Executive Debrief
The Changing
Dealer World
Interesting facts:
-document management resellers account for $1.8 billion in sales
-dealers account for less than 10% of that market value
With the MFP, Copier companies and dealers are trying to
move from copier box sales into the corporate network document delivery
world. The problem is that
fleet management is not a product, its a solution. According to research, some do and most don't.
Ref: Raimund Wasner,The Rheiner Group
ROI calculator
for managing your printer fleet
PrinterRx training highlight
Discovery Strings in PrinterRx
Grant's Tech Tip
IP Discovery speed calculations
The discovery process searches each address within the range given,
looking for print devices. If there is a device (printer or not) at a
particular address, the process determines what type of device is
present, if it supports snmp,http, etc. This can take 45-90 seconds for
the complete probe, depending on how fast the device responds and the
amount of data transferred. If there is NOT a device at a particular ip
address, the 'timeout' period (65 seconds) must expire before the
discovery process moves on to the next address. This is to give enough
time for devices on slow network segments or large wide-area networks a
chance to be discovered.
Doing the math to get an estimate of the time required is as follows:
Each ip address is basically a number (x.x.x.x) where each 'x' can have
255 different valid values. Windows 2003 can support 50 worker
threads(which is one of the reasons we recommend Win2003) whereas,
WindowsXP can support only 8 workers.
So with WindowsXP as an example: Using a discovery string of 10.0.0.*
will search 255 addresses, distributed over the 8 different worker
threads, taking 65 (as tested) seconds each will take approximately 2070
seconds (almost 35mins) for that range. A discovery string of 10.0.*.*
will take (255x255x65)/8 = 528,328 seconds or 6.2 days
A string of *.*.*.* (the whole internet) would then take (give or take a
couple of days) around 1088.6 YEARS.
Using the printerRx "High-Speed" search method reduces these times to
under .6 seconds per address, which when used on the more stable and
reliable Windows2000 or Windows2003, with the ability to use more worker
threads, will result in a SIGNIFICANTLY faster discovery of the network
printing devices.
For Example,
The string 10.0.0.* will take approximately 60 seconds with Windows2000
and 50 workers; The string 10.0.*.* will take approximately 780 seconds
(13 minutes); and the time for the "entire internet" string *.*.*.* will
reduce to within a human lifetime, at just over 1.6 years.
From this, it can be seen that a well-organized network subnet
structure, with printers assigned to a specific range, will require
significantly less time to discover the printers, as MUCH less time will
be spent searching unused ip address ranges.
For more information
printerRx Support portal
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Executing a Printer Fleet Strategy
Our last
newsletter
looked at Billing issues for dealers. This month we will go beyond
billing and look at best practices for
executing a fleet strategy. For a Copy dealer who wants to enter the
corporate network printing world, he must add value to his customers
beyond the box lease and fix. After all, only 10% of the $1.8 billion
in document management services is billed by dealers, whereas 90% is
provided by other document service providers who have long history with
the corporation . If you wish to grow your business or grow
with the networked mfp, you need to provide added value to your
customer. To
break into that market, the added-value you provide is managing the fleet and an in depth
understanding of your customers' print network.
 Executing
a printer fleet strategy in a corporation is similar to executing an IT Asset management
strategy. Consideration must be given to the asset
lifecycle: Strategize, Evaluate, Procure, Operate, Maintain, & Dispose.
We will discuss the nuances of the fleet management
phases as they pertain to Printer assets.
Strategy: Managing corporate printer fleets is unique in
IT asset
management in that it involves coordinating a variety of
external & internal resources. Key to developing a
strategy is (1) understanding your printing objective as
it pertains to output, (2) understanding your user
printing behavior, (3) Vendor decisions, (4)
Manufacturer and Model Assessment, (5) Device
Penetration, types (b/w, color, mfp, print speed, etc) &
distance, (6) Service & Supplies Management.
Historically, printing has been ignored in corporations,
but to get benefits from a managed printer fleet, the
strategy must be developed from a Corporate
perspective. One key consideration is where
the budget comes from and how to allocate those charges.
Fortunately, is some progressive corporations, IT is
beginning to allocate IT usage costs back to the users
of IT services.
Analyze: Analyzing and Strategy
development feed into each other. This is the most
important component for developing a print fleet
strategy. The
bottom line of analysis is a comparative "all-in" cost
per page per device. Costs need to include
printing costs, device overhead costs, and device
problem-fix (also called downtime) cost. Critical
to this cost comparison and analysis is understanding
user printing behavior. Once printing behavior is
understood, it can be modified through education
and strategic placement of the appropriate device (eg.
mfp, high speed b/w, etc.) at the appropriate location.
Behavior modification pop-ups on desktop computers
suggesting alternative cost effective printing locations
are annoying productivity losers and essentially
ineffective.
Procure: The basic
mandate is the axiom
"Procurement needs to work for the corporation, not the
department." Of course, decisions on
vendor, purchase vs lease, and hardware manufacturer &
models should be made during the strategy phase.
The decisions are based on a cost benefit analysis using
comparative total cost of ownership (TCO). These
costs should be based upon YOUR usage, not manufacturer
published numbers!
Operate: Printer fleet
operations involve a variety of components, and in that,
operations can be complex. Things that need to be
managed proactively include: Contracts, Vendors,
Supplies, Service, and Users. Vendor contracts may
include fleet contracts, Service contracts, Supplies
contracts, and scheduled moves. For continuous
improvement and continued cost control, Operations
should be reviewing comparative costs and usage on an
ongoing basis.
Maintain: Service
vendors should have an automatic service ticket system
to ensure the SLA uptime is within the contractual
agreement terms. As a device becomes a cost drain
or as lease contracts end, the device should be
automatically flagged for retirement/replacement
according to the retirement strategy.
Replace: A retirement
strategy which identifies and schedules replacement of
devices as they become cost ineffective, lease expiry,
or as the corporation changes. A proactive vendor
can bring value to both the corporation and the vendor
in developing and automating a retirement/replacement
strategy.
The above is an overview of some of the considerations for managing a printer fleet. In the
subsequent issues, we will go into more depth on
components of the Asset Lifecycle Strategy unique to
Printing devices.
Get
more information on a PrinterRx solution
Printer Discovery unveiled
Discovery of network printers & mfp's doesn't just happen. You
need to have an understanding of the ip-network layout set up in the
corporation.
The core issue deals with the specifying of the discovery string range
to locate printing devices. You should always obtain as much information
on the network set-up and ip-address ranges used for printers (see
Grant's Tech tip).
If it is not immediately apparent how the network is set up and what
addresses are used by printers, printerRx "high speed" discovery should be used
during installation, BUT IT WILL NOT NECESSARILY DISCOVER ALL THE
PRINTERS ON THE NETWORK. For the well-organized sites, we recommend that
you enter the ip-ranges in the discovery string panel of printerRx after
printerRx has been installed. For a randomly-organized site, you may
wish to use a combination of "high-speed" option and ip-address range
discovery, depending on the number of network subnets used.
To help with specifying of the discovery string range for
randomly-organized networks, PrinterRx implemented a couple of search
rules during installation. The first will have the discovery process
search the entire subnet that contains the PrinterRx computer (without
input from the installer), unless overridden during the install.
Secondly, there will be a "high-speed" option to detect SNMP-enabled
printers on networks with multiple subnets (or randomly organized
subnets). This should help in getting the software up and running with
less intervention required, but still allow later customization as
required. Remember that at many sites, printers may not have SNMP turned
on & using the quick method will not locate them, nor will all printers
reside on the printerRx computer subnet. These quick start
implementations will get the discovery up & running, but will not likely
locate all the printing devices. It is recommended to customize the IP
discovery strings with a knowledge of the network after installation.
With so many possible ways to set up a corporate intranet, some prior
knowledge of the network setup is important both to minimize the amount
of time to discover devices, and to ensure that all possible devices are
found.
Some site administrators are aware of the importance of organization,
and will place printers in a specific range of addresses within a subnet
(eg 10.0.0.200-224), so that ALL monitoring software (not just PrinterRx)
can be optimized. Others will simply assign an ip address according to
whatever is available.
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