System-wide Print Resource Use

This policy is to facilitate the appropriate and acceptable use of State University of New York (University) print resources by University employees (full- and part-time) and authorized individuals. The University print objectives are to reduce cost, waste, print and paper, simplify and standardize the printer fleet (both single-function and multi-function printers) and secure and optimize the print environment.

In this document, the word “printer” and “device” are used interchangeably and are in reference to any locally attached device (local), single-function printer (SFP), multi-function device (MFD), or a combination of local, SFP and MFD.

As the University aspires to be the leading university system in terms of efficiency, sustainability, cost and security as it relates to office printing, it is the University’s policy to:

Establish system-wide print defaults and standards;
Limit printing to items essential for academic instruction or required to perform and complete University business needs (e.g. reports or forms for submission to Federal or State agencies, etc.);
Achieve University sustainability goals to reduce the University’s paper, energy use and carbon footprint;
Deploy University approved software to monitor usage by individual, application, department, and device; and
Have campuses centralize their print budget.

In furtherance of this policy the University has established the following goals to be achieved by July 2024:

Achieve a total cost per copy (TCC) of <$.01xx;
Have 100% of print devices secure and on a campus network;
Eliminate all locally attached desktop devices;
Reduce the number of 2020 SFP by more than 50%;
Increase the usage of two-sided (duplex) printing by 100%;
Increase 2020 device utilization by more than 100%;
Reduce 2020 color print volume by 50%; and
Reduce 2020 mono volume by 40%.

The [Office TBD] will be responsible for documenting acceptable University print practices, including equipment acquisition, in a System-wide Print Resource Use Procedure to create print efficiency and optimization (i.e., digital vs paper-based workflows) that complies with privacy, security and regulatory requirements.

Exceptions to this policy will be extremely limited and only in situations that involve critical business needs that are approved by the Campus President or designee.

Authorized individuals – Any person other than University employees who are granted permission to use University print resources, including but not limited to students and consultants.

Critical business needs – Documents and presentations essential to the running and operation of the university that the user believes are better suited to be printed vs shared electronically or administrative processes which, for compliance or regulatory issues, requires a printed document.

Device utilization – The amount of output volume being produced on any given device. The higher the utilization, the more volume that fixed cost component can be spread over. For example, if the device has a fixed cost of $100 per month and the volume is 10,000 pages per month, it is better utilized as compared to that same device running 1,000 pages per month.

Print defaults and standards – Pre-set properties on print devices which may include but are not limited to functions such as mono (vs color) or duplex (vs single-sided) pages. Standards include the characteristics of the devices that SUNY has determined to be most acceptable, which may include deploying devices that only print letter (8.5 x 11”) or legal (8.5 x 14”) vs ledger (11x17” pages).

Secure print devices – The process of requiring user authentication before the features of the output device are enabled. Once “secured,” the user’s print job is held on a server (either on-premises or in the cloud), or a user’s workstation, and only released when the user is present and authenticates at the device. Once the user authenticates, their print jobs submitted can either be printed, or deleted in the event multiple print jobs were submitted. Print jobs not selected to be printed will be deleted based on predefined criteria. Sometimes referred to as “pull printing” or “follow me printing” as the user can authenticate and release print jobs from any device that is on the campus network.

Duplex printing – Printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

Total Cost per Copy (TCC) – The total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes the fixed cost of the hardware (either the lease, rental or depreciation charge) combined with the cost of supplies and maintenance; divided by the monthly usage of the device (Average Monthly TCO/Monthly Usage). Sometimes paper is included in the TCO calculation.

Campus network – The dedicated network at each campus that the user’s workstation is connected to, either with a wire or wirelessly, that enables their work to be done and print jobs to be submitted and printed.

Locally-attached device (local) – A device that is connected directly or wirelessly to a workstation with only one user mapped to the device. Also commonly referred to as a “personal” or “desktop” printer.

Single-function printer (SFP) – A print output device that only performs one task, most often just printing as opposed to just scanning or just faxing.

Mono – Black and white.

Multi-function device (MFD) – A print output device that performs multiple (more than one) task such as printing, copying, scanning, and faxing.

Centralized Printing Budget (by campus) – The process of assimilating all costs that every department spends on print supplies, maintenance and paper and brining it together under one campus budget vs departments using their individual budgets to track, order and pay for these items.

There is no related information relevant to this policy.

System-wide Print Resource Use - Procedure

There are no forms relevant to this policy.

Administrative policy issued by SUNY System Administration on February 1, 2021.

SUNY, assisted by Pharos, an independent print consultant, assessed the University’s print landscape - print devices, print volume and type (mono or color and size), and existing campus managed print contracts. The assessment was conducted by the deployment of Pharos software on campuses’ print devices and servers and the manual review of campuses’ contracts, invoices and payments. Trip reports were prepared for ten (10) Campus visits. Fifty-five (55) campuses and System Administration fully or partially deployed the print software, and twelve (12) managed print contracts and associated payment records were analyzed by Pharos.

The results of the assessment showed SUNY prints more than 50 million pages a month. The System has more than 40,000 devices, of which approximately 50% are personal or desktop printers. Of the networked devices, most are owned by SUNY and are 10 years old or older. Additionally, the devices are often underutilized (output vs capacity) and/or misplaced (multiple devices located in close proximity to each other). The analysis also determined that SUNY spends approximately $50M per year on printing with color printing accounting for more than 50% of the cost.