4 Keys
to a Successful Printer Upgrade
If you want the best, most
cost-effective results, your printer upgrade should do more than simply replace
the one you have with the latest model. Whether you’re upgrading one printer or
an entire fleet, today’s technology offers amazing functionality that you may
find helps you realize savings and a strong return on your investment (ROI).
How can you do this?
Well, you can:
·
Take advantage of dynamic cloud integration to
connect with your business applications.
·
Automate document workflows.
·
Use secured data and documents to speed
retrieval, communication, and access management.
With printer technology today,
you can do that and more as you drive productivity and support collaboration
with your teams wherever they work.
Realizing these benefits and
savings involves four key elements. Follow them and you’ll have a clear picture
of –
·
what your requirements are,
·
how to ensure employee buy-in,
·
the best implementation plan for your
organization, and
·
the one essential factor that ties your efforts
together and positions you for success.
With a successful printer
upgrade, you can build business agility and give yourself a competitive edge.
All you need to do is follow these four key elements.
1. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
It can be tempting to see what
technology can do and then build your goals for the upgrade around it. We
recommend the opposite. Identify the areas of your business where automation
would make the biggest impact and support growth.
Then, for each area you
identify, build S.M.A.R.T. goals. (As a refresher, S.M.A.R.T. stands for
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.) By establishing
well-defined goals before you begin talking with potential vendors, you’ll
control the conversation, increase the speed of the process by finding relevant
solutions faster, and – perhaps most importantly – position yourself to find
solutions that will deliver even bigger returns.
Here are some good areas to
begin your evaluation and goal creation:
Remote access and productivity
Any obstacle that slows or
stops the flow of information negatively impacts productivity. Remote access,
for example, can be a big one. Remote workers, mobile employees, and travel can
restrict access to documents and data. Workflows can also suffer when key
movers are out of the office. If this issue sounds familiar, you’ll understand
why a vendor who can help with automated workflows and even cloud document
management will offer the best value.
Another productivity challenge
can be printer access. Devices need to deliver functionality to meet every
user’s needs and handle the print and scan volume. This can mean specific
printer features such as booklet printing, scanning capabilities, mobile print
support, secured print release, and more.
Security & Compliance
Requirements
Are you in an industry with
strict compliance requirements or any of the numerous financial or legal
regulations? If yes, then compliance may be a top requirement that defines your
upgrade needs.
Yet, even if you don’t have
compliance regulations, data and document security are still likely a high
priority – especially in today’s highly connected digital workplace with so
many remote workers.
But for all the security you
need, your data must remain accessible. Employees must be able to find,
retrieve, and share appropriate data and documents with relative ease.
Standardized authentication codes, access keys, and remote password protection
provide some of the most flexible and secured access
Defining your compliance,
security, and access needs early will help you with your product evaluation.
Workflow Automation
Perhaps one of the most
difficult areas to set goals around is workflow automation. You may see manual,
redundant tasks that, if eliminated, would free employees to engage in more
productive, rewarding activities, but aren’t sure if solutions exist to help.
The best approach to address
these potential areas for improvement is to prioritize tasks you’d like to
automate. These questions can help you get started:
·
Which manual operations eat up valuable time?
·
Which document-based processes need
streamlining?
·
Which financial controls (usage, waste,
estimating) need tightening?
·
Which processes are exposing the greatest
security risks?
Future Goals and Needs
The upgrade you do today needs
to continue to meet your organization’s needs for years to come. It helps to
know business plans and goals for the future. Here are some questions you might
find can also help focus your goal setting on the subject:
·
Approximately how many new employees will need
access to printing, scanning, and related cloud applications?
·
How are the needs for remote access likely to
change over time?
·
What role will digital transformation play in
changing my future print requirements?
What will happen tomorrow may
not be carved in stone, but by having an idea, you can identify how much
scalability and flexibility you need in your technology to always stay current.
2. Get Buy-in from Key Stakeholders
No matter how advanced and
intelligent a device and its features are, you only benefit when your people
use them. This makes stakeholder buy-in essential to a successful upgrade. It
also means stakeholders must understand what their machines can do, be trained
to use all of them, and embrace the new processes such as digital workflows and
cloud-based document management.
Of course, end-users are not
the only key stakeholders. You also need executive sponsorship and IT support.
Here are a few ways to earn everyone’s approval:
Find out about departmental
needs and interests
Sit with your department
heads. Coordinate with them to meet with their teams too. Ask about their
challenges and listen to their responses. The more problems you can solve to
help them be more productive, the greater their buy-in will be.
Get the conversation started
with questions like –
·
Have you had any issues with the printer? Are
there any print functions that would make your job easier?
·
What processes still rely on moving paper? What
would prevent us from making this a paperless process?
·
How do we store our files? How easy are they to
retrieve?
·
How often do you have to retrieve and share a
file for customer service? Sales?
·
How does our CRM (or your legacy system like an
IBM iSeries) affect our workflow?
·
What would be your ideal workflow for [input
one of the workflows described]
During your conversation, you
will want to explore the answers more deeply. These questions, however, can get
you started. And today’s reality is, with so many cloud applications, new
technologies, and intelligent devices, you can probably find a way to automate
and create a digital workflow to address any challenge facing your teams.
Getting executive sponsorship
For executive buy-in, show
value. A printer upgrade offers an organization a unique opportunity to
streamline workflows and introduce more efficient, cost-effective processes.
The value itself can come in the form of:
·
Profit and growth opportunities
·
Return on investment (ROI)
·
Improved customer service response
·
Empowered sales teams
·
Increased security
Enabling employee productivity
gets a lot of attention as a benefit, but we shouldn’t overlook security. Data
loss can translate into significant penalties and legal troubles for any
business. If a solution like a cloud-based document management system
integrated with encrypted workflows can boost productivity and security,
getting executive buy-in may be simpler than you expect.
Gaining IT support
Technology that integrates
with your network and devices involves IT. With this in mind, get them involved
from the start. Find out what they need to know about any of the printers,
software, or other systems that can create value for your business.
There’s nothing worse than
devising a solution your department and executives have embraced, only to have
IT derail the effort by showing that your savings will be offset by their
increased workload.
Fortunately, many intelligent
devices simplify service with remote support and user-friendly self-help tools.
Automated updates, preset alerts, and centralized reporting present other ways
departments besides IT can help manage new automated workflows. Cloud
applications also do some on-site infrastructure, making them IT-friendly.
By getting IT involved, or
keeping them informed at a minimum, you’ll create a smooth path for your
printer upgrade and maybe even discover new opportunities for enhanced
workflows and automation.
3. Detail the Printer Upgrade Implementation
Plan
Implementation of a new
printer or printer fleet involves more than delivery. We’ve identified four
areas that you should detail prior to implementation: e-waste disposal,
testing, the equipment transition, and managing risk.
E-waste disposal
If you upgrade with a company
like Ricoh, taking away your old equipment is probably part of the agreement.
Brick and mortar retailers typically offer electronic device, or e-waste,
recycling too. Your old devices represent only a part of your e-waste.
Print supplies and consumables
must be recycled too. Your state or local municipality may have a recycling
program, but if not, Ricoh does offer a free program for its customers to
return used e-waste including toner cartridges and maintenance kits in
accordance with state recycling laws.
Include time for testing
Time is money and frequent
testing saves time as well as frustration.
When you test throughout the
entire upgrade process – from assessing needs, building workflows, defining
access and functionality, and connecting to online services – you ensure a
smoother launch. It also provides time for stakeholders to ask questions and
get answers about the new workflows, which can prevent confusion at the time of
launch.
An equipment transition is not
an event – it’s a process
Unless you’re only upgrading a
few devices, you may find it more efficient to do a phased implementation. For
example, install one device per department at a time, testing before rolling
out the rest. This way, you catch any glitches that remain invisible until
systems and integrations actually happen.
A measured approach like this
also allows people to remain productive and become familiar with new devices
and processes.
Another important aspect of a
transition is timing. Even a phased equipment roll-out creates some disruption
and downtime. Software implementations and moving applications into the cloud
can be done during the day but may need to be done after hours. Slow periods of
a day, week, or month may also be good times to target for substantial
implementations or software moves.
4. Communicate
Frequent communication plays a
central role in a successful printer upgrade. The more everyone communicates,
the better you manage expectations, ensure transparency, and speed the adoption
of new business processes.
We’ve found the following
practices can help support the transition and speed implementation.
Communicate goals and plans
early and often
When you communicate the goal
and plan for the upgrade process, you help people prepare for change. Getting
people involved, for example, through stakeholder meetings not only declares
the upcoming change, but it also gets them involved in the process.
Communication also builds anticipation and enthusiasm for the benefits and
features that will come with the change.
Making key stakeholders
responsible for communication can help keep your teams engaged and on the
lookout for specific milestones.
Create and maintain
documentation
Process changes require
documentation. New applications require instructions to be shared with users to
ensure proper use and adoption. Intelligent devices often have intuitive panels
but guides on common, basic tasks help speed proper use of even the simplest,
new devices.
By creating and maintaining
documentation, you’ll share vital knowledge and keep everyone informed
throughout the transition. Building documentation around frequently asked
questions (FAQs) can also prove a big time saver. FAQs can prove a valuable
reference for everyone as it empowers them with answers to their questions,
reducing team lead or vendor outreach on basic issues.
Clearly communicate timelines
Sudden change disrupts
productivity. By providing advanced notice and frequent reminders, you help
everyone plan their work around the upcoming change. Urgent issues can be
addressed, and less urgent items can be queued up for testing through your new
processes.
The phased rollout mentioned
earlier can be a good way to remind everyone in a very direct way that change
has come. Email, posted notices, and team meetings offer other effective means to
remind and reassure everyone regarding the what, when, and how of the printer
upgrade.
Finally, remember to thank
everyone
Thanking everyone for their
input, patience, effort, and cooperation helps foster positive feelings and
attitudes despite the challenges that come with change.
Scripted by:-
Nandini Ramesh
Marketing Manager
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