Here's an excerpt from my article:

"The idea of equipment productivity is one of my favorite topics. You can walk in to most any office (99% at least) and find multiple examples of people using unproductive technology at a net loss to the bottom line. The base of this idea is the fact that people cost is typically much higher than equipment cost. Therefore, it’s easy to extrapolate that having a person make adjustments to accommodate a machine is poor use of resources. One example I frequently use is the idea of shared network printers. A decent laser printer, even a fancy, color model, might run a thousand dollars. A typical office employee with normal business overhead might easily run twenty-five thousand dollars.

Now consider the longevity of the printer. A good printer might last five, six, seven years or more. For the purpose of this discussion let’s assume that the printer will last 4 years. That gives us a cost ratio of printer to employee of 100 to 1. (a $25,000 per-year person X 4 years vs. a $1,000 printer used for 4 years) Now, put one of these printers in an office of five people. The ratio is now 500 to 1.

Does it make sense to have 5 people getting up from their desk and walking to where the printer is? Does it make sense that these people have to wait their turn, or remove the regular paper to load envelopes, etc. Does it make sense that if this printer breaks down or runs out of toner that the five people can’t do their jobs properly until it’s fixed … maybe days later?

Sounds like poor office management doesn’t it? Yet, this is how most offices are set up. This would be like having a group of seven-figure CEO’s having to bottleneck their work through a hamburger flipper at Burger King to get their job done everyday. Seriously.

You get the idea."

To find out if you have $9,000 hidden in each of your employees that can be pried out for about $500, subscribe to the SECRITS NEWSLETTER

THE BLOG OF SECRITS by Aaron Garn is focused on delivering time & money saving tips and tricks, IT news that impacts our clients, and straight forward IT consulting. Please contact Aaron Garn at aaron.garn@zetaone.com with any questions or topics you would like to see addresses on THE BLOG OF SECRITS.
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