Do you have surplus copiers and printers due to locations that are being closed? If the equipment is owned by your organization, the surplus devices can be sold at auction or through an advertisement or moved to another location that could utilize the equipment. Read the rest of this entry »

Optimizon has published its latest white paper titled Optimizing Your Printer/Copier Fleet - First Five Steps to a Document Strategy. ABSTRACT: While there are many environments and technologies to consider when designing a document strategy, companies are discovering that their printer and copier fleet can serve as an effective and profitable place to start. Workgroup printers and copiers are a natural and sensible environment for a document strategy because they directly support the day-to-day business of organizations of all sizes and types from every industry. Pick any department or any business process and you can bet that users – from frontline employees to executive staff – depend on printers and copiers to get their job done. Ultimately, business operations depend on the efficiency, effectiveness and cost control associated with work group printers and copiers. Read the rest of this entry »

E-mail is one of our primary methods of communicating with copier and printer vendors. This communication medium works well for all parties because it allows us all to address issues on our schedule, provides a written record throughout a process, and allows multiple people to stay in the loop. We have learned, though, that within the world of e-mail, there are more effective and less effective ways of communicating. Our goal is always a quick and complete resolution. If you’re looking for the same thing, here are 10 tips for using e-mail effectively to resolve issues with your vendors: Read the rest of this entry »

How does your organization dispose of copying equipment that is no longer in use? Are storage rooms getting crowded? (Note: I’m referring to equipment that is owned by your organization and not under a lease agreement.) Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading a recent marketing article from raintoday.com that stated the majority of decision makers require some form of an answer to five key questions before purchasing a product or service. As I read each question, which I’ve listed here below along with a response to each, my mind conjured up all the conversations and reasons clients have chosen to do business with us over the past 16 years. Since I’m sometimes guilty of being too “wordy”, I made a concentrated effort to see if I could eliminate most of the typical marketing verbiage and pinpoint an exact answer to each question in one or two sentences. Here’s what I came up with: Read the rest of this entry »

If your organization doesn’t have an internal Help Desk that manages aspects of your fleet, we highly recommend assigning one of your staff as the Key Operator for each copier/printer device you have in the fleet. The Key Operator performs the following tasks, which are critical to effectively managing your fleet: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m often asked what the best copying and printing equipment is. My answer: Almost all brands of equipment could be ‘the best’ in any given circumstance. How can this be? Let’s take a closer look at the question. Your organization may need to communicate educational materials to school-age children, keep records of a critically ill patient, or have an on-ramp for a content management system. Whatever your needs, finding the answer to the question of ‘what it the best equipment?’ starts with establishing your own internal expectations for the next 3 to 5 years based on your organization’s strategic goals. (I believe that these standards and expectations are in place, whether they have been clearly articulated or not.) Read the rest of this entry »

Well, technically, it’s: ˈäp-tə-ˌmī-zən. Less technically, start with ‘optimize’ and add ‘un’ (as in run) – optimize-un.

The root of our name, optimize, is a well-known verb. According to Miriam-Webster Online, the definition of optimize is ‘to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible’. Since our goal is to help each of our clients create Ideal Contracts for their copier and printer fleets that are as perfect, effective, AND functional as possible, we coined the noun, Optimizon, to refer to our company.

You can read more about us by clicking on the Company link at the top of the page. If you’re not already a part of our story, we look forward to getting to know you soon!

The 95% and 98% Uptime Guarantee for Copiers. Sounds good… Gives me warm fuzzy feelings… But what does it really mean? A friend of mine told me that people shouldn’t be allowed to do math publicly so please bear with me for a minute. An average month has 4.33 weeks. An average month has 173.2 business hours. If we multiply 173.2 hours by the 95% Uptime Guarantee, we find that the equipment is guaranteed to be operational 164.5 hours per month. Continuing this train of thought, if we subtract 164.5 hours from 173.2 hours we find the 95% Uptime Guarantee means the device will be unusable 8.66 hours per month and still meet the Uptime Guarantee. If your prospective supplier is offering a 98% Uptime Guarantee then the device will be inoperable about 3.5 hours per month. Read the rest of this entry »

If one of the goals of your organization or district is to maintain an accurate asset list, here are some things to keep in mind when deciding what information will be kept up-to-date. It’s important to know what equipment you have and where it is located, so you’ll want to start with a list of the current location, make/model and serial number of each device. If you want to determine the cost of the equipment, then you’ll also need to track the installation date, acquisition method (purchase or lease) and cost, and service contract base and overage amounts. For any leased equipment, it is especially important to track the lease end date and the date the letter of intent is due to the lease company. Read the rest of this entry »