case study | Ballarat Health Services
IN large organisations, printers can be a lot like rabbits - you start with just a few, but before long they're everywhere and out of control.
Just such a printer plague had become a problem for Ballarat Health Services, a major healthcare provider in southwestern Victoria. Purchased over a number of years to service some 3000 staff, printer numbers had topped 450 and were causing management and budgetary headaches.
With a range of facilities providing health services across an area of more than 48,000 square kilometres, the service is the largest in Victoria's Grampians region.
It provides a range of services including aged and psychiatric care, community services and women's and children's medical services.
Because of its dispersed operations, many departments had grown accustomed to purchasing and managing their own printers. The result was a fleet of some 177 different models from 18 vendors.
A large number of consumables had to be kept in stock and there was no easy way to track exactly what was being spent.
"Overall, the business case for us was a no-brainer," Ballarat Health Services acting IT director Andres Haas says. "We knew we were spending a lot on printing but had no way of monitoring exactly how much, and where it was being spent."
To overcome the challenge, the service decided to replace all printers with a standard set of devices from a single vendor.
As part of a wider IT refresh across the organisation, several printer vendors were examined. After evaluation of equipment and services, a decision was made to go with offerings from Hewlett-Packard.
"We took the view that we should be replacing two devices with one and so opted for installing multifunction devices," Haas says. "These can handle faxing, printing, copying, and even scanning, in one device."
As a first step, HP worked with the service's IT staff to scope out the printing requirements of the organisation. After visiting facilities and understanding workflows, HP recommended 80 multifunction devices (MFPs) and 100 standalone printers. A small number of test units was installed to give senior staff an idea of how they operated and the type of user interface they provided.
After the test a selection of HP Laserjet MFPs and printers was selected. A decision was also taken to manage the fleet using HP's Web Jetadmin and MegaTrack software applications.
Web Jetadmin allows devices to be monitored remotely and automates the process of ordering consumables.
Each machine sends an electronic notification when it is running low and an order is placed without the need for any human intervention.
The MegaTrack application allows the organisation to track printing and copying usage across all locations.
Each department is billed for what is used, rather than getting an arbitrary charge as had been the case in the past.
Each department, therefore, gets an accurate indication of the amount of printing and copying it is doing in a given period. If it is judged to be too high, steps can be taken locally to find ways to reduce volumes.
The automated monitoring has reduced equipment downtime, slicing about 30 per cent off the number of reported faults.
If any do occur, helpdesk staff can usually talk users through the steps needed to fix them.
Because all the devices use a similar interface, staff can move between locations and be able to easily use whichever device they require, Haas says. This standardisation has helped to reduce the volume of consumables kept at each location.
Since the rollout, the service has managed to keep a lid on printer numbers across its locations by ensuring that all equipment is centrally ordered.
Centralising monitoring and maintenance functions has also freed up IT staff to focus on high-value activities.
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