How many printers do you support? If your company
provides a printer for all or most of your end users, you’re probably wasting
money on printer infrastructure that you just don’t need.But how can you pull the proverbial plug on those desktop printers without upsetting your end users? In this column, I’ll tell you about how one company plans to change the printer infrastructure when the office moves to a new location.
Doing the printer math
Recently, I was hired by the CFO of a nonprofit agency to help plan an upcoming office move into a new building. We started out talking about ways to make sure that equipment doesn’t get lost or damaged during the move. However, the conversation quickly turned to the CFO’s biggest concern: too many printers.
For years, the agency’s 50-odd users had been spoiled by having their own printers. The problem with supporting all those printers, of course, is the cost. The premove printer costs included part of the salary for the agency’s full-time IT person, who spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning printers, fixing paper jams, and replacing toner cartridges. In addition, the agency was paying monthly maintenance on many of the newer printers.
The CFO asked, “Do you think the move would be a good time to get rid of them [the desktop printers] and move to network printers?” I agreed, and we estimated we could lower the number of printers being supported from more than 50 to less than a dozen.
The challenge is convincing the end users that losing their printers won’t mean the end of the world, and then providing the right level of printer support after the office move.
Planning the transition to network printers
The CFO and I created a checklist of action items to be completed before, during, and after the move. Here are some of the highlights from that list.
Cancel the support contracts on the old printers as soon as possible
This smart CFO is planning almost a year in advance for the upcoming office move. The first item on our list was to make sure to cancel maintenance contracts on existing printers at the earliest possible date, and start putting that money back in the budget.
Plan to sell, store, or donate the printers to be retired
The CFO hadn’t thought much about what to do with the old printers. I recommended that they be sold outright, placed in storage, or donated to a worthy cause such as another nonprofit agency or a school. Whatever you do, I told the CFO, don’t let the users keep the old printers—they’ll wind up using them instead of the network printers.
Identify the users who get to keep their desktop printers
A few agency employees, including the human resources director and the payroll manager, routinely print documents containing confidential information. So the CFO decided those users could keep their local printers.
Determine how many network printers will be needed
In the agency’s new offices, employee offices and cubicles will span two full floors. We decided to start with six network printers: one on each end and one in the middle of both floors. That made the ratio of employees-to-printers about 7:1. If six printers weren’t enough, the CFO figured she could always add more.
Decide how many color printers to install
In many shops, color printers are a complete waste of resources, because most end users simply don’t need full-color documents. However, because this agency has one team that routinely prints color documents, I recommended that the CFO install only one color printer, and that access to that printer be limited to the team that needs it.
Decide exactly where the printers will be located
In reviewing the blueprints for the new office space, I noticed that there weren’t locations designated specifically for network printers. I’ve worked for companies where special alcoves are created just for network printers, and I’ve worked for companies where the printers get stuck on the top of a filing cabinet or any old tabletop. The CFO was leaning towards custom alcoves for the printers, but was going to discuss it with the architects before the build-out.
Make sure there’s power and network access for the printers
This item should be a no-brainer. However, if you’re going to build special space for the network printers, you want to make sure you allow for electric supply and network access points in your building plans. You don’t want to be forced to string cables along the hallway walls just to hook up your network printers.
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