More than paper

The rise of environmental consciousness is impacting a generation of paper waste. According to a 2006 Lexmark study, called "'Green' movement reaches the workplace", 73% of UK office workers claim to be reducing their paper wastage.

Mohammed Vachiat

June Julyan, product manager, content management systems at Bateleur, says: "Mindless printing is something we've got to stop." She says for people to use documents electronically instead of printing, it has to be more attractive. "If we don't add value, we're not going to get people to stop printing."

So, how can people be persuaded to use online documents instead of paper? Julyan says the info must be easier to find. "It's got to be more accessible, well indexed and shared. It must also be easier to work in the document, and to extract necessary information easily or automatically. For example, pulling information into a spreadsheet.

One also needs to be able to annotate documents, for purposes of collaboration. The information needs to be able to be brought together, to represent all content generated from all sources, about one thing - like a client. For example, searching for a client should bring up bills, service logs, correspondence and any other documentation on that person."

But significantly, says Julyan, it must save costs. Reducing the use of power, paper and transport (couriering of documents) is very important. "Online documents help with all of those objectives."

Grant Long, software manager at Bytes Document Solutions, says that in addition to being a green solution, document management allows for faster access to information, breaks down geographical barriers and makes information searchable. He says there are millions of documents in paper archives, and if they were to be backscanned (scanning of archived content) they would be far more useful.

Grant Long

However, backscanning documents to be placed in electronic archives is a big job, he says. Newer, small companies with small archives may be able to do the job themselves, but an organisation such as the government will have millions of documents to scan. Document types need to be priorities in the case of big companies. Financial and legal documents are crucial, but it's unlikely general correspondence will be needed again.

Office automation for SMEs

Patrick Reeves, HP product manager at Axiz, says some small companies neglect office automation when starting out. "No business is too small to automate. Actually, it is crucial for any small company to automate," he says. "Small companies have a lot to accomplish - usually in a short amount of time and with limited resources. People need to print, scan, copy, and fax for business to get done, and an all-in-one device saves time and effort." He also mentions that the price of MFDs in relation to single function devices is declining, making it a more cost-effective option. "Keep in mind, you don't have to automate immediately. Decide on the best time for you, and add to your system as your business grows and your budget allows."  A poll by the Wi-Fi Alliance found 71% of respondents would like to wirelessly access a printer without having to log onto a network. - TMCnet.com According to a Lexmark study, one in 10 Londoners do not recycle their ink and toner cartridges. - Internet-ink.co.uk An office worker can use up to 10 000 pieces of paper a year and spend 200 hours looking for documents. – Bateleur

THE PAPERLESS MYTH

Long says the best solution is to go "paper-light". The paperless office is impossible, he says, because "paper forms part of 90% of business processes. People aren't very comfortable with reading off of a screen, so they print."

To make companies go paper light, he suggests education. He says the costs of printing need to be transparent. After each print job, a user should see how much that job just cost the company. Also, management should be able to see the types of file being printed (not the content). People are expected to release their print jobs when at the machine, rather than it printing automatically. This causes people to rethink some print jobs. "Often, people will realise they don't really need a particular print job," he says.

"We've been able to save up to 34% in print costs on environments where we put these controls in place." The reason, he explains, is that many environments have single devices, like a printer at every desk. "If you put these controls in place, many people rethink what they print."

June Julyan

Mohammed Vachiat, product manager at Konica Minolta Professional Services, agrees that the paperless office will never happen. "From a legal point of view, unfortunately, documents have to be printed out... If something comes in that you need, it's unlikely you'll be saving it to a memory stick, the convenient method would be printing it."

South Africa is becoming environmentally conscious, and more aware of the carbon footprint, says Neil Rom, MD of Printacom. He says Printacom has seen people becoming more aware of recycling, although SA is still behind the recycling consciousness abroad. He also spoke of Sappi creating environmental paper using sugar cane pulp, although such paper is more expensive.

But while people may be trying to print less, there is so much more information in circulation,  which is why printing is increasing, rather than decreasing.

Mark Hiller, MD of Lexmark International, adds: "The volume of information is growing at such an exponential rate... that there is still a propensity for a percentage of that information to be printed out in hard copy." However, steps are being taken to print less, such as duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper). "They are starting have a meaningful impact."

ADDING VALUE

Hiller says consolidation of devices is key in controlling print costs. He says in the past, people had no relationship with the multifunction devices (MFDs). Nowadays, it's about more than just printing. There is also a shift from hardware to software. "It's more about the software," he says. He talks of industry-specific applications for MFDs, such as "card copy", a system whereby one copies the front and the back of a card (e.g. driver's licence) and it is saved and prints as one document.

Neil Rom

Long speaks of the trend of an open platform on MFDs, for the development of industry-specific solutions. Coupled with a nine-inch touchscreen, this negates the need for a separate device to customise the MFD.

Andrew Griffith, product manager for office products, Konica Minolta, says: "The software is where the real value is delivered." He says MFDs have changed radically over the past few years, and it's because manufacturers realised that business data needs flexibility and security.

"If these devices are able to store, distribute and output business information, it's crucial that there's a massive degree of security and flexibility as well. For example, there is a virtual mailbox on the device's hard drive. Then, documents can be distributed to a confidential mailbox. From device panel, a user is able to merge documents into one, reorder pages, rename them, reprint them, redistribute them, share them and all that data is encrypted and secure."

Security is necessary in an environment where people share a machine, which Griffith recommends. Everyone having their own printer is convenient, but costly and difficult to control. With everyone printing to one device, it gives you an element of control.

Vachiat says there is a move towards more intelligent devices. In the past, a machine could only copy, fax, print and scan, but "the MFDs have become like computer machines," he says. They're capable of performing tasks such as document management. "The machines are software devices and not just hardware multifunctional devices."

GETTING SMARTER

Mark Hiller

Rom explains that often, not all printers are utilised to their full capacity. With software on a client's server, it's possible to see which printers are being over- or under-utilised. "If you have a big printer that's being under-utilised or an entry-level printer that is being over-utilised, you can redeploy printers to get best utilisation of each device."

John Buchanan, national technical manager at Itec Distribution, says intelligent machines are crucial to providing clients with maximum uptime. "The machine, ideally, must run 100% of the time."

Buchanan says due to advancing technology, downtime is able to be reduced further. He mentions remote diagnostics as a solution for too much downtime. "If the machine breaks, the client has to get involved. They need to call through, it impacts their day." What also impact their day is when they need to give a meter reading. "It's how the industry works."

However, Buchanan says: "We are trying to take this away from the client. To remotely gather information on machine performance, meter readings and even know, within a minute of a machine failure about what is wrong with it." Often when a machine breaks down, it takes a while before someone reports that there's a problem.

"If the machine is failing, or is performing below the norm, the machine will tell us before the customer even realises it," he says.

"Currently, when a machine fails, the client will phone the service control centre, the centre will get the details of the problem and log it, and the next available technician will get the task. There's a lot of time taken from phoning the service control centre to when a technician responds."

In this case, there is a lot of reliance on the client to diagnose the problem, although the client is not a technician, so they don't always know what the problem is. "The impact it will have on uptime is huge."

Buchanan says it is also on an open platform, to continue evolving applications for maximum uptime. "We'll never reach a point of arrival, we must keep on evolving."