[708] in Enterprise Print Delivery Team
GL Monthly Statements - Maybe a Win for Everyone
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David F Lambert)
Tue Nov 21 08:29:24 2000
Message-Id: <10011211330.AA28915@MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 00 07:42:27 EST
From: David F Lambert <LAMBERT@MITVMA.MIT.Edu>
To: jlmorgan@MIT.EDU, gemmons@MIT.EDU
Cc: Roger A Roach <RAR@MIT.EDU>, Tom Dalton <tdalton@MIT.EDU>
Jim & Gill,
A couple of the print delivery project members met with FSS folks to
discuss their needs for testing InfoPrint Manager and the new central
printing services. One key learning is that FSS will probably not
have the new program ready until the end of FY01. Jim, you've
expressed a strong desire to eliminate the central printing of the
monthly GL statements. However, I do understand some apprehension
with the community's possible reaction.
I've been thinking about this situation the last few weeks and
wonder if the following makes sense to you two...
Goals:
1) Kill less trees by reducing the volume of centrally printed
GL statements and save MIT dollars (printing, distribution and
trash removal).
2) Reduce non-value added work in Datacenter Operations, Mail Services and
departmental mail handlers by eliminating GL statement printing for
customers who do not want to receive paper reports.
3) Avoid a simple shift of the monthly statement printing from the central
printing services to much higher costing distributed printing within
the departments. The IS budget would be reduced but the overall printing
costs to MIT would increase with a shift from central to distributed
printing.
4) Continue to encourage online viewing of financial information to reduce
overall printing costs to MIT - an efficiency win for everyone.
5) Fully empower CAO's customers by allowing the customers to eliminate
unwanted central printing of their statements (many customers want
to eliminate their printing but still don't know how to do this).
6) Continue to centrally print the statements for those customers who
proactively choose this option to address their needs/desires.
Proposed Solution:
1) Beginning in January, heavily advertise a shift in the "default setting"
for printing monthly GL statements centrally effective in FY02.
2) Request that any departments which still wish to have their statements
printed centrally to inform CAO of this choice - by department, cost
object, etc.
3) If needed, write some one-time code which would retain the flag to
indicate a cost object should be centrally printed during the monthly
process for those who requested same. The program would also change
the flag to "no print" for all remaining cost objects.
Risks:
I would guess the biggest risk might be that some folks in the community
would complain they were unaware of the advertised change. It would be
difficult to defend this position if we advertised the pending change
clearly, frequently and with plenty of advance notice.
Again, it appears to me that only one real risk exists with this plan
with lots of potential wins based on the goals above.
Your thoughts?
-Dave
