The City of Ottawa’s latest Enterprise Print Management Solution (EPMS) represents one of the largest Managed Print Services (MPS) installations ever deployed where printing, copying and scanning are all tracked at both the user and device levels. Through this initiative the City has reined in its printing costs and now has full control of its fleet and complete transparency of print related costs.
“This is another great example of how the City of Ottawa is using technology to be more efficient.” “These improvements will save the City money, resources and work space.” Jim Watson, Ottawa Mayor
Background
After the 2001 amalgamation of six cities, four townships and a village, the newly combined City of Ottawa, the 4th largest City in Canada, found itself needing to provide print services to more than 11,000 full-time employees across 330 locations including libraries, offices, parks and other facilities. The wide geography, different professional needs and variety of existing devices posed a challenge for the City’s client support service team, who recognized the benefits to be gained through fleet consolidation and standardization of networked multifunctional devices.
“Not counting scanners, there were 3,170 print devices,” said Anne Irwin, Portfolio Coordinator, Client Support Services at the City of Ottawa. “We had 350 different makes and models, and the various groups within the City had their own contracts.”
“The City needed a solution to lower costs at the same time as their employees needed improved services. We had to change our model for print services and definitely required a centralized enterprise-wide print solution,” Irwin said.
Vendor Selection
The City’s print fleet was assessed and a distributed print environment was then designed to take advantage of current multifunctional technologies. Through the Request for Proposal process, 4 Office Automation Limited (4 Office) was selected as the City’s vendor of choice, predicated on the successful completion of a Proof of Solution (POS) test of their recommended solution.
The Solution
The City’s EPMS consists of three main components:
1) Kyocera MFDs: 4 Office recommended five models to meet the print requirements of the five categories of the EPMS. All models support card readers and have the capacity to host the device-based Pcounter application, which enables the tracking of “walk up” functions such as copying and scanning. Each MFD was strategically deployed to locations best suited to its features and capabilities.
2) Re-deployed City-Owned Devices: To reduce cost, the City standardized on six existing models that met their requirements of the EPMS. These devices were strategically redeployed to locations to fulfill user print needs.
3) Pcounter for Windows: This server- based print management software provides the City with the ability to secure its print infrastructure and track usage of the City’s entire print fleet by user or device.
Solution Deployment
Pcounter’s deployment to the City’s dedicated print server was seamless as the fully configured Pcounter software, which was used to conduct the POS testing was migrated from the test environment to the live setting.
MFDs were pre-configured with the embedded Pcounter application and agreed settings. The equipment deployment was executed at a measured pace based on site readiness. The City’s EPMS and 4 Office’s project teams coordinated the equipment deployment to all locations based on the agreed Master Deployment Schedule.
4 Office trainers held hundreds of training sessions and assisted with the development of a convenient user guide, to help the City’s staff become familiar with the various productivity features offered by the EPMS.
The Result
Key Benefits
This EPMS represents one of the largest Managed Print Services installations ever deployed where printing, copying and scanning are all tracked at both the user and device levels. Some of the key benefits the City realized include:
Ease of Use: Users need to learn only one user interface, which is common to all Kyocera MFDs. For printing, most users typically see only three print drivers.
Convenience: Users now have the option to send their print jobs to the “Confidential / Follow Me Print Queue” which allows them to release print jobs at their convenience, at any MFD, regardless of its location by simply swiping their ID Swipe Card at the device. This feature provides greater transparency into actual print usage, while affording employees confidentiality and mobility. “It ensures the printing is truly confidential, eliminating that mad rush to the printer when an employee prints a job and it also negates the need for local desktop printers,” Irwin said.
The simple scan-to-own-email feature on the Kyocera MFDs reduces paper waste and is very convenient for employees. For example, Anne Irwin noted, “if someone takes notes in a meeting, rather than copy and distribute, they can scan it to a PDF file which is immediately emailed to their inbox for convenient electronic distribution. It moves you to a model where you are sharing more documents electronically, and printing less.”
Secure Print infrastructure: Only authenticated users can now access the
City’s Print Fleet. Users authenticate using their City issued ID Swipe Card to access the MFDs or authenticate (login) at their workstation to submit print jobs.
Cost Management: The consolidation of invoices provides the City with an instant view of the total cost of operation of its print fleet. It is also able to allocate and recover print costs by leveraging Pcounter’s charge-back feature.
Fleet Control: The City EPMS project team has governance over the City’s entire print fleet and devices can only be added by creating a profile in the Pcounter- controlled print server. The extensive audit trail retained by Pcounter, coupled with its report generator, provides a clear view of the City’s print devices and associated usage, allowing the continuous right-sizing and improvement of the City’s print fleet performance.
Energy Foot Print: The reduction of the City’s fleet by over 60% coupled with the deployment of energy efficient Kyocera MFDs is projected to significantly reduce the City’s energy footprint. See Carbon Footprint Calculator (on page 6) for current (before) and future (after) comparisons.
At the same time “Confidential / Follow Me” features save paper by eliminating the accidental printing of documents and by purging print jobs that have not been released by users after 48 hours.
For the citizens of Ottawa, the EPMS has proven to be a win-win. Already ranked one of the cleanest cities in the world, the municipality now produces less print waste and related CO2 emissions all the while saving tax dollars.
The City’s experience
Irwin noted that implementing an MPS project of this size is challenging but the benefits are well worth the effort. So far, not including the savings from the decommissioning of its higher cost-per-page local desktop printers, the City has saved approximately $1 million over the course of 2012 while the fleet transition was in progress. As it continues to consolidate and improve the fleet’s performance, it is expected that there will be on-going print savings.
The key factors that ensured the success of the City’s EPMS project were:
- Obtaining initial “buy-in” for the project from management.
- Ensuring that appropriate devices deployed best suit the needs of users at each location.
- Partnering with an experienced vendor who has demonstrated flexibility and project management expertise executing other similar sized projects.
- Creating a Project Team capable of coordinating with the vendor and executing the EPMS project.
The City and 4 Office are working together to further optimize its business processes by automating paper-intensive workflows, which will continue to improve efficiencies throughout the City.
About Us
4 Office Automation Ltd. is a leading Print Solution Provider to Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, businesses, and the health and educational public sectors across Ontario and Canada. 4 Office offers some of the most reliable, environmentally friendly and ozone free print devices in the industry. From small commercial businesses to large equipment fleet management, we specialize in providing “all in” cost per impression plans with in-depth reporting so that customers can better manage their assets and costs.
