarily as energy efficient as
today. Obsolete devices can mean more ozone and
carbon emissions as well as more energy consumption.
The Cost of ConveniencePrint is very often out of control and simply engaging a
third party to manage your fleet won’t solve your
problems. According to Gartner 90% of businesses don’t
know what they are spending on printing.17 Having
somebody manage your print fleet will free some of your
IT resources, but not necessarily improve the overall
health of the assets within your Company. PC magazine
revealed that only 25% of what we print is really needed.18
When having desktop printers at their desks, employees
are more likely to print more. They claim it keeps them
productive, and is convenient. In fact, this proximity could
cost the Company a lot of money since many employees
would minimize printing of unnecessary documents if
they actually had to walk to a central MFP.
When having a third party involved in managing your fleet
how can you really ensure your employees print less?
Additionally, one of the main limitations of the single-
function printers is the lack of scanning and sending
feature – as we know printers are just output devices and
if a company is looking to implement digital workflows,
they need to be able to digitize hard copy documents.
Finally, when attempting to improve your productivity, you
may consider various software solutions.
MFPs are more versatile and they are designed with
productivity in mind. MFPs typically have larger, full colour
touch interfaces that minimize the learning curve and
make the employees fly through their daily tasks in
seconds. If there are any issues with the devices MFPs give
you clear instructions on how to resolve them, single-
function printers’ user interfaces aren’t that intuitive
resulting in increased downtimes.
Environmental Costs A study conducted by Gartner shows that 60% of all paper
documents originate at the printers.10 PC Magazine
discovered that 75% of print output is wasted.11 Be green
and save the planet say the billboards. In the past few
years there has been a clear shift toward a dual awareness
of internal efficiency and environmental impact. According
to the Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network
(SIRAN), the number of S&P 100 companies who provide a
corporate sustainability Web site increased by 58%
between 2005 and 200712 and the numbers are growing.
Companies following the triple bottom line accounting no
longer want to be just efficient, they also want to be
responsible and minimize the negative impact they may
have on our environment.
They redesign their industrial processes, get recognized
certifications, and take part in green initiatives. They know
that printing is the key area of unnecessary environmental
waste, but still have dozens if not hundreds of printers in
their offices. Employees value convenience, but
convenience costs a lot of money. On average, employees
print 12,000 pages a year, averaging $300-$500 in toner
costs per person,13 and can exceed $1,000 in high
document-producing industries (Giga Information).14
Nearly 180 million trees were consumed in 2008 for the
1.5 trillion pages used on hardcopy devices (IDC),15 and
between 2,000 and 10,000 gallons of water are used to
produce 1 ton of paper, depending on the size and type of
paper (IDC).
10. http://www.sovran.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/
Managed-Print-Discussion-Paper.pdf accessed on
March 12th, 2013
11. http://www.uptimeresources.com/documents/UTR_
prntsmrtr_wp_final.pdf accessed on March 16th, 2013
12. http://www.printgreener.com/pdfs/GreenPrint%20
White%20Paper%20September%2008.pdf accessed on
March 19th, 2013
13. http://bantamdoc.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/
symptons/ accessed on March 21st, 2013
14. http://www.completeimaging.co.uk/how-do-we-do-it/
typical-print-environment accessed on March 5th, 2013
15. http://www.nuance.com/ucmprod/groups/imaging/@
web/documents/collateral/nd_004639.pdf accessed on
March 29th, 2013
16. http://www.uptimeresources.com/documents/UTR_
prntsmrtr_wp_final.pdf accessed on March 13th, 2013
17. http://www.canon-europe.com/For_Work/In_the_
Office/ accessed on March 11th, 2013
18. http://www.accram.com/docs/hiddenprintingcosts.pdf
accessed on March 13th, 2013
IMAGERUNNER and CANON are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. Because It Counts is a registered trademark of Canon Canada Inc.
©2013 Canon Canada Inc. All rights reserved.
1-800-OK-CANONwww.canon.ca
Canon Canada Inc. 6390 Dixie RoadMississauga, ON L5T 1P7
How can you ensure the hidden costs are taken care of?
And finally how about employees printing out their
personal emails, coupons or Web pages? Typical company
spends between $500 and $1100 per user per year on
general office printing, copying and faxing.19 A substantial
portion of this cost goes to pages employees never
intended to print. Gartner took a different approach and
discovered that printing and document management
represents an estimated cost of 1%-3% of a company’s
revenue. This means that on the low side a $10 million per
year organization is spending about $200,000 annually on
printing and document management. According to IDC
research by examining document production
organizations can reduce related hardware, IT staff time,
and supply and service costs by 8%-41%.20
At Canon, we believe that the traditional and even MPS
focus on costs does not go far enough. Reducing costs
should not be the be all and end all. It is a partial solution
and we only believe in complex approaches. Therefore,
we have introduced the Office FLOW Optimized
Document Workflow concept. We believe that an
optimized focus on costs which considers a balance
between process improvement, waste reduction and
resource optimization is the key to success. We believe
that an office environment with exclusive MPF devices will
provide your customers with true value and true benefits
they are looking for.
19. http://h2o15.com/Shop.htm accessed on March 31st,
2013
20. http://www.uptimeresources.com/documents/UTR_
prntsmrtr_wp_final.pdf accessed on March 16th, 2013