Document management: consider strategic partnerships to cut printing and copying costs.

• Author: Fall, James R.
• Position: Office Technology

THERE'S NO DOUBT THAT companies are creating more documents than ever before. While the dollar amount associated with the cost of document production (printing and copying), management and distribution varies from industry to industry, it runs as high as 3 prevent of revenue of the company and continues to grow.

At the same time, IT budgets have been cut or frozen over the past few years. Public- and private-sector organizations are being driven to reduce costs throughout the enterprise IT infrastructure. There are increasingly limited and strained resources to support the computer/network, while supporting the printing/ copying needs of the organization for document production and distribution. In order to meet the growing demands for resources in an era of tight budgets, IT organizations are looking for strategic partners to support the optimization of their document production, distribution and management to reduce costs and save money.

In order to find the right strategic partner, you should look tot the following attributes:

* Breadth of resources to complete and implement needs assessment.

* Breadth of product offerings--printers, copiers, scanners, supplies and services.

* Support of multiple technology vendors.

* Understanding of the document production and distribution process.

* Certified local technical support staff.

* Willingness to partner with you to continuously find ways to reduce costs by optimizing the deployment of your existing printing and copier assets.

Via a collaborative process, your strategic partner...