Rethink your paper usage - SA company projects savings of 40%
After seven months of proven savings, a South African Financial Services (FS) company of more than 3 000 employees has projected annual savings in excess of 40% in paper and associated printing and faxing costs, Rethink Consulting’s Francois Bedeker, tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)
Does single source supply give customers leverage?
During the Apartheid era, organisations often grew by purchasing or amalgamating with their competitors. As a result, in the 1990s, when organisations had access to the world stage, South Africa had and still has many industries that are controlled by monopolies or duopolies.
Posted by StaffWriter at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)
How to generate and track output devices: Savings in the desktop, copying and print environment through managed print solutions (MPS)
This is the second in a series of 4 articles on the topic of generating and tracking output savings, with particular focus on the Managed Print Solutions (MPS) category. The focus of this article is the often delicate issue of “vendor contract re-negotiation”.
Posted by Editor at 6:30 AM | Comments (0)
How in-house printing savings are generated with reference to MPS services: Analysing user requirements
Before any informed decision can be made regarding an organisation’s hardware and equipment specifications, a Managed Print Solutions (MPS) provider will need to clearly understand and analyse the following:- The exact user and business requirements across the entire organisation / print estate (where, what, when, why, internal / external usage, colour / mono, etc.);
- Specific environmental requirements;
- The financial implications (e.g. what are the current costs of printing?);
- What is the overall strategy of the organisation?; and
- What are the requirements of the ‘culture of the organisation’?
Posted by Editor at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)
How to Generate & Track Output Savings in the Desktop Copying & Printing Environment, Utilising a Managed Print Solution
This, the first in a series of 4 articles on the topic of generating and tracking output savings, with particular focus on the Managed Print Solutions (MPS) category. This series of articles will cover the 4 legs of a proven procurement-driven strategy respectively. These legs are:- Benchmarks that need to be applied (as based on a case study of total MPS over a 4 year period);
- Vendor contract re-negotiation;
- The impact of management on paper usage; and
- The impact of management on consumable usage.
Posted by Editor at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
Managed Print Services Provide a Professional Approach to Procuring Output Devices
The domain of Output Devices (copiers, faxes, scanners and multi-purpose devices) - usually referred to as ‘office equipment’ - is often an area of much controversy as it is serviced by many different companies with often divergent agendas and sales philosophies. When examining the advent of Managed Print Services (MPS) in South Africa, one notices that it offers procurement departments and end-users the option of recruiting the expertise and services of specialists who focus on the entire estate of in-house copier and print facilities.
Posted by Editor at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)
Optimising the Desktop and Corridor Print Environment
The procurement of output devices (copiers, faxes, printers and scanners) is fast becoming a science in its own right. This commodity group traditionally falls under an organisation's 'indirect spend' category (i.e. non-core business requirements), and as such is often not on the radar of the procurement department. This is partly the case for the reason that "various personnel organisations usually have the authority to procure hardware, software and / or consumables for the output devices spend, and thus the spend will accordingly be spread across many different items in the income statement", Jannes du Plooy, Chief Executive Officer of Solution WorX, told SmartProcurement in a recent interview.
Posted by Editor at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)
Considerations for Outsourcing the Management of your Document Outputs
When contemplating the option of outsourcing your organisation's document outputs, one immediately tends to think of benefits such as streamlining the document output process whilst simultaneously saving employees valuable time. "However, the benefits of outsourcing the management of your document outputs do not stop here as this decision can be a strategic driver in making first-line cost reduction and long-term cost containment a reality," Peter Fraser, Director of Embedit told SmartProcurement in a recent interview.
Posted by Editor at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)
Print Copy Fax Scan - A Maturing Industry in Turmoil?
"Our experience of the print, copy, fax, and scan strategies within medium and large corporate companies has revealed an absence of strategic empowerment to the corporate decision from the traditional supply chain" Billy Bell of SDC a tells SmartProcurement . "Whilst this is contentious because companies should ensure they make proper decisions and it is of course their primary responsibility, one wonders where the industries responsibilities lie in ensuring their customers get the appropriate advice."
Posted by StaffWriter at 2:25 PM | Comments (0)
Outsourcing can be the ideal solution for document management
Output devices - i.e. copiers, faxes, printers, scanners and new generation multi-functional units, usually represent an area of uncontrolled 'maverick' spend in most organisations. "In fact, if you were to tally up the total cost of ownership (TCO) of
the 'paper production' as pushed out by your employees on a daily
basis, you will be shocked to see exactly what the real cost per page
is!!," Peter Fraser, director at cost management solution provider Embedit, tells SmartProcurement.Posted by Editor at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
Do’s and don’ts when developing Office Automation tenders
"By rights, the issuing of a tender should mean the company is serious about placing orders - after all, respondents approach tenders with a belief that the company has realised a pressing need for the equipment, system and or services in question," Billy Bell of Bell Output Strategies told Smart Procurement. "However, in many instances the tender (expecially tenders for Printers, Faxes and Photocopiers) is used to benchmark existing contracts, has not been through a thorough needs analysis, has no prepared business case and is an attempt only to 'see' the market."
Posted by Bernie at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
Exchange rates have varied impact of different commodities
Cut paper prices (delivered) continue to decline according to the Pricetrak Group Trend Index (July 2006) for all South African companies benchmarked. So much for paper prices being driven by the Rand/Dollar exchange rate!
Posted by Bernie at 5:03 PM | Comments (0)
Printer, Fax and Photocopier Rentals: What clauses to look out for!
Most organisations finance their office automation equipment due to the associated high capital commitments. The problem here is that if there are issues with the equipment the corporate company cannot hold back payments or force the issue of replacement because the financial instrument still has to be paid to someone else, regardless of performance... By Billy Bell of Bell Output Strategies.
Posted by Bernie at 4:17 PM | Comments (0)
