DON Print Management Initiative - A Strategic Partnership to Achieve Savings
Published, January 16, 2014
The Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer has instituted a department-wide policy to comprehensively manage print devices. This policy, signed Jan. 25, 2013, became the cornerstone of the DON Print Management Initiative, which is expected to achieve cost savings of $285M over the Future Years Defense Program.
The initiative, based on a business case analysis vetted by stakeholders for over eight months, was tested with a pilot program run by the DON Secretariat. The pilot, involving approximately half of the DON Secretariat, reduced the number of print devices (copiers, printers, fax machines, scanners and multifunction devices) by 68 percent and resulted in a projected annual savings of $1.64 million. On November 26, 2013, Defense Logistics Agency Document Services, the Print Management Initiative's executing organization, began implementation in 17 DON organizations.
The DON CIO set a high bar for all DON IT efficiencies, requiring that the proposed initiative be:
- Achievable with no/minimal IT investment
- Low/acceptable risk
- Scalable to Enterprise-wide
- Able to produce significant savings
The DON Print Management Initiative met the bar and is now being implemented across the DON, with full implementation projected by FY19, at which time the initiative is expected to achieve savings at the rate of $5M per month, or $60 million per year.
Key elements of the initiative include:
- A strong strategic relationship with Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Document Services, an organization with over 30 years of experience in providing print management services to customers in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and DLA
- Clear policy mandating use of the complete suite of DLA print services (including devices, toner, ink, maintenance, help desk, and device removal and replacement) to maximize savings
- Senior leadership commitment from DON CIO, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development & Acquisition), Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management & Comptroller), and the DON Deputy CIOs (Navy and Marine Corps)
The DON Print Management Initiative is one of the IT efficiency initiatives led by the DON CIO, aimed at achieving cost savings through business IT. In another effort to achieve IT efficiencies related to printing, in March 2013, all Navy Secretariat and Chief of Naval Operations NMCI unclassified printer default settings were changed to print documents on both sides of the paper, as well as with black ink using draft print quality. Printing in duplex (double-sided) mode saves the government money on paper costs and reduces the amount of paper used by agencies. The estimated average savings is less than one cent per page, but that can add up to government-wide savings of $61 million annually. Duplex printing may be set as the default for each duplex-capable piece of print equipment (printers, copiers, or multi-functional devices) via a computer's "document style" setting. Also, IT personnel can ensure that default print settings on user machines are set to duplex.
View the print management policy.