Office document assessment method and system

• US 20060178917A1
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Turner, Holly, Merriam, Ray, Mallery, Craig, Pothos, Kirk
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,633 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method and system for the assessment of the office document production environment(s) in a facility, and more particularly to a client-based method and system that can be used to collect, analyze, model, optimize, and report on document output costs and efficiencies in an office environment.

Claims

1. An assessment method, comprising:

capturing a current state of a customer'"'"'s office document environment, the environment including office document device inventory, cost of operation and usage information for a plurality of pieces of office document equipment;

analyzing the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment within a plurality of defined areas to characterize at least one cost and usage metric for each area, and aggregating such cost and usage metrics to generate project metrics;

depicting the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment in association with the project metrics; and

modeling projected operating costs of an optimized office document environment for the customer, said model being based upon the usage metrics for the plurality of defined areas.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment further comprises characterizing the customer'"'"'s costs for document output, and providing at least one metric indicating efficiency of the customer'"'"'s office document environment.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment and the optimized office output device environment, including projected costs and efficiencies thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing a current state of a customer'"'"'s office document environment, further comprises:

creating a project, including entry of project properties and contact information;

creating a project tree, including location information of current equipment to produce input maps; and

generating at least one data collection document, said document including a gridded floor map and at least one associated data collection worksheet.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading a models database to a local workstation, said models database including data reflecting office document equipment specifications and operating costs; and

importing the models database for use relative to the current state.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the models database is employed for capturing the current state.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the wherein the models database is employed for analyzing the current state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing a current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment further comprises:

automatically collecting device and usage information from equipment connected to a network; and

importing the device and usage information into the characterization of the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

installing tracking software on a plurality of user workstations in at least one customer location; and

collecting, over a predetermined period of time, print job tracking data for the plurality of users in the at least one location in order to estimate print volumes from each of the plurality of users.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein analyzing the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment further comprises:

entering inventory information, including equipment inventory and volume data, and mapping the equipment; and

entering financial data relating to the cost of operation of at least one piece of equipment.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

validating the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment with the customer;

printing a client data report;

verifying the inventory data;

verify default cost profiles and settings reflected from the models database, and including customer-specific values; and

making any necessary corrections.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising collecting usage data for at least one piece of equipment over a period of time.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein modeling projected operating costs of an optimized office output device environment for the customer comprises the characterization of at least one metric from the group consisting of:

employee to device ratio;

device utilization;

pages per employee ratio;

hard output cost per employee;

infrastructure cost per employee;

SBURD cost per employee;

total cost per employee;

hard output cost per page;

infrastructure cost per page; and

total cost per page.

14. An assessment system, comprising:

a project database for capturing a current state of a customer'"'"'s office document environment, the environment including office document device inventory, cost of operation and usage information for a plurality of pieces of office document equipment;

a models database containing cost and related information for a plurality of types and models of office document equipment;

a computer for analyzing, using the project and models databases, the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment within a plurality of defined areas to characterize each area'"'"'s cost and usage metrics, and aggregating each area'"'"'s cost and usage metrics to generate project metrics, said current state and metrics being stored in a memory associated with said computer; and

the computer further generating a report depicting the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment in association with cost and usage metrics, and modeling projected operating costs of an optimized office output device environment for the customer, said model being based upon the usage metrics for the plurality of defined areas.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the report generated by the computer provides a metric indicating efficiency of the customer'"'"'s office document environment.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein said computer is further employed to capture a current state of a customer'"'"'s office document environment, comprising:

creating and storing a project thereon, including entry of project properties and contact information;

creating a project tree, including location information of current equipment to produce input maps; and

generating at least one data collection document, said document including a gridded floor map and at least one associated data collection worksheet.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said computer:

automatically receives, via a network, collected device and usage information from equipment connected to a network; and

imports the device and usage information into the characterization of the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer'"'"'s modeling projected operating costs of an optimized office output device environment for the customer comprises the characterization and storage in the memory of at least one metric from the group consisting of:

employee to device ratio;

device utilization;

pages per employee ratio;

hard output cost per employee;

infrastructure cost per employee;

SBURD cost per employee;

total cost per employee;

hard output cost per page;

infrastructure cost per page; and

total cost per page.

19. An assessment method, comprising:

capturing a current state of a customer'"'"'s office document environment, the environment including office document device inventory, cost of operation and usage information for a plurality of pieces of office document equipment, including creating a project, having project properties and contact information and at least one data collection document with a location map and an associated data collection worksheet;

validating the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment with the customer;

using a models database including data reflecting office document equipment specification and operating costs, analyzing the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment within a plurality of defined areas to characterize at least one cost and usage metric for each area, and aggregating such cost and usage metrics to generate project metrics, including characterizing the customer'"'"'s costs for document output, and providing at least one metric indicating efficiency of the customer'"'"'s office document environment;

depicting the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment in association with the project metrics;

modeling projected operating costs of an optimized office output device environment for the customer, said model being based upon the usage metrics for the plurality of defined areas; and

reporting the current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment and the optimized office output device environment, including projected costs and efficiencies thereof.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein capturing a current state of the customer'"'"'s office document environment further comprises automatically collecting device and usage information from equipment connected to a network.