| Support for local Government should not end in Q2 |
| Lexmark campaigns for greater support of local government and its resellers |
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Marlow, UK -
01/05/2002
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Resellers selling to local government departments directly and through the Gcat2 no longer need to push sales before April when many vendors’ rebates expire. Lexmark has announced a year-round 5% discount to local government resellers to ensure purchasing decisions are made wisely, not hastily. They have also increased this rebate to 10% for the T5xx and Exx series of laser printers until the end of June. IT and office management responsibilities are beginning to merge across all sectors. Printing, copying, faxing and scanning costs are increasingly being scrutinised by stationery, office equipment purchasing and IT departments, a trend that is becoming even more of an issue with the current convergence of office technologies. According to Jane Cronin, director of channels and marketing for Lexmark, "Local government departments such as education, social services and the NHS need to focus on their core function: providing a service to the public. We want IT Departments to see how Lexmark can play an important part in allowing local government departments to concentrate on just that, by providing hassle free printing solutions. For example, in environments where space is at a premium and efficient printing is paramount, such as A&E departments, Lexmark’s electronic forms solution has proved revolutionary. A department’s forms can be easily designed and created in an electronic version by a reseller and stored as templates on a Lexmark DIMM memory chip within the printer. Whenever the document is required, it is printed quickly and quietly on a laser printer. This eliminates the need for purchasing and storing pre printed stationery. Lexmark has traditionally supported resellers who are selling to the public sector and we continue to do so with improved offerings. We want to encourage our resellers to see how they can reduce printing costs and control document output with Lexmark, at the same time adding value to their sale." Lexmark’s advice on how local government offices can manage their assets better: - Look at the current installed base: carry out an audit of all the printing and copying requirements of the department. This will give a clear idea how many printers and copiers are being used, how they're managed throughout the organisation and how much they are costing. The results are frequently surprising and could reveal substantial cost savings. Lexmark can provide these audit services for free in certain situations.
- Use a duplexing unit to print on both sides of the paper, saving up to half the cost of paper. Where possible use ‘multi-up’ printing, where up to 16 A4 pages can be reduced in size and printed on a single sheet of A4 paper, substantially reducing paper and toner costs.
- Set up virtual printer drivers labelled 'E-mail', 'Draft', 'High Quality' and so on. ‘E-mail could be in 2-up (2 to a page), Draft using a lower toner density to reduce toner usage and High Quality using the standard settings. Although all of them will use the same physical printer, quality, toner density and number of pages per sheet will be different.
- The new multi-function printers (MFPs) would enable local government departments to consolidate their office functions such as faxing, scanning, copying, emailing and printing into one device. This will not only save operating space but will reduce maintenance time and costs, requiring only one engineer for all functions.
Printer management software can remove the need for storage of supplies by setting up an alert to inform them when toner is low, enabling supplies to be purchased as required. Most modern printers also feature confidentiality options, which allow local government employees to print confidential records and other private documents without having to worry if someone else makes it to the printer first!
Lexmark International, Inc. is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of printing solutions -- including laser and inkjet printers, associated supplies and services -- for offices and homes in more than 150 countries. Founded in 1991, Lexmark reported more than $4.1 billion of revenue in 2001, and can be found on the Internet at www.lexmark.com
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