Phil Larson, the director of enterprise operations at American Fidelity Assurance Group, discusses enhancements in office support and continuous service improvement through a partnership with BMI and Canon equipment. The approach led to increased productivity, better alignment with business needs, and more effective use of resources, resulting in significant operational benefits. Key metrics and criteria were established to facilitate sourcing decisions and measure performance, ultimately driving profitability and efficiency across departments.

2. “Beyond the Purchase”
Continuous Service Improvement and
Alliances
Mr. Phil Larson
Assistant Vice President / Director, Enterprise Operations
American Fidelity Assurance Group

3. Beyond the Purchase –
CSI + Alliances
Phil Larson, Director of Enterprise Operations oversees 24/7 computer
services, production change support, and production print services, on
demand print services, and office support services. AF-Press is an
entrepreneurial company performing commercial graphics
communication and printing. AFA is a Fortune 100 Best Place to work.
18 months ago, AFA engaged a new approach to office support to
enhance business productivity using a local dealership, BMI, and Canon
equipment. Continuous service improvement factored strong in the
contract and has produced good benefit to departments. Total cost of
operations includes ability to get work done effectively and efficiently not
just for the lowest cost.

4. Expanding The Pie
Enabling Business
Green
Makin’ Copies Connected
Data acquire
Print
and usage
Business Presentation Multi Function

5. Mining Diamonds

6. Get into the business
of office support
Many organizations make this an equipment and
software issue instead of a business support issue.
 Think like the business client of the services.
 View from their perspective of getting their work done
using the equipment and software provided.
 Findings: Clientele were struggling with some simple work
productivity based on years of assumptions of what
equipment could and could not do. A refresh of equipment
gave opportunity to increase productivity on standard
features no matter the final vendor selected.

7. Move at the speed of your
organization.
 Expand your criteria
 Assess the impact of change
 Survey using a decision based needs analysis
 Learn the frequency of WII-FM for the clients
 Findings: Right usage at the right place surfaced as a key
issue. Making sure we found cost effective solutions for
management that put the output closest to the customer
results in containment of hallway flow in the campus.

8. Develop relative, repeatable,
and addressable metrics.
Stats
 Office consultation needed along the path
 Cost per person supported
 Cost per produced impression
 Cost of support services - scan to file, email, fax, color
 Findings: Outage per piece of equipment Most vendors
like averages. One unit out for two weeks can result in a
98% uptime stat overall. For that department, it is a 0%
uptime stat and needs tended as such.

9. Sourcing is a craft.
Train
 There is a craft to this business. Craft is a combination of
science, art, and skill. Get your team adept at all three.
Sourcing management studied ahead of the contract.
Use Professional Consultants
 To ensure our new agreement had provisions for revision
and update along the path and had the right “teeth” in it,
we used an external consulting group. Now we have a
model that is repeatable.
Findings: Grid of criteria.. It is not all about costs
 What are your priorities? How much weight do they
hold?

10. Criteria Grid – Total
Productivity
Criteria
The Company Weight
Years in Business 3
Stability 5
Local Decisions / Responsiveness 4
National support 4
Organizational professionalism 5
Expanded support of our business acumen and knowledge. 4
Business relationships with key partners 4
Future orientation consistent with our strategies (deskside, mfd,
central, commercial, digital ondemand) 4
Strategic changes in the last 18 months 3

11. Criteria Grid – Total
Productivity
Criteria
The Program Weight
Flexibility 5
Negotiation Willingness 4
Revision methods and future improvements 4
Contract Terms 4
Innovation 5
Expense 5
Interoperability 5
Accessibility 5
Future Cost reduction model 4
Carbon footprint 4
Ease of use 3
Support of business processes 5
Security 5

12. Criteria Grid – Total
Productivity
Criteria
Service Weight
Response Time 4
MTTR 5
MTBF 5
Self managing 5
Self Escallation Plan 4
Reliability of Resolutions 5
Flexibility of contract 4
Nationwide for branches 5
Defined CPI and ITIL I/P/C/C 4
Lean methodology or Six Sigma 4

13. Criteria Grid – Total
Productivity
Criteria
Other Weight
Shared risk and accountability 4
Cost per person of solution 4
Projected On-going Costs 4
Ratio of equipment to office colleagues 4
Open architecture 5
Support of corporate output device policy. 4
Support of billing process 5
Environmental 4

14. Criteria Grid – Total
Productivity
Criteria
Other Weight
Pharos Software Compatibility 5
Deployment / Installation 5
Training / Retraining 5
Volume Management 4
Consumables Management 4
Reporting Capability 4
Equipment Replacements/Relocations 4
Managed Services 5
Quality Control 4
Totals 213
Perfect Weighted Score 1065
Percent of Perfect Score

15. RACI - The Productive
Arrangement
Roles and Responsibilities
 Clearly lined out for us and BMI and others involved.
RACI
 Responsible, Accountable, Consulted,Informed – Make
sure all the players and stakeholders are considered.

16. Post Results –
Value Add
Movement into office productivity
 Key executive area engaged in document conversions.
 Scanning offered in all, enabled where productivity resulted.
 Fax integrated in productivity and reduced carbon footprint
scenarios
 Integrated into company imaging solution
 Base costs remained flat
 Print available in new areas
 Branches networked to new level to get “home office” style
access to services.

17. Post Results –
Value Add
Operational Productivity
 Billing customized to flow rapidly for payment and
rectification.
 Custom reporting of capture of usage and allocation back to
departments saves days a month.
 Enabled movement of thousands of impressions a month
direct to departmental space from central area. Print at
point of need with best cost.
 Online ordering existed for movement to central already
making that efficient.
 Identified and allocate costs to administrate
 Green support - evidence of matched alliance

18. $7mm Story
Applying this in our
on demand and
production and office
areas has resulted in
$$mm for our clients
over a five year
period in added
profits and the birth of
a profitable business.

19. Thank You, Vurry Much
 Phil.larson@af-group.com
 405-523-5085
CSI The CREAM
RACI is the best
part. Go for
Expand it.
Alliance
Mine