The Datamax Thinking Blog

“Our current vendor has done very little to help us manage our print spend from day one.” — Frank K., COO

Soon after President Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he wanted to investigate and better understand the more than 828,000 square miles of land recently purchased west of the Mississippi River.

He called the expedition – famously led by Lewis and Clark – the Voyage of Discovery.

“Since the burden of requesting service is mine, my vendor isn’t managing much — let alone my account.” — Jene T., IT Director

The late folk country singer Guy Clark, a Monahans, TX native, once noted: “You look out over the West Texans plains, and you can see 50 miles. Stand on a tuna can, you can see for 100.”

For organizations managing a large fleet of copiers and printers, you need 100-mile visibility of your provider's service and support methodologies. Rather than being confronted with a series of storms on the road in front of you (increased downtime, communication issues, inaccurate billing) you should expect clear visibility up front from your technology partner.

“Our fleet, our workflows, and our costs are a cluster.” – Mary B., Office Administrator. 

There’s a certain chemistry involved with investigating print environments and the ways in which they interact, merge, and change over time.

Chemical synthesis is the purposeful execution of combining and manipulating multiple molecules to create one unique compound that is both unified and reliable. Much like the molecules that change through chemical reactions, major accounts are constantly affected by real world changes within and outside of your organization:

• Selling a division of your company,
• Adding a department,
• Your stocks take a hit,
• Company relocation,
• Company acquisition,
• Disaster Recovery,
• Outsourcing print or bringing it in-house

Your printing needs evolve accordingly.

We're out of toner again. Everybody seems to be waiting on someone else - or me." - Stephen M., Purchasing Manager

It’s called “The Wall,” and for good reason.

When a marathon runner – generally around mile 20 – fails to replenish his or her internal glycogen stores throughout the race, their body “bonks” into sudden fatigue.  The legs – depleted of all energy – wobble to a halt. The mind begins to shut down. Some runners even collapse.

Replenishment is a key factor to endurance.  In the duration of a workday, your copier is the workhorse athlete of your office’s workflow, running consistently at full speed to copy, scan, fax or print your critical documents promptly. If you unexpectedly run out toner, your device is down. And you’re down, too.

The questions for in-house print operators becomes clear: How can I keep my jobs running consistently, maximize my productive potential, and spend as much time as I can away from auxiliary tasks that don’t immediately relate to production?

Much like athletes are becoming bigger, faster, stronger every year with the advent of technology (more aerodynamic bikes, lighter shoes, high-performance swimsuits), print operators today feel the same performance pressure (shorter runs, increasing demands, more submission channels) as technology continues to "press" forward.

Before you begin asking “When can I expect a technician” and “When will my issue be resolved,” a few key questions will shine a light on just how prompt and ultimately effective your copier service might be moving forward.

There’s an old Bizarro comic strip showing an older man leaning up against the Patient Registration desk at a doctor’s office. “I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes!” he scolds the receptionist.

“Down the hall. You want ‘impatient registration’” the woman replies.

Comedy aside, customers today are tired of waiting.

Whether you’re producing fast-turnaround, lower-length jobs or massive, one-time runs, more organizations are discovering the distinct advantage of going "All-In on In-House" production. 

In finding an effective process for getting your own high quality printed materials out the door, it’s hard to bet against the house. Particularly, your own.

As the landscape changes, so do business needs. It’s a technology partner’s obligation to maintain an open dialogue, to listen intently, and provide complete transparency on documented expectations and business-building strategies. 

In my time as a Solutions Sales Specialist, I played a lot of  “20 Questions.”

My steady stream of inquiries to clients had a strategic intent. The client's answers provided key nuggets of information for:

• digging into client current (and future) needs 
• discovering operational challenges 
• planting new seeds of opportunity 
• ensuring expectations were being met at all times

If there was a gap between my client's perception and reality, it was my job to stand in it.

While the 4Cs in education help empower students to be think-tanks of tomorrow, the 4Cs of business technology should and can liberate your on-campus technology team to apply these classroom initiatives.

As educators further pursue the ideal 21st century learning environment, one won’t dig far without uncovering the 4Cs.

The 4Cs – critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication - have been adopted and implemented into the curriculum of school districts and professional development programs for years. Established by the National Education Association and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these four components are a guide post for choosing specific tools, software and curriculum for the modern day, technologically advanced environment of today’s youth.

Your business technology partner should play a key role in helping bring those 4Cs to light. 

The MFP, in many ways a centerpiece in our workflow place-setting, continues to have an evolving role in how paper and digital files co-exist in the workplace.

The “Paperless Office:” It’s been a corporate prophecy scripted upon blogs much like this for years, as offices of all sizes gather tools and solutions necessary to tackle the digital transformation. Without a doubt, workflow is increasingly digital in nature.

However, according to numbers complied in Canon’s recent “Office Insights 2018” release, paper itself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – quite the opposite. It seems that the paperless office is a gradual, steady process of automation that enables best printing and workflow practices for the foreseeable future.