AFPC saves $624,000 by consolidating printers Published April 6, 2011 By Tech. Sgt. Steve Grever Air Force Personnel, Services and Manpower Public Affairs RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Air Force Personnel Center here saved more than $624,000 this year by streamlining its active printer inventory by 42 percent. Bob Berger, AFPC's deputy director of personnel data systems, said the printer consolidation plan included taking 380 printers offline to meet federal and Air Force mandates to consolidate, centralize and optimize information technology operations and business processes. "The printer consolidation has allowed us to lower our operating costs while maintaining the same level of service to our customers," Mr. Berger said. "In these fiscally constrained times, we had to find ways to optimize the assets on hand." AFPC officials plan to use the reconstituted printers to replace outdated devices instead of purchasing new hardware. "We already had the assets in house and we didn't need to ask for more money to buy more devices or replace models that we didn't need," he said. As part of the printer consolidation, AFPC IT representatives also evaluated the organization's printer environment, and concluded their printer policies were not consistent with the capabilities of today's technology. "Upgrading to new multi-function printers was only part of our solution," Mr. Berger said. "But, it was just as important to standardize our printers, set printers to duplex printing by default and ensure users could print sensitive documents using a personal identification number." The consolidation strategy also encompassed reviewing printer lifecycle replacement costs, network security and user satisfaction. AFPC representatives also reviewed the cost savings associated with reducing printer cartridge and toner usage. "AFPC projects to save $624,000 in tech refresh costs, $25,000 in printer cartridges and toner kits and approximately $6,000 in energy savings," Mr. Berger said. AFPC officials are also exploring other cost-saving initiatives to optimize its IT infrastructure. One proposal is migrating more than 2,000 computers to virtual desktops that do not require a physical computer at each workstation. "Today's virtual desktop infrastructures can be centrally managed and the end-user devices have no memory or CPUs," Mr. Berger said. "We will see the benefits in security, ease of maintenance, remote user experiences and other factors to be well worth the initial implementation costs."