• Start with a fleet assessment. They are so critical to knowing what equipment you have, what the equipment costs to operate, and what your plan will be for the next 1-3 years. Do you want to keep the same equipment or replace some or all of it? The only way to answer those questions is to have a plan. If you haven't had a print assessment recently, now's the time to do it. Especially since the end of the year is fast approaching and a minimum 30-day assessment period is recommended.



• Don't just look at your monthly program fee; be aware of your overages. What comes to mind is one client having $25,000 in quarterly overages. If they forget about overages and base their budget on their base change only, they'll in all probability spend more than their budget in 2010. Your MPS provider can tailor a customized billing methodology that complements your budget constraints, perhaps by changing estimates or aligning base charges.



• When you're budgeting, use 12-month volume trends, not just your recent volume. Because 2009 was an extraordinary year for many, you can't just look at the most recent quarter and assume your needs will be the same next year. Take the longer view and go back a little further. Or ask your MPS provider to do a volume trend analysis and estimate 2010 volume with a predictable cost per page. They can also identify retirement candidates and calculate a replacement value.



• Speaking of your MPS provider, utilize your account manager to do all the budgeting for you in the printing/copier area. Never thought about asking? Is that because you enjoy doing it yourself? We're guessing not. And the service is usually FREE!


The bottom line is that we can take the burden of budgeting for your 2010 printing and copying needs off your shoulders; we can't think of a good reason for you not to ask.

But if you want help, you need to contact us now. We're getting a lot of requests and the year is quickly coming to a close. Just click here to set up an appointment for assistance.

And you can print that!

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David Orthner of TANDBERG

David M. Orthner is Vertical Practice Leader – Legal at New York-based TANDBERG, a global provider of video conferencing and mobile video products and services. He has over 17 years of senior IT management experience with several national law firms. He recently took a few minutes to chat about his suggestions for budgeting for 2010 based on his experience as a former law firm CIO.

Advantage: David, do you have a few unique ideas for budgeting for a service that is usage-based costed, like managed print services (MPS)?

David Orthner: Absolutely. The first thing you need to do as the head of IT is to convince your CFO that MPS generally don't result in any new spending by the company. Most companies that are buying toner and printer and maintenance today are already spending money -- perhaps several hundred thousand dollars -- that may be spread around into a number of departments' budgets, like facilities or operations. Those budgeted dollars need to be transferred to IT so that it's easier to budget for them.

Advantage: And what are the advantages of doing that?

Orthner: My position is that for zero dollars you can take advantage of MPS which gets you improved, white glove service; greater reliability because of the MPS maintenance programs; the operational reliability of the printer fleet goes up; mean-time between failures improves; you're able to budget your printer management more easily; and it doesn't cost the company a nickel more.

Advantage: Sounds like an easy sell to management …

Orthner: That depends. A good MPS account manager should be able to sit down and help you put together not only a comprehensive printing strategy but also a business case to help you sell that strategy to management. The challenge is the fact that IT now has a new line item in its budget that wasn't there before; your CFO needs to be able to accept that and understand why it's not costing the company more.

Advantage: You'd think that would be a no-brainer.

Orthner: Yes, but the IT manager needs top-level support for a program like this. I actually went through this in one of the firms where I worked. Each of our departments had been spending so much money individually on printer support and on buying different toners from different suppliers. By implementing MPS, we achieved enough savings in the first year that our firm was able to replace a significant number of the printers and stay within our budget. But I needed to make the business case to do this … and the way I was able to do that was to take advantage of Advantage's free printer fleet analysis.

Advantage: I understand that an MPS provider can also help you create your budget for 2010. So my question is why every law firm wouldn't ask for help with the budgeting process if there's no cost?

Orthner: Well, it's hard to get CIOs excited about sitting down and having a conversation about printing services which are pretty far down their prioritiy list; they don't appear to be expensive because the costs are spread throughout several departments. That's another reason to have them concentrated in the one IT budget. When they're more visible, they get more attention.

Advantage: It's my understanding the cost of printing services are generally #3 behind salaries and rent. Gartner Group says printing and imaging is 3% of the revenue of the firm.

Orthner: Yes, but as I say, when it's not rolled up into one budget -- like IT's -- it doesn't appear to be a lot. When they're in one spot, the IT manager can do an MPS program, they can be more flexible, and they can take a longer, strategic view, which is what's needed instead of an operational one.

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