How to introduce Gaia Print Charger to your business
- "Do we monitor only and try changing the way people operate when
their usage is excessive compared to other users?"
- "Should we give users an allocation and they have to pay once it is used
up?"
- "Let's charge them 100% from day one."
All the above approaches have been tried and many variations between the two extremes.
From the feedback I have received over the last seven years, I am confident in suggesting
option two as the best strategy. However, it took a while
for me to realize why.
This strategy is easier to introduce to all parties involved as it avoid conflicts
with users, parents of users and those who are concerned with reigning in costs.
If you give the students an allocation (sufficient to complete their years work
or whatever you decide is a fair thing), you are not increasing fees or imposing
fees where they did not previously exist. This avoids discussions with students,
parents and staff members who do not subscribe to the 'user pays' principle.
The REALLY interesting thing about this approach is that those given the
allocation behave as if you had given them coins or notes to the value of the allocation
and look upon any print job or Internet surfing as depleting their newly gained
revenue. They will avoid doing that print job now and wait until they get home.
If they have to print now, they will proof read and correct on-screen, check each
print job for blank pages and select duplexing if available. Anything to avoid spending
their own money. Effectively, you have thrown the responsibility onto the user and
in the majority of cases they respond beautifully and your costs drop dramatically.
Now those with budgetry constraints and cost cutting projects are seeing the benefits.
Again, from years of feedback, I estimate the typical saving for a school using
Gaia Print Charger and/or Gaia Net Charger to be four times the price of the license
they purchase in the first year and five times the purchase price every year thereafter
whilst our software is running on that site.
I do not believe you would achieve anywhere near the above savings from option 1.
Option 3 is likely to cause so much aggrevation as no one likes new fees being introduced.
Prepared by:- John H. Denham
GAIA Computing P/L, http://www.gaiacomputing.com.au
Ph +61 3 5444 9588
Fax +61 3 5443 2847