Blog-post by Cara Shockley, HP Blogger, Sep 9 2011 - 3:12pm
Yesterday, at HP’s annual global Imaging and Printing Conference several new product innovations, new partnerships, apps and solutions were announced. One interesting data point is that customer adoption of its cloud-enabled, web-connected print technologies has reached the mainstream, with more than 10 million printers sold to date. However, one of the storylines that really got my attention was a case study about how General Mills has reduced imaging and printing costs 50% with HP Managed Print Services, saving $1.1 million annually. There’s a lot that can be learned and leveraged from the General Mills strategy.
What truly sets General Mills apart when it comes to print management is how the company uses HP MPS not just to cut costs, but also to achieve strategic objectives. These include General Mills’ Holistic Margin Management strategy and its innovative approach to creating the mobile workplace of the future: their Flexible User Shared Environment (FUSE) initiative.
Through the Holistic Margin Management Strategy, General Mills delivers value by focusing on what matters most to its consumers and identifying ways to reduce waste across its operations. The resulting savings are reinvested in value-creating opportunities that drive the company’s top line growth. The annual savings of more than $1 million from HP MPS is routed directly into other projects that help build the company’s brands.
Flexible User Shared Environment (FUSE) recognizes that traditional, fixed offices are not always the most effective places for employees to work. Most employees in FUSE no longer have a traditional office space at General Mills’ headquarters; rather, employees choose work space based on what suits their needs at that moment. So how does HP Managed Print Services help General mills make FUSE work? HP Access Control (HPAC) facilitates employee mobility by enabling employees to print their work anywhere on the network. With HPAC, when employees send a job to print, the network routes it to a print queue rather than an individual printer. The employee can go to any printer, swipe their employee badge and the job is automatically released to that printer. Additionally, General Mills has implemented HP ePrint Enterprise for printing from mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Employees can send a print job to a General Mills printer from where they are working at the moment – their home, an airport or hotel, or even a moving taxi --- and the job travels within their secure network processed via HP ePrint Enterprise and waits in the HP Access Control print queue at General Mills. When they arrive at their office, they go to a printer, swipe their badge, and only then does HP Access Control release the print job.
Watch the video or read the detailed case study and learn more from General Mills success.
Source: Enterprise CIO Forum
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