Comments and opinions from the delegates present were invited. These varied from concerns about the cost of printing to the problem of counterfeit ink/toner. Most officials agreed on the fact that the cost of printing was high and had to be brought down. Secondly, although computers are expected to make the office environment paperless, the converse was true.
Monitoring the number of prints taken and putting a stop to unnecessary printouts found favor. Bhaskar said printer companies could not be blamed for the cost of genuine cartridges as they delivered better quality and more prints than refilled cartridges.
Talking about going paperless, Bhaskar suggested that, instead of having numerous printers installed with one connected to every official’s computer or one printer for four people, organizations should opt for network printers that are installed one for each department. In this way, monitoring can be done, bringing down the number of unnecessary prints.
Given the fact that every government department would be using printers from different vendors, Canon as a policy offers to buy back old printers at the book value as part of its MPS/MDS. “All the machines have a depreciated book value as per the rules of finance. We buy out the old printers from organizations at the prevailing price and, as a replacement, we give you network printers that are strategically placed in the office. This helps in monitoring wastage,” Bhaskar explained.
Canon’s printers come with a tracking technology that helps monitor who is printing what and how much. Secondly, the technology used is such that printers are not required to be switched on and go to sleep when not in use.
Besides, setting up printers in offices, Canon also offers to take up contracts for digitizing and archiving documents and managing the document workflow. Bhaskar concluded, “We offer you transparency, something that no other company in the market does.”