Patent Application
20150220953
This disclosure relates to tools (for example, systems, apparatuses, methodologies, computer programs, etc.) for performing an enterprise analysis and/or a site analysis of information technology costs, expenditures, pricing, etc., for an enterprise or another organization.
In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools are extensively used in enterprises and other organizations in order to facilitate communication and processing of information, documents, data, etc. Indeed, it is now rare to find a workflow in an enterprise that does not employ IT tools. The number of IT assets [such as software, computers, printers, scanners, multi-function devices (MFDs), other network-connected or standalone devices] is generally increasing and, as a result, managing and tracking IT expenditures is becoming a daunting task.
While the market for IT assets is expanding, the number of options when one looks for IT tools is also typically increasing. Accordingly, suppliers of IT tools generally find that they need to offer competitive pricing and relevant information, on demand. Thus, even suppliers are commonly looking for improved tools that enable them to be competitive in the relevant market.
While the market for IT assets is expanding, the number of options when one looks for IT tools is also typically increasing. Accordingly, suppliers of IT tools generally find that they need to offer competitive pricing and relevant information, on demand. Thus, even suppliers are commonly looking for improved tools that enable them to be competitive in the relevant market.
One approach for a vendor to make an educated and intriguing sales pitch to a customer or prospective customer is to present a proposal along with an analysis of the current IT expenditures of the customer or prospective customer. Such vendor typically attempts to determine the current IT assets of the customer or prospective customer and then collate cost information regarding such assets. For example, costs can vary based on any of various aspects such as, but not limited to, acquisition type (i.e. lease/purchase), acquisition cost, depreciation of product, service cost, and in the case of printing products/services, consumables (e.g., paper, ink, toner, etc.) cost. Further, the vendor may analyze the needs of the customer or prospective customer in order to be able to offer a package of products and/or services that is attractive to the customer or prospective customer.
There are still many instances in which it is difficult to assess the merits of a proposal, at least from the perspective of price or cost.
There exists a need for improved tools for determining, tracking and/or otherwise managing costs, expenditures, pricing, etc., in connection with information technology devices and other IT assets.
Various tools (e.g., systems, apparatuses, methodologies, computer program products, application software, etc.) for performing an enterprise analysis and/or a site analysis of information technology costs can be provided, to include various aspects, features and advantages of the subject matter described herein.
For example, a sales and marketing support application may be configured to perform an enterprise analysis and/or a site analysis of information technology costs, for an enterprises (or another organization). In many instances, such enterprise or organization would have multiple sites. In such instance, the application is configured to register, for each specific site, devices employed at the specific site. Further, the application sets for each device type enterprise parameters (including device type parameters) at an enterprise level for the enterprise and sets for each particular site, site parameters inheriting the corresponding enterprise parameters. In addition, for the devices at the site level, the application automatically populates device parameters data to inherit the device type parameters that were set at enterprise level for the enterprise. Further, the application provides a user interface for the user to set and modify the device parameters data of a particular device at the site level, and to set and modify the device type parameters of each device type at the enterprise level.
Such user interface provides user-selectable options for product cost as a device parameter of a particular device, and the user-selectable options for product cost can include average price of sold units of a device model corresponding to the particular device. For example, the user-selectable options provided for product cost may include average price, suggested retail price (SRP), street price and percent off SRP.
For example, average price (such as provided as the product cost of a particular device for sale) can reflect an average of selling price of units sold in a specified country (or other geographical or political region) of the device model corresponding to the particular device. For each device and for each country (or region), the average price of the device in the country (or region) can be registered. Further, the average price may be site-specific, i.e. for each specific site, the average price is an average of selling price of units of the device model corresponding to the particular device that are or were obtained for, or deployed at, the site. In addition, the suggested retail price (SRP) and street price may be registered along with average price of the device in the country (or region), for each device and for each country (or region).
In another aspect, when a particular device is added as an instance of the corresponding device model, the user-selectable options of the particular device are automatically populated based on the device type parameters of the device model corresponding to the particular device.
In another aspect, when an additional device is registered, the device parameter module calculates and registers, for each specified country (or region) amongst plural countries (or regions), an average price of the additional device in the specified country (or region). Further, in a case that average price is selected as product cost at site level or enterprise level, when the additional device is to be registered, average price is applied as the device price of the additional device.
In another aspect, average price may be updated in real time. For example, when a device price of the particular device is input or modified, the device parameter module calculates and registers, for each specified country (or region) amongst plural countries (or regions), an average price of the particular device in the specified country (or region).
In another aspect of this disclosure, the sales and marketing support application may additionally include an analysis module that is configured to retrieve device parameters data for each device of a site, perform a site analysis based on the retrieved device price data of the devices of the site, and output a site analysis report reflecting the site analysis. Further, for an enterprise analysis, the analysis module may be configured to perform, for each particular site amongst the sites of the enterprise, a site analysis of the particular site, and output an enterprise analysis report that includes the site analysis for each particular site amongst the sites of the enterprise. When average price is selected as product cost at the site level, the site analysis performed by the analysis module applies the average price as product cost of an additional device proposed to be added. Further, in the case that average price is selected as product cost at the enterprise level, the enterprise analysis performed by the analysis module applies the average price as product cost of an additional device proposed to be added.
In another aspect, a method for performing an analysis of devices in an enterprise may include one or more of the following aspects:
Many other features, as discussed infra, can be provided to facilitate determining, tracking and/or otherwise managing costs, expenditures, pricing, etc., in connection with IT devices and other assets.
The aforementioned and other aspects, features and advantages can be more readily understood from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
This patent specification describes tools (in the form of methods, apparatuses, systems, computer program products, application software, etc.) for performing an enterprise analysis and/or a site analysis of information technology (IT) costs, for an enterprise or another organization. Such tools may be useful to an information technology (IT) administrator or manager, and/or another person who has responsibility for purchasing IT tools and/or tracking or managing IT costs, for an enterprise. On the other hand, such tools may also be configured to be useful to sales and marketing personnel for a supplier of IT equipment, devices, tools, etc., to determine appropriate pricing for a target customer. Thus, although the tools may be referred to herein as a sales and marketing support application, such terminology is applicable regardless of whether the user of the application is a sales and marketing professional. When negotiating prices of products (such as IT tools), multiple costs may be considered. For example, the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) is often considered at the start of the process. SRP is the price at which the manufacturer recommends for the retailer to sell the product (and at which the typical retailer would like to sell the product). Although some customers would be willing to pay the SRP for a purchase, a savvy customer would negotiate with the objective of obtaining the lowest possible Street Price (i.e. the actual price that the product has been sold).
For example, a customer may ask for a “volume discount” (which is often a percentage off the SRP) based on number of units of the product. In such instance, or when discussing price per unit in other instances, the salesperson commonly considers various factors, to determine an acceptable percentage off the SRP to offer to the customer. Such factors may include, but are not limited to, the amount of units, SRP, Street Price, the region/country in which the product is being purchased by the customer, etc.
SRP and Street Price data for each device model may be registered in a system. For example, such registered data may be obtained from a third party database. Thus, the salesperson can often have access to the SRP and Street Price for the product offered for sale, and in addition, SRP and Street Price for similar products of competitors.
On the other hand, the tools described herein can be configured to make available additionally data of average price, as an option for the user. That is, although SRP and Street Price data can establish an upper bound and a lower bound of the range of prices, a salesperson may desire to know an average price, in the middle ground between SRP and Street Price. However, the average price is not necessarily the arithmetic center of such range (that is, halfway between the upper bound and lower bound). The term “average price” can entail the median, that is, between half of the sold units of the device model were sold at or below such median price and half of the sold units were sold at or above such median price. Another approach for determining an average price is to take a mathematical average of the price at which the units were sold (that is, sum such amounts and divide by the number of sold units). In another, modified approach, such average price can be limited to those units that match the parameters specified by the user and/or matching the needs of the enterprise.
In describing exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity. However, the subject matter of this patent specification is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected and it is to be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner.
The drawings show examples of implementations of the subject matter of this patent disclosure in several computing environments. However, it should be understood that the subject matter of this disclosure can be utilized by any computing device including but not limited to PDAs, cell phones, personal, notebook and workstation computers, kiosks, other information terminals, etc. In addition, the subject matter of this disclosure might be provided as services in a modular fashion by other devices connected by a communication network.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is described tools (systems, apparatuses, methodologies, computer program products, etc.) for gathering and analyzing enterprise data based on the parameters set by the user.
The device parameter module 101A is configured to register and store device data regarding devices employed at specific enterprise or sites on which analyses are being performed, such as but not limited to, printers, scanners, fax machines etc. The device data includes device information, such as, for example, standard retail price (SRP), color capabilities, speed, duplex printing etc., such as shown in
The user interface 101C is provided to facilitate access by the user to the information and the many functionalities that can be provided by the application, as shown by way of examples in
The analysis module 101B is configured to perform enterprise analysis and/or site analysis, as needed. As discussed in more detail below, the sales and marketing support application allows the user to define and specify device parameters and such user-specified parameters are registered by the sales and marketing support application in the system. The analysis module 101B retrieves the information regarding the parameters and formats them, as necessary, into graphs, tables, etc. in order to visually show the expenditures of an enterprise. The parameters of these graphs may be changed at any point and, in addition, may be further broken down in order to analyze specific aspects of expenditures including, but not limited to, office and device.
For example, when average price is selected as product cost at the site level, the analysis module applies the average price as product cost of a device proposed to be added. On the other hand, when average price is selected as product cost at the enterprise level, the analysis module may apply the average price by default as product cost in an enterprise analysis.
The terminal apparatus 100A may be configured by an application, or some other software component (such as part of the operating system or a device driver), on a terminal device. Such terminal preferably is configured to communicate through a data network to obtain content and data from an external source. However, it should be appreciated that the inventive aspects described herein can be employed even if the device is not configured to connect to such data network, and/or is not connected to the data network.
The example of
As an example, each of the Networks A and B respectively connected by the intranets 102A and 102B may represent a regional office of a global/national enterprise having multiple regional offices.
It should be appreciated that the network environment, in
The network 102 can be any data network, a local area network, a wide area network or any type of network such as an intranet, an extranet (for example, to provide controlled access to external users, for example through the Internet), a private or public cloud network, the Internet, etc., or a combination thereof. Further, other communications links (such as a virtual private network, a wireless link, etc.) may be used as well for the network 102. In addition, the network 102 preferably uses TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), but other protocols such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) can also be used. How devices can connect to and communicate over networks is well-known in the art and is discussed for example, in “How Networks Work”, by Frank J. Derfler, Jr. and Les Freed (Que Corporation 2000) and “How Computers Work”, by Ron White, (Que Corporation 1999), the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The MFP 104A, 105A, the printer 104B, 105B, the scanner 104C, 105C-1 can be any device having a primary functionality of printing copying, scanning, fax, etc. without providing additional functionalities.
The enterprise manager apparatus can be any of the various device management tools (such as application software, etc.) that are available to IT administrators to assist the administrators to track, monitor and otherwise manage IT (information technology) devices connected to a network. Such device management tools retrieve device settings or other device information from the devices, or other device data sources, through a network, and register such device information and allow the IT administrators to manage the devices. Thus, in the example of
Third Party Server 107 can be configured to communicate with terminal 103, through the network 102, to provide an up-to-date register of device pricing and specification for office devices, such as the devices MFP 104A, 105A, the printer 104B, 105B, the scanner 104C, 105C-1 show in
Application server 108 can be configured to communicate with terminal 103, through the network 102, to provide an application (such as the sales and marketing support application) to the terminal 103 (or another device connected to the network 102), on demand.
The application server 108 can be configured as shown by way of example in
An example of a configuration of a user terminal (e.g., the terminal 103) is shown schematically in
The storage 203 can provide storage for program and data, and may include a combination of assorted conventional storage devices such as buffers, registers and memories [for example, read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), non-volatile random access memory (NOVRAM), etc.].
The network interface 206 provides a connection (for example, by way of an Ethernet connection or other network connection which supports any desired network protocol such as, but not limited to TCP/IP, IPX, IPX/SPX, or NetBEUI) to a network (e.g., network 102) to enable the terminal device to communicate with another device through the network.
Each of the terminal 103, enterprise manager apparatus 106 and third party server 107 is configured to communicate with each other through the network 102. Through the network, the terminal 103 requests enterprise device information from the enterprise manager apparatus, as shown in
Information retrieved from the third party server 107 may include, but not limited to, pricing, hardware costs, service costs, consumable costs, other costs, usage costs, hardware and supplies pricing, printer yields, and service pricing. Pricing may refer to pricing of devices based on different parameters, including, retail costs, manufacturer suggested retail price and/or rebates. Hardware costs depend on monthly maintenance of hardware analysis based on a specific amount of time. Service costs refer to costs that are included in warrantee service and time period, extended warrantee service and may also include toner inclusive service in the case of printing products. Consumable costs calculate price of consumables based on the yield of a device. Other costs refer to costs relating to inefficiencies of a product (i.e. finishing, duplex, etc.). Usage costs calculate costs by proportionately increasing/decreasing volume of use over all devices, wherein the time frame may be adjusted to calculate cost. Hardware and supplies pricing collects printer hardware and street pricing from main internet vendors. Printer yields collects consumable yield information direct from each manufacturer at time of device introduction. Service pricing is represented as a manufacturer-branded extended warranty pack in increments of 1 to 5 years.
Additional information supplied by the third party server 107 may include energy impact, typical electricity consumption (TEC), CO2 emission, paper impact and CO2 offset. Energy impact calculates the energy consumption of devices based on data published the Environmental Protection Agency. TEC value is derived from measuring each model's electricity consumption in a lab that is setup to represent the “average office” environment and thus does not reflect actual electricity consumption, however, provides a valuable and consistent method of measuring equipment energy consumption performance. CO2 emission is calculated from the TEC of the device based on average carbon emissions for electricity generation. Paper impact refers to the production and distribution of paper that in turn produces carbon emission. CO2 offset refers to the amount of trees that can absorb carbon emissions from electricity and paper consumption.
Additionally, the terminal 103 may wish to receive up-to-date information regarding the enterprise devices to provide accurate enterprise analysis. That is, if the information stored within the terminal 103 is outdated, then the terminal 103 may refresh this data. Also, many printing devices described previously in
Up-to-date information received from the enterprise manager apparatus 106 may supplement and/or substitute the information retrieved from the third party server 107. For example, the third party server 107 may not contain necessary information regarding the devices being analyzed for an enterprise analysis. Therefore, the sales and marketing support application 101 may send a price table template to the enterprise manager apparatus 106. The enterprise manager apparatus 106 then fill outs the information in the template. This information may include, but not limited to, price, maintenance, costs, etc. of the device models being used in that enterprise. This information is then stored in a database on a server, such as the one depicted in
These price tables may be prepared by different enterprises within different regions and countries, using different currencies. This information may then be accessed by any user utilizing the sales and marketing support application 101, regardless of default region or currency of the user.
The sales and marketing support application 101 retrieves the sale price for the given device type and/or models, S302, associated with the parameters set by the user. The sale price information may be retrieved from the third party server 107 and/or from the enterprise manager apparatus 106. The sale price refers to the negotiated price in which the model and/or device was sold by the vendor. Vendors typically would give a higher sale price to a consumer based on the additional cost parameters.
The sales and marketing support application 101 then, in S303, calculates an average price of the device type and/or model. The sales and marketing support application 101 averages the sale price of every model and/or type. For example, if a user were to request the average price for a MFP, the sales and marketing support application 101 receives the price of each device, that is consider a MFP, sold and averages them. The new calculated price is then called the average price. Initially, the analysis is performed based on the parameters entered for the enterprise. As a user specifies additional parameters, the average price may change. For example, if a user chooses to calculate the average price of MFP that were sold with a certain accessory, i.e. a maintenance cartridge, then the sales and marketing support application 101 would only retrieve the sales price of MFP sold with the given accessory. The sales and marketing support application allows the user to specify, in addition to accessories, the region in which the device was sold. For example, the sales and marketing support application allows the user to choose, as one of the parameters of the device analysis, MFPs sold in a region, preset or specified by the user, as described in
In S304, the device parameter user interface 101C displays the data onto the terminal 103 along with user selectable options for product cost, as shown in the embodiments below. Additionally, the sales and marketing support application 101 may register the data with the third party server 107 if the data was retrieved directly from the enterprise management apparatus 106. By doing so, the third party server 107 may enlarge its database with more up-to-date information regarding the cost of products. This up-to-date information may include, but not limited to, SRP, street price and average price related to a specific country or region.
In addition to access to specific organizations, the sales and marketing support application may limit the user to specific device tables and prices associated with the region the user is in. For example, a user in Europe may be limited to the device price tables, to the devices and prices available in that region. On the other hand, depending on the access and privileges of the specific user, the sales and marketing support application may allow the user to access device price tables associated with other regions.
In the user table shown in
An example of a user interface screen which can be provided by the sales and marketing support application shown in
Through this UI, the sales and marketing support application allows the user to navigate through the available options of enterprise analysis, customize the parameters of the enterprise analysis, call previous analysis reports and create new enterprise analysis reports. These custom parameters may be made a default for the enterprise and device analysis. Each user may define their own default parameters based on their own needs for expenditure analysis.
As shown in the exemplary embodiment, enterprise A has options in which a user may generate reports, look at detailed analysis of the enterprise and propose new device layout of the enterprise and generate these reports into file types such as, but not limited to, Excel sheets, PDFs and Word documents, as discussed infra. A detailed analysis of an enterprise may include, but is not limited to, the device fleet of the enterprise, the cost of office supplies (e.g. paper, stationary, etc.), utility costs and CO2 emission cost. A device fleet analysis may include a list of all printing devices (e.g. printers, scanners, fax machines, MFP) listed with the cost of each device. In order to calculate the cost of each device, the sales and marketing support application 101 may take into account the overall cost of the machine (e.g. SRP or street price), electricity cost in kWh, TCPP, CO2 emission cost and maintenance cost. The cost analysis is not limited to these parameters and may be customized by the user. For example, the sales and marketing support application may allow the user to choose a time period in which this cost analysis is made and calculated. With this option, the user can analyze the performance of devices in an enterprise for a specific time frame. Also, the sales and marketing support application allows the user to obtain a projection of future cost based on past trends. A cost report based on the given parameters may be generated by the sales and marketing support application 101. The costs reports may be saved and later recalled.
In addition to generating a detailed analysis of the enterprise, the user interface provides options through which the user may focus on individual sites within the enterprise. In this exemplary embodiment, enterprise A is made up of three sites, which previous or current analysis reports may be accessed through the user interface. The sales and marketing support application may also generate reports for the expenditures and cost of each individual site in order to further analyze the expenditures of the enterprise as a whole. The sales and marketing support application may allow the user to locate devices by referring to a floor plan of a site, as shown in
The entries for acquisition type, service type, etc. may be chosen from a drop down menu. For example, the entries for acquisition type may include options for full purchase (i.e. paying the price for the product in full), or lease, or a payment plan negotiated for the consumer. In addition, the entries requiring a numerical value can be customized based on the user preference. For example, the entry for % Off SRP may have values ranging from 0-100. A sale person may choose to provide products and/or consumables for the given device type at percent of the standard retail price. By doing so, a sales person may further negotiate the price for the given device type based on additional features including perks and discounts for the upkeep cost of the given device type.
Additionally, the sales and market support application 101 may calculate the average price and the percentage that the average price is off the SRP based on the user set parameters. For example, if the average price is calculated to be $500 for 10,000 units and the SRP is $1,000, then the % off SRP may be 50% based on the standard deviation of the street prices retrieved from the third party server.
Further, when the sales and marketing support application 101 performs an average price analysis, the parameters may be taken from the given chart. That is, when retrieving the sale price of each device, S302 in
As previously described the average price may be calculated based on the parameters specified by the user. That is, the average price may be calculated based on the selling prices of a given product within a certain region. For example, the user may choose to specify a region where products have been sold in order to perform the calculation of an average price. In addition, a user may choose to omit the manufacturer as a parameter for the price analysis in the given embodiment. That is, a user may choose to have the average price calculated based solely on device type. The sales and marketing support application 101 may provide a new calculation, giving a unique output based on the change of the user set parameters.
When performing an enterprise analysis, the sales and marketing support application 101 registers every device employed at the enterprise. Based on the parameters set for the enterprise, the sales and marketing support application 101 then populates the data device parameters data for each device. These parameters may be dependent on the region of the specific site and/or enterprise. That is, the values for the parameters set by the user may be dependent on the specific region of the site, as described infra. Therefore, if two sites that employ the same device are located in different regions then, the values of the parameters for each device may be different. One of these parameters may include the average price of the device. When adding a new device for cost analysis, the sales and marketing support application 101 may calculate an average price on the enterprise level and an average price for a plurality of countries and/or regions specified by the user. Cost analysis based on the enterprise level may refer to, for example, an average price for the devices and/or models calculated based on the price that the enterprise paid for them.
The information generated by sales and marketing support application 101 is then saved on the storage of the terminal and can be called by the user. At any point, the user may input or update the information tabulated by the sales and marketing support application 101. That is, if the user inputs a new device or value for a parameter then, the sales and marketing support application 101 calculates and registers a new average price.
An example of a user interface screen through which the sales and marketing support application allows the user to change the parameters for a cost analysis of a product and/or add a new product or device for enterprise analysis is shown in
In the given embodiment, the user may choose a time period in which to perform a cost analysis of a product, i.e. months. Parameters such as electricity, paper, service, etc. are dependent on the time period, therefore the sales and marketing support application 101 populates the device parameter data based on the time parameters. Whenever the user changes one of the current parameters for price analysis, the sales and marketing support application 101 calculates new values for the remaining fields of the cost analysis, i.e. SRP, sales price and average price. In addition, the sales and marketing support application 101 may calculate an average price based on the given time parameter. The average price may be dependent on the region specified by the user.
The sales and marketing support application 101 may also create reports corresponding to any of the parameters set by the user into file types such as, but not limited to, Excel sheets, PDFS, Word Documents, etc. That is, the sales and marketing support application 101 may generate graphs based on the retrieved parameter data and calculated average price for a given enterprise, device and/or model type.
Another exemplary embodiment of a UI used to propose new device layouts for an enterprise or site is shown in
This type of analysis allows the user to create maps easily for customer sites. This analysis may integrate all the types of analysis, as discussed previously, including but not limited to, SRP, street price, maintenance costs, idle costs, stationary costs, etc.
For example, a user may specify the west coast of the United States as the region the user wishes a cost analysis to be performed. The sales and marketing support application 101 then collects prices and costs for the device type or model which the user had chosen. In addition, the sales and marketing support application 101 then filters the prices of models and/or devices that correspond to the parameters set by the user within the given region. The sales and marketing support application 101 then populates the parameters list with values, calculating an average price using the sale price of every specific device and averaging the sales prices. Additionally, the user may choose to perform cost analysis based on the products sold within the entire country. Therefore, the average price generated would take into account every product sold, the price each product was sold for and calculate the average price per unit within a specific country.
Additionally, if the user selects to perform an enterprise analysis, the sales and marketing support application 101 may automatically select the regions in which the enterprise is located and perform cost analysis on preset parameters. Similarly, the user may choose the sales and marketing supports application 101 to perform cost analysis based solely on the products employed within each site. Thereby, when an additional product and/or device is added to the enterprise, the sales and marketing support application 101 calculates a new average price.
Another example in which an enterprise has facilities at plural sites disposed over plural regions or countries will now be discussed. The tools described herein can be particularly useful in the circumstance that available device models and their configurations, options and prices are different in various regions, countries and/or sales companies (e.g., an equipment manufacturer may be associated with many marketing arms, such as subsidiaries, divisions, related companies, distributors, etc.). Further, even if a device model is commonly available in different regions, countries and/or sales companies, the price and configuration maybe different. In such example, a tool (referenced herein as “TCO FV”) may be configured to include the features described herein to perform an analysis for such an enterprise (e.g., user's customer or employer) which has many branches or sites distributed over a wide expanse geographically, such that acquisition price or cost, for the same device model, may vary. The TC FV tool can be provided as a sales and marketing support application, and/or provided to a user within an enterprise to assist in managing information technology costs, expenditures, etc.
Conventional systems for performing enterprise and/or site analyses (e.g., total cost of ownership) typically require the user to manually enter many, if not all, of the device parameters when registering a device. On the other hand, the TCO FV tool (including a device parameter module, such as 101A in
Examples of such user interface display screens for setting default parameters or values are shown in
Other parameters that can be set for every device include lease factor rate, electricity cost, lease term, supply chain lead, depreciate beyond useful live, volume split for mono/color, etc.
The parameters set here are applied to devices when they are registered to the system, and the user is permitted to change the values for each device on the system whenever the user wants.
The TCO FV tool allows the user to generate an enterprise analysis (per customer) and site analysis (per site). For example, for an enterprise XYZ that has divisions XYZ USA, XYZ Europe and XYZ Asia Pacific, an enterprise analysis of XYZ may include site analyses for XYZ USA, XYZ Europe and XYZ Asia Pacific.
As shown in
Product cost is one of the parameters that can be set for each device type and it (i.e. product cost) can have these candidates: % Off SRP (Suggested Retail Price); SRP; Street Price; User Input; Average Price.
SRP and Street Price for each device model can be registered in the system in advance and/or may be updated periodically (by push or pull). As discussed herein, in some case, a user would prefer not to use SRP or Street Price and would like to use an average price (i.e. average of sales prices for units of a device model actually sold in the particular country or region). The system can be configured to update the average price data each time sales price data is updated.
The following device master table (Table 1) and price data table (Table 2) show one example.
The TCO FV tool is configured such that when a device is registered to the system or a device price is input/modified in the system, the system calculates the average price for each model and for each country immediately. On the other hand, when a device price of a registered device is input or modified, the system (device parameter module) calculates and registers, for each country or region, an average price of the particular device in that country or region. When the user selects “average price” for the product cost field in parameter settings, the average price is applied to a device when the device is registered to the system.
The aforementioned specific embodiments are illustrative, and many variations can be introduced on these embodiments without departing from the spirit of the disclosure or from the scope of the appended claims. For example, elements and/or features of different examples and illustrative embodiments may be combined with each other and/or substituted for each other within the scope of this disclosure and appended claims.
The orders in which the steps are performed in the aforementioned methods are not limited to those shown in the examples of
Further, the terms “device” and “devices” are used broadly (unless otherwise explicitly qualified) herein to encompass not only equipment, but any information technology provisions (product or service) that can be purchased, leased, etc., and thus has an associated cost or price.
In addition, other features may be employed, including use of third party device data and use of real-time data of printer pricing within given regions to calculate an average price of a product. For example, the third party data may be retrieved or obtained to determine SRP (and even possibly Street Price) of a product. Further, average price may be region-specific. In addition, such average price may be displayed along with SRP and Street Price, for multiple regions.
In another aspect, the displayed cost information may include, in addition to the average price, total cost of operation (TCO), preferably corresponding to real time data of the device. Further, the average cost per unit (e.g., day to day cost of operating a device, such as, but not limited to, cost of energy, cost of maintenance, and in the case of printers, additionally, cost of ink/toner and paper).
