The Importance of Change Management and Governance in Managed Print and Document Services Environments

One of the most critical components to ensure the long term success of a managed print and document services engagement is robust change management, including ongoing governance programs. “Change management” refers to the programs, processes and tools used to manage the people-related side of change in order to achieve the goals of the engagement.

“Governance” refers to a system of rules and policies, supported by technology, to control employee behavior. Ignoring people-related issues leads to decreased employee satisfaction, an increased risk of errors and rework, and a greater likelihood of reversion back to initial, pre-managed conditions.

Change management in managed print and document services has three main elements:

Communication and education
Print policies
Incentives

Communication must start during the assessment phase of the managed print and document services engagement, ensuring that employees are not only aware of the assessment activities but also that they understand the rationale behind those activities. This communication, as well as employee training, must continue during implementation and ongoing management.

Senior managers must support the initiative, and convey this support to employees. Communication can be in the form of face-to-face meetings, newsletters, emails, signage, employee portals, etc.

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Organizations should develop specific print policies. Some components of a print policy can be enforced down to the user level using rules-based printing technology. Other components are managed via existing company processes, possibly in collaboration with your managed print and document services provider. Some examples of parameters that can be included in a print policy include:

Access to specific print device(s)
Color versus black & white output
Print simplex or duplex pages
Overall volume permitted, color volume permitted, B&W volume permitted
Page limit or copy limit
Authorization to perform certain functions at the MFP ( print/copy/scan/email/fax)
Automatically route large jobs to high-volume printers
Discourage users from printing emails, web pages (or printing emails/web pages in color)

Most rules-based printing solutions offer three different responses to requests that violate an organization’s print policy:

Informational, notifying the end user of alternatives, e.g. “please consider printing this document 2-sided”
Warning, the end user can accept the change or override the policy
Denial of service, preventing the job from being printed (scanned, copied, faxed, emailed)

There can also be corporate policies regulating how printers and/or MFPS are purchased, who can have a personal printer, etc.

The final component is incentives. Some solutions reward end users for “good behavior.” These rewards can be as simple as recognition on an employee website or at an employee meeting, providing an employee with information regarding dollars saved, or even how that employee positively impacted the environment.

All organizations undertaking a managed print and document services engagement should ensure that a robust change management program is part of the plan. As noted above, lack of a change management program can lead to decreased employee satisfaction and possibly a demand to revert to the older print infrastructure.

It can also increase the risk of errors and rework during deployment and management, leading to greater compliance and legal liability. A good change management program facilitates faster implementation and mitigates risk throughout the engagement.