Dam IT policies. - Printers

[andyroo54]

Originally Posted by HumbleBum

If you infact in the office, we will just allocate meeting space (like lounges and what not) for you to work from.

If you can do the majority of your work from an ipad then your probably not doing much work.

As to the point of the thread, if you can't be bothered nagging for a multifunction on your level, then buy a DECENT desktop laser and be done with. If a laser printer only costs 40 bucks then somethings wrong.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by Phido

New policy. No printers for individuals.

Great, I've been lobbying for a printer for months. as the only printer we have is on the floor above and it have to run up and down a fire exit.

The policy is a good sensible one. IT must first rectify your entire levels problem of no printer on your floor before enforcing you to give up your printer.
As long as IT are aware of the printer and you're responsible for the upkeep and toner replacements then that's not too bad. Though IT should not have to manage an army of tiny printers, It's a waste of time and money. Usually one good high volume printer is the way to go which will offer faster print speeds, and more print features/options than a basic printer.

[Phido]

As a follow up:

* my little brother is doing great. Just got another cartridge ordered ~$40 from our supplier. I don't have to claim for toner, for this printer it can be ordered directly. Toner cost is reasonable, I don't do huge volume so cost is really minimal.

* I am very happy with it. Its compact for a laser, quiet, fast, prints anything (PDF complex word etc). I sometimes run off 1 copy of a document on it, run up stairs do a proper print of 100 copies with colour paper covers etc. I would estimate its saved me ~50 hrs since purchase, and made me more productive over and above the hours. Ie emergency management meeting in minutes and agendas/evidence needs to be printed.

* The sucker has a 250 page paper feeder and I think I have had ~3 jams the whole time, mostly when doing some silly (feeding paper while its printing), I've feed atleast two reems through it (all mostly light text, confidential information etc). Print quality has been entirely acceptable. No streaks etc unlike our main printers which often have unusable quality due to volume.

* I have now been promoted to a position where I am allowed a printer as long as it is not a new purchase. Several managers including my boss think it was an awesome idea showing initiative, creative solutions to stupid policy. I am now angling to be re-embused the $37 for my printer.

* Other managers who can get individual printers were assigned some faded 1990's HP laserjets (4?). 3 Have needed new drums, 1 has died completely. All have needed new toner. Print quality is crap. Take up loads of space and are completely inappropriate. We have small full brick offices, and they fill these tiny spaces with ozone.

* The printer policy went under review. There is only one type of printer to be purchased from now on. This printer is currently not being produced and is on backorder. Expected delivery date is sometime in mid 2013. Policy is under review again, but will take 3 months to change. It doesn't matter any way, we are spending tens of thousands keeping whole fleets of ancient laser jets going with several million pages on them because of this policy. It is insane. Even if it costs $5k to fix em, people will fix em rather than have no printers.

*Because of this policy, existing inkjet printers have been deployed in high volume environments (a lab and a whole office floor). Because we had all these stupid old printers and no where to use them and are not allowed to buy new ones.

Moral. Do what needs to be done. The ends justify the means. No point is making your company go broke to keep some stupid arbitrary policy in tact. I make a point to prove how stupid/inefficent things are.