Fleet Management Software Empowers In-plants

Michael Griswold of Tacoma Public Schools uses Kofax Equitrac Express software to manage the district’s fleet of 247 Xerox copiers.

Before his shop implemented fleet management software, Michael Griswold says, it seemed like everyone at Tacoma Public Schools was trying to be an in-plant.

“People would go crazy on the copier systems,” says the printing and graphics lead. “Schools were doing twice as many copies than the print shop was doing.”

Clearly that was a path toward waste, confusion, and unnecessary expense for the Tacoma, Washington, district, which serves 27,000 students at 56 schools. Fortunately, Griswold knew how to fix it.

In 2014, he implemented Kofax Equitrac Express software to manage the fleet of 247 Xerox copiers. It’s proven very helpful in limiting the number of copies staff can produce and enables him to create useful reports to track usage and expense.

Across the in-plant industry, management of copier and MFD fleets is a growing service; 38% of in-plants provide this service, according to IPI’s 2022 Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry report, up from 31% in 2020. For these in-plants, fleet management software can help minimize the challenges of monitoring the fleet.

In Overland Park, Kansas, Kofax Equitrac Print-to-Me and ControlSuite are being used to manage Blue Valley Schools’ 1,600 printers and 400 smart devices. This has resulted in the avoidance of more than 83,000 wasted pages per month, says Jason Gillam, director of business operations. That’s almost one million pages annually. Those savings, he adds, can be better deployed elsewhere.

“Any opportunity we have to save on the operating side allows us to reinvest in people,” Gillam says.

Collecting Usage Data

Curtailing excess printing through fleet management software is also in play at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan. June Lewis, process specialist at Print and Document Services, manages a fleet of 21 Canon black-and-white devices across five campus locations using Canon Uniflow software. The systems can automatically collect data on who is making copies, she says.

“We do a chargeback system, so it ties back to [the customer’s] cost center,” she notes.

Another key benefit has been the shop’s ability to “lock down” access to certain printers, thus controlling use. For instance, only one machine can be used by students, while the others are available to staff.

The software’s data and reporting features allow Lewis to “drill down” to see the volumes printed by individual persons, and on which devices. That data, she says, led the shop to institute limits on the number of copies that can be made. While the in-plant ultimately backed off that effort due to staff push-back, she says it, “made people aware they shouldn’t do big jobs on the fleet.”

While the shop does not have any firm rules as to which large jobs should go to the in-plant instead of being run on a copier, Lewis says she takes a look at any job of more than 200 impressions. With the copier fleet exclusively black and white, color jobs go to the print shop.

Data is also used to determine whether devices are over- or under-utilized, and to place resources where they are needed.

Helpful Reports

Other in-plants also face the dilemma of stopping users from running large jobs on the copiers instead of sending them to the in-plant. At Tacoma Schools, Griswold considered enforcing a threshold, but doing so became problematic when it came to payment for the work, which would have added a third level of approval.

“We finally cut it out. Not worth it,” he says.

Further, the district was reluctant to pursue that kind of top-down approach.
Regardless, Griswold says using fleet management software has had a tempering effect on how copiers are used. With the benefits of reporting, the in-plant has been able to lean on schools to not burn out the copiers.

“The reports are really good,” he says, adding that his shop can pull monthly reports that can show, for instance, cost per student or number of copies per student. Allocated budgets can also be monitored as they are spent down.

Griswold notes another valuable feature of Kofax Equitrac Express software: the “find-me” printing feature, where jobs are printed where the person needs them, when they need them. Griswold calls it “a money-saver.” While users can send a job to the print queue, the job is not printed until the user scans his or her badge to release the job. He says work is underway to automate billing; currently, whichever department “owns” the printer pays for the print that comes out of it.

At Kellogg, one of the features most appreciated by staff is the ability to use a keycard to access the system, as opposed to entering a 14-character password. Lewis says the system also allows (with a swipe of the keycard) staff to print from any device. She says having an all-Canon fleet means staff knows how to use any of the devices.

Lewis says that for Kellogg Community College, fleet management software was “a good investment,” noting it is especially beneficial for the school’s chargeback system.

What is Needed, When it’s Needed

At Illinois Farm Bureau Printing and Mailing Services, Papercut software tells Curt Hastings when the toner in any machine in his fleet reaches a critical level.

In Bloomington, Illinois, the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Printing and Mailing Services department uses Papercut software to manage its fleet of 17 Sharp copiers. Manager Curt Hastings uses it to monitor machine use and over-use and to get notifications when the toner in any machine reaches a critical level. The system will automatically order toner when a machine’s level falls below 10%. Because toner can’t be changed until the level reaches zero, it’s critical that a replacement is ordered and ready when it is needed.

Like the other management softwares mentioned, Papercut also enables secure, find-me printing.

“I can send it to any of the 17 machines and get my job printed,” Hastings says.

To initiate the print job, the person who placed the job into the print queue must scan his or her security badge.

The in-plant switched to a managed copier fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this, Hastings says, many people in the office had small copiers and printers on their desks — disparate devices challenging to manage effectively.

For in-plants responsible for managing copier fleets or those seeking to do so as a way to enhance the value of their services, Hastings recommends fleet management software.

“It keeps you in touch with upper management and lets them know you’re paying attention to different metrics,” he says.