Print Audit’s President and CEO, John MacInnes, introduces Print Audit’s newest solution, Print Audit Secure in this recorded Webinar.  To find out more information, please contact an Imagetec representative!

You need to have YouTube access in order to view this webinar.  If you do not and would like to see a demo, please contact us.

Most, if not all, businesses want the biggest bang for their buck and that’s where refurbished equipment comes in to play.  A refurbished device makes a lot of sense in many organizations, small or large.  Here are a few points to consider if you aren’t sure if refurbished is right for you.

•  Are you a start-up organization or an organization that needs something larger but don’t have the funds for a new machine?  With a refurbished device, you are able to get a high-volume machine at a substantially lower cost than buying new; and buying refurbished doesn’t mean you are buying old. If you research correctly and buy from a reliable dealer, you can get a really great, “like new” machine.  Keep reading to learn more about that!
• Are you planning on growing your business over the next several years?  Instead of buying new and purchasing a small machine that “works for you for now”  due to budgetary constraints, you are able to get a machine that is faster,  has the right technology (print, scan, fax, etc) capabilities, and even has a lower cost per page that can grow with your organization as it expands.  This will keep your office running more efficiently and you and your employees happier!
• Are you looking to purchase “green”?  With a refurbished device you can have all the luxuries of a new machine at a lower cost.  Plus, you are keeping a perfectly good device from being placed into the landfills before its true end-of-life, which saves the environment from unnecessary waste.

With all this being said, there are a lot of dealers that sell refurbished equipment.  In order to get a refurbished device that is dependable and that’s going to last, you need to verify you are buying from a reliable dealer.  Make sure you understand what that means.

• Refurbished equipment isn’t just a facelift.  A reliable dealer will put the machine through a thorough inspection to ensure it’s performing at its best.  They will examine all aspects of the equipment and repair or replace any part that isn’t working properly.  If done correctly, by the end of the inspection, you’ll be getting a machine that you can feel confident will works properly and will be in “like new” condition.
•  Make sure you find out about the warranty.  Reliable dealers will always have a warranty on refurbished devices.  This can be a 1-3 month warranty or even a 1 year even exchange warranty.  If they don’t have a warranty of some kind, don’t use them!
• Check out the dealer’s service department and what their service includes or doesn’t include.  Ask them to provide you with awards or documentation about their service.  It’s important to find a dealer with a certified service department (whether you are buying refurbished or new!)

There are a lot of benefits to purchasing a refurbished device.  If you believe refurbished equipment is right for you, just be sure to do the proper research to find the right machine at the right price, from a reliable dealer so that you are getting the best bang for your buck for years to come.

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Okay so maybe this is a little extreme, but something similar to this is not that unlikely.

Photizo Group now resides in  Midway, KY in which I have set up shop on the second floor. I have a wonderful printer right outside of my office. Recently we were loaned a printer to test. It is located on the first floor, but I installed it anyway. I didn’t realize that when I installed the printer it became my default printer. I would print a document, realize what happened, and then have to walk to the first floor and find the printer, vowing the entire time to switch the printer the next time I printed. Of course, for the next week I continued to print to the first floor, and then I finally switched the printer and problem solved.

I consider myself pretty technologically savvy, yet I managed to print to the wrong printer for an entire week. And then there is my co-worker, a little less savvy, who printed to the wrong printer and assumed that our second-floor printer was broken, so began to play doctor–pressing different buttons, moving paper to different trays. When she came in on Monday the first-floor brought her the 30 pages that she printed while trying to figure out what was wrong with her printer.

Managed Print Services are a valuable tool for organizations for many different reasons. In this case, you can see where it might not have only saved time and money, but a little sanity as well.

In a continued effort to earn potential clients trust and build ethical business relationships with our current clients we utilize our demo floor for monthly tech shows.  As a locally owned and operated company this gives our executive team the privilege to meet with people on a face to face basis rather than through an automated email or a phone call.  Ask yourself, of the companies you work with, have you ever personally met the President, COO, VP of Sales, or DSM?

Tech shows may seem to be of little value for many companies because  in today’s world you can Google the particular product or service that you are looking for. However, what you can’t do is learn about how that product or service will work seamlessly your  business environment based on your particular vertical market or industry. We look at these events not as a “come and see” event, but rather an opportunity to listen and learn. After we listen to your business needs or what you are trying to accomplish, we hit on each and every one of those issues in order to address your specific needs and then we discuss the possible solutions based on those particular needs or wants.  Our goal is not to inform you of your product capabilities but to inform you of everything the device can do to meet those particular business needs.

On the other hand a demo offers a different approach to a company’s needs, addressing particular points of emphasis or assisting with current needs i.e. upgrades, performance issues, network analysis, etc.  A qualified member of our staff will come in to meet with you on a personal level in order listen and discuss your needs and wants.  Although you will still get the same personal attention from a tech show standpoint, a demo is more relationship building as we are committed to you and only you.  You will not only leave with your questions having been addressed and answered but you will also leave asking, “Why didn’t I do this earlier?” or “I wish I would’ve known that”.

Now your probably wondering, “What is the difference”?  The difference is that our executive team doesn’t have the privilege of meeting you. I have heard many excuses as to why a customer doesn’t have time but I try to make it a point to emphasis that there are approximately 40 hours in a week, roughly 2,400 minutes in a week,  and a demo lasts for about 30 minutes. Would 1.25% of your work week be worth learning about a managed print solution that could cut operating costs and increase your office efficiency associated with printing?

Is your print environment designed for Output or Outcomes?  In most organizations, no matter how big or small, a fleet of printers, copiers, multifunctional devices and scanners are often looked at as required costs of doing business. The fact is, however, they represent an often untapped opportunity to:

• Fully utilize purchased technology
• Create economies and efficiencies
• Address sustainability
• Help enhance security and compliance
• Improve business processes

But be careful as this can only be accomplished if you choose the right partner.  Most companies evaluating Managed Print Services don’t have the time for a rigorous pre-qualification process to interview multitudes of vendors – so one time saving tip is to evaluate vendors that are geared towards professional services vs. ones that just manufacturer and distribute hardware.  Another element is to seek a vendor who has strong partnerships with companies such as HP and Microsoft – the #1 technology and #1 software manufacturers in the world respectively.

A strong Managed Print Services strategy can be divided into phases.  A structured approach to the development of integrated hardware, software and services that help you manage workplace documents – both hard-copy and electronic.  A few benefits can be:

• To create, manage, store and distribute documents
• Manage digital and paper documents and work-flows more
  cost-effectively
• Comply with internal and regulatory requirements
• Re-engineer business processes to streamline work-flow
• Reduce operational costs and increase profits
• Enhance security to protect intellectual and paper document assets
  from destruction or misuse

One of the most common aspects of evaluating a Managed Print Services strategy is the cost assessment phase.  In this phase, most companies are content at simply looking at a one dimensional view of cost assessment.  A simple model that true Managed Print Services providers utilize can be broken into the following elements:

As one can see, conducting a cost analysis can be slightly more complex than your initial thought.  Although most organizations could, in principal manage office document output activity effectively, in reality many lack the time, the staff, the experience, the tools and focus to simply do it on their own.  Without conducting a work-flow analysis and other exercises to gain a proper understanding of how and why hard copy and electronic documents circulate within your organization; how do you determine a proper strategy and partner for a long term partnership?  A true Managed Print Services provider has a proven model to Analyze, Recommend, Implement, and Manage your mutually agreed upon strategy.

While the financial impact of both hard-copy and electronic documents is only one portion of the analysis, it is the easiest component to latch onto.  As mentioned above, a phased approach has elements of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), Process Improvement, Security Enhancement, and an Environmental impact reduction.  Additional benefits can include:

• Project management to transition into new environments
• Installation and configuration management of printer driver and device level programming
• Contract management including Service Level Agreements (SLA’s), product portfolio updates, and customized / consolidated billing solutions to reduce the number of payables.
• Asset management program responsible for assessment reporting that accounts for new installs, moves, additions, changes, and disposals.
• Life-cycle management so that companies can make better more informed decisions on device outages or upcoming contract renewals.
• Remote management for capturing device utilization information to proactively predict problems and opportunities.
• Consumables management with automated toner replenishment, and/or a centralized on-site inventory.
• Security management to assist with security / compliance initiatives within any organizations.
• Help desk support to lessen the burden on IT
• Continuous optimization

When considering overall document expenditures average 6% of overall revenues across all industries (InfoTrends, 2010), a thorough Managed Print Services strategy may be exactly what the doctor ordered for most businesses in 2011 to streamline processes, realign resources to core business activities, establish financial controls, and ultimately make the business more competitive. Let Imagetec know today how we can help you create a better tomorrow.