By Teresa Leung | Jan 29, 2010

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The “green” movement has accelerated this year in Hong Kong—driven in part by our air pollution counts and abnormally warm temperatures. We know that as businesses and individuals, we need to “do something.” Turning down our air-conditioners is a start (even Donald “The Bowtie” Tsang sheds his trademark bowtie in Hong Kong’s summer months, helping set an example). We cut electric-use and recycle our plastic. But what else can we do?

One often-overlooked item is paper-waste in the office. Think twice before you print that e-mail, and speaking of twice, it helps to print on both sides of a sheet of paper. Fortunately, MFPs (multi-function printers) continue to evolve and develop. It’s easier than ever to find the right device to help your business conserve paper—often in ways you might not know existed.

Conserving the environment
“In 2009, many organizations focused on cost savings and productivity enhancements, and also put great emphasis on reducing environmental impact,” said Lydia Chan, senior manager, Office & Production Business, Business Planning & Marketing, Fuji Xerox Hong Kong.

Chan said these three objectives are closely related. “Today, when organizations choose office equipment,” she said, “they emphasize eco-friendly products that require less power to operate and also provide superior efficiency and functionality—scanning, electronic-filing and print-on-demand to save hard copy filing space as well as avoiding paper wastage from unnecessary printing.”

“From the business side, there’s increased interest in anything that helps reduce printing spending,” said Gartner analyst Ken Weilerstein. “From the technology side, software and equipment to help reduce the operating costs. Enterprises are also interested in reducing the amount of paper they consume for environmental reasons.”

“Most enterprises know they are not managing office printing efficiently,” said Weilerstein, “but recession-economics prod them to overcome their inertia and do something about it.”
Chan said her firm “is leading the way in adopting innovative technologies to provide environmentally conservative solutions in document management....FX (Fuji Xerox) has put its full weight behind helping organizations build a ‘Green Office’.” She said their MFPs and other equipment are “made from eco-friendly materials and adopt advanced technologies that help minimize power consumption.”

FX isn’t the only MFP-manufacturer beating the “green” drum: “As part of its efforts to develop alternative materials to realize a low-carbon and resource-recirculating society, Ricoh is working on the development of components and toners for copiers by utilizing plant-based resins,” said Ricoh on their Web site. “Plant-based resins have been receiving increasing attention recently as they are recyclable and contribute less to global warming than their petroleum-based counterparts.”

Managing your docs
On the software front, Chan said her firm’s enterprise gear provides document management features including scanning & electronic filing to replace hard copy documents, and print-on-demand functions that better manage paper usage.

“We continue to see interest in ‘smart’ scan/print MFP solutions to streamline paper-intensive work processes,” said Weilerstein. “For example, scanning invoices into the Accounts Payable system as they come into branch offices instead of paying to send them to a central point by overnight or interoffice mail. Smart MFPs can also be used to route documents into content management/document management systems.”

“Managed Print Services (MPS) have been growing in the low double digits, at the same time that printer and MFP shipments have slightly declined,” said the Gartner analyst. “By MPS we mean a package deal including hardware, software, repair, maintenance and consulting services, all designed to help customers manage their office printing and reduce costs. Secondary goals are often reducing paper consumption, worker productivity, or better security.”

“Users can browse documents stored in the shared folders of [an] MFP without using a computer,” said Chan. “That means they can preview a document on the screen before printing it, [thus] avoiding printing the wrong document, which saves on paper and toner.”

Chan added that many enterprise customers “have identified ‘environmental conservation’ as part of their mission. Their top concern is reducing environmental impact, while saving energy, space and resources...they are willing to invest in areas that allow their business to achieve a lower environmental impact, because they appreciate the fact that this can lead to even more savings in the long-run.”
“We are seeing more mid- to large-enterprises actively seeking managed print services in the past 12 year,” said Aaron Yim, managing director of Ricoh Hong Kong.

“Some RFPs we received even do not state what they need exactly but just a ballpark cost reduction across the organization. Often what they are looking for goes beyond simple machine/device replacement and break-fix services, but include services like fleet management and operational support. With our experience in document management, clients expect us to help achieve overall reduction in TCO through better device management, [which] can include third-party machines as well as Ricoh printing devices.”

Yim added that requests for detailed site assessment are common and “green is also a key requirement as clients seek vendors who can handle reductions in environmental impact.”

2010 workflows
“In 2010, businesses will continue to face the efficiency challenges of complex document workflows, as well as costs and environmental impact from the unavoidable use of paper in offices,” said Chan from Fuji Xerox. She added that her firm started a consultancy service last year that “helps customers analyze their organization’s current output device environment and document management processes.”

The service begins with an assessment of the existing document management environment, then “detailed reports and recommendations are provided to customers on how to implement effective and efficient green strategies to reduce the overall environmental burden and, ultimately, optimize the use of resource and save costs.”

“Starting from mid-2009,” continued Chan, “we’ve seen business pick up significantly. However, customers are [now] more interested in the efficient use of resources and are looking for ways to save costs.”
“Enterprises want to cut costs, but will continue to struggle to make it happen,” said Weilerstein. “The problem is that they are used to focusing on printing only when it’s time to purchase equipment and then ignoring the matter until the next purchase. Reducing spending, on the other hand, means carefully examining your needs followed by an optimization and new policies and processes along with continual monitoring and management to keep your printer fleet optimal—it never really stops.”

“Vendors are used to patting themselves on the back for selling equipment, confident that profitable supplies sales will soon follow,” continued Weilerstein. “But now, instead of just selling equipment, they have won lots of managed print services deals and it works the other way around: each sale is really a big IOU to the customers, a commitment on which they must deliver over the next few years, and on a larger scale than they’ve ever done before. This will demand focus and careful investments in staffing and business systems.”
“The office printer market will remain competitive and become even more so,” said the Gartner analyst. “Over the last two years printer vendors have made alliances and acquisitions to help them compete with one another. For example, Ricoh acquired Infoprint and Ikon, and Canon announced it will acquire Oce. HP and Canon have also teamed up to augment HP’s own lineup of MFPs with Canon’s. There’s still room for another major acquisition or two.

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HP to focus on services with new print division

Late in 2009, HP formed a new print services division with a focus on managing print and imaging hardware and software in enterprises.

The division, called Managed Enterprise Solutions, aims to unify disparate hardware such as copiers, printers and scanners in order to cut hardware and printing costs, said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP’s imaging and printing group. The unit will also provide services and software that put scanned or printed documents in workflow systems to make document management easier. The company’s attention has been geared toward hardware and supplies, but software and services surrounding printing and imaging are a growing opportunity, Joshi said.

There is more to printing than just hitting the print button, said Roger Douglas, director of managed print services at HP. For example, software provided with the managed services could enable an invoice to be scanned, which can automatically be put into a company’s payroll system. The automation reduces the number of steps and cost required to manage the document, Douglas said. It also reduces the chance for error through manual transcription.

“A lot of times customers have treated imaging and printing like an afterthought,” Douglas said. Managed print is all about stepping back and taking a more strategic and methodical look at how those documents are managed, he said.

“HP is driving customers [to] strategically evaluate the role imaging and printing plays in the IT conversation, signaling a new approach to managing printable content,” said Chris Morgan, SVP, Graphics Solutions, Global Business Unit, Imaging & Printing Group, HP. Morgan, previously with HP Asia Pacific and Japan, said: “As enterprise customers embark on the transformation from paper-based to digital processes, it is imperative they engage with a company like HP that knows how to bridge imaging and printing with IT expertise.”

HP has a strong presence in the printer market, and the expansion of services could help it capture a larger share in the printer space, said Edward Crowley, CEO of Photizo Group, a us-BASED consulting company that specializes in managed print services. The increased level of focus on services could also benefit HP’s enterprise customers, he said.

HP is the first company to establish a dedicated print services division, according to Crowley. Competitors including Xerox have managed print services spread across various company divisions and programs, which can make it harder for customers to find the right offering, he said.
More and more customers are focusing on their print costs per page, Crowley said. The new HP division could potentially charge companies per page printed, he said, a fee that would cover hardware, supplies and services such as help desk support.

An analyst agreed with Crowley, saying the new unit will deliver transparency between imaging and printing services and other HP services offerings. “They probably are the first to form a global-focused business unit at this level,” said Jon Reardon, group director at research firm Infotrends.

Xerox claimed leadership in the managed printing services space over HP, though, citing research from Gartner. It also disputes the claims that HP is the first with a dedicated print services division and that Xerox’s print services are spread across various divisions.

“The race for leadership in enterprise print started a decade ago, it isn’t something that another vendor can easily replicate. Xerox has one division that handles managed print services—Xerox Global Services,” said Jim Joyce, senior vice president of Xerox enterprise print services, in an e-mail.
The Xerox Global Services group includes managed print services as well as document and enterprise content management services.

— By IDG staff