Xerox Asset DB Analyst Ver.4.8.1 Software User Manual PDF

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Summary of Content for Xerox Asset DB Analyst Ver.4.8.1 Software User Manual PDF

Version 4.8.1

MARCH 2021

Asset DB Analyst

User Manual

2021 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. Xerox is a trademark of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. BRXXXXX

Other company trademarks are also acknowledged.

Document Version: 1.0 (April 2021).

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Table of Contents 1 DATA PREPARATION .......................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Meter Reading Errors ................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Field Validation Errors .................................................................................................. 4

2 VOLUME GENERATION ....................................................................................................... 6

Volume Generation Assumptions ................................................................................................ 6

1.1. Creating Volume Generation Assumptions .................................................................. 6

1.2. Editing and deleting Volume Assumptions ................................................................... 9

1.3. Assigning Volume Generation Assumptions ................................................................ 9

1.4. Generating Volumes ................................................................................................... 10

3 CALCULATING COSTS: THE TCO TOOL ........................................................................ 12

3.1 Creating a New TCO Analysis ................................................................................... 13

3.2 Assign a TCO Category Status to each printing asset .............................................. 13

3.3 Fetch Pricing and Yield Data ...................................................................................... 15

3.4 Adding in Customer Cost Data ................................................................................... 18

3.5 Removing Consumables ............................................................................................ 19

3.6 Local Consumables .................................................................................................... 20

3.6.1. Using previously created local consumables ........................................................ 22

3.6.2. Managing Consumables ........................................................................................ 22

3.7 View Devices for Consumables ................................................................................. 23

3.8 Setting up contracts .................................................................................................... 23

3.8.1. Setting up a Lease or Rental contract ................................................................... 25

3.8.2. Setting up a Cost per Click Contract ..................................................................... 26

3.8.3. Setting up a Tri-Colour Cost per Click Contract .................................................... 26

3.8.4. Other Support Cost contracts ................................................................................ 27

3.8.5. Exporting and importing contract data .................................................................. 28

3.9 Creating Assumption Sets .......................................................................................... 28

3.10 Assign Contracts and Assumption Sets ..................................................................... 30

3.11 Calculate the costs ..................................................................................................... 32

3.12 Import and Export TCO Analyses .............................................................................. 32

3.13 Move TCO data to the Current State in Asset DB ..................................................... 33

3.14 Confirm TCO costs ..................................................................................................... 34

4 CALCULATING CO2: THE GREEN CALCULATOR .......................................................... 35

4.1 Starting a Green Calculation Analysis ....................................................................... 35

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4.2 Treat As ...................................................................................................................... 36

4.3 Assumptions ............................................................................................................... 37

4.4 Calculate ..................................................................................................................... 39

4.5 Import and Export Green Analyses ............................................................................ 40

5 USER DATA ........................................................................................................................ 41

5.1 Import User Data ........................................................................................................ 41

5.2 Mapping and Viewing ................................................................................................. 42

6 ANALYST FEATURES ........................................................................................................ 44

6.1 Statistics ..................................................................................................................... 44

6.2 Highlight/Filter Assets Tool......................................................................................... 45

6.3 Showing Distances around Icons ............................................................................... 48

7 THE PRINT ASSESSMENT SUMMARY REPORT ............................................................ 49

8 PORTFOLIO ........................................................................................................................ 50

8.1 Exporting Portfolio ...................................................................................................... 50

8.2 Import Portfolio ........................................................................................................... 51

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1 Data Preparation The Data Preparation tab presents you with an alternative view on your asset data and helps you

to prepare your data ready for the Volume Generation step described in Section 2, where you

can calculate average monthly volumes for your fleet. Here you can:

View your project assets in tabular format.

Verify and edit meter reading data.

Set and assign assumptions for volume generation.

Calculate and view monthly volumes for each asset.

All print/scan assets that exist in your project (including those that are out of scope) will appear in

the data preparation tab. There is a search bar at the bottom of the window which works in the

same way as the one in the current state asset table and which you can use to quickly find an

asset using several different criteria.

Double click on an asset in the table and you will be taken to the current state where the asset

will be highlighted on the floor plan. If you click on the button on the left-hand side of the

device row, the row will expand to show you the meter readings (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Show meter readings

1.1 Meter Reading Errors

Once you have gathered all your audit data and you come to the data cleanse part of your

project, you can use the Data Preparation tab to review your meter readings. The indications in

the Meter Status column show whether volumes can be calculated correctly or not for each

device. A warning symbol indicates meter-reading errors (see Figure 2). Hovering over the

warning symbol will show the explanation of the error. Expand the row using the button on the

left of the row and any problematic meter readings will be shown in red. A warning symbol will

appear when:

Sub-meters dont add up to the total meter for the same date (e.g. the sum of Total Mono

and Total Colour is larger than Life Total).

A reading for a later date is smaller than the reading for an earlier date.

Readings are present for a field, which is not visible in the Meter Readings tab. This can

occur when meter readings are imported for devices which do not have all their

capabilities correctly ticked (e.g. Importing A3 Colour readings for a device which does

not have A3 Capable and Colour Capable ticked).

There are no meter readings at all for the device.

To rectify these errors, you will either need to edit the meter readings (this can be done on

this tab) or edit the capabilities of the asset in the Details Panel on the Current State tab.

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Figure 2. Meter reading status

1.2 Field Validation Errors

The indications in the Validation column show whether there are any validation errors present for

an asset. Hovering over the warning symbol will give an explanation as to which fields have

validation errors and the reason why they are invalid. You are then able to use the filter option

next to the header in the Validation column, in order to only show rows that contain a

particular error.

Where there are many validation errors occurring for the same reason (e.g. Manufacture Date

missing) you can fix the problem directly in the Data Preparation tab without having to go back

into the current state. In order to do so, right-click on the Validation column header and select

Show Invalid Columns from the pop-up (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Validation column options

New columns for the fields that contain validation errors will now be displayed to the right of the

Validation column. To change the values for a single asset simply right-click in the tab and

select Set field value. To change assets in bulk, mark all assets that need amending, right-click

in one of the cells that you want to change the value of and again select Set field value (see

Figure 4).

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Figure 4. Editing invalid fields in bulk

To change the visible columns in this table, right-click in any column header bar and choose

More from the options. A dialog box will appear, allowing you to choose which columns you

want to display (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Selecting which columns to display

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2 Volume Generation Volume Generation is a tool that calculates average monthly volumes based on various criteria.

Asset DB will generate average monthly volumes from individual meter readings. To calculate

this, each device will either need two meter readings, or an installation date and one meter

reading, or a manufacture date and one meter reading.

Before generating volumes, you should ensure that you have reviewed your data in the Data

Preparation tab. You may also want to define Assumption Sets. These allow you to set

parameters to fill in any gaps in the data - for example, where functionality-specific meter

readings are not available.

Volume Generation Assumptions Volume Generation Assumptions allow you to specify criteria for generating volumes in your

project. The assumptions allow Asset DB to produce a detailed calculation even when the data

you have is more general.

1.1. Creating Volume Generation Assumptions

To set up your assumptions, click the Add, remove or edit Assumption Sets used for

volume generation button above the Data Preparation tab (see Figure 6).

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Figure 6. Create or edit volume generation assumptions

Figure 7. Manage Volume Generation Assumption Sets window

There is a default assumption set within Asset DB, which will be applied automatically to all

devices unless you create your own assumptions and apply those.

To create a new assumption set, click the Create new button at the top of the pop-up.

Once you have edited the default values as necessary, click Update to save your changes.

The fields you can edit are:

Name so you can tell the assumptions apart when you assign them to assets.

Manufacture date adjustment the number of days to add to the manufacture date to

simulate a realistic installation date. This will be used only in the event a specific

installation date is not available.

Colour percentage of total the proportion of the total or Life meter reading that will

be treated as colour. This will be used only if specific colour meter readings are not

available. The default value is 75%, however if you click on Calculate from Project you

will get the value for the actual calculated colour percentage for all devices that have

complete data, i.e. full mono and colour volumes or meter readings

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Colour percentage of mono + level 1 the proportion of mono + level 1 meter reading

that will be treated as colour. This will be used only if separate mono and level 1 colour

meter readings are not available.

Large paper percentage of total the proportion of the total or Life meter reading that

will be treated as large format. This will be used only if a specific large meter reading is

not available.

Duplex percentage the proportion of the total or Life meter reading that will be treated

as duplex. This will be used only if a specific duplex reading is not available.

Colour split

This applies to tri-colour meter devices and allows you to manage the split of colour volume

between each of the three levels when all you have is an overall colour value. The sum of the

three percentages in this section should equal 100 as they refer to the percentage of the total

colour volume that should be attributed to each level, not the percentage of the total volume to be

attributed. If there is a single colour meter reading for a tri-colour meter device, the percentages

here will be applied to the volume calculated from that. If there is only a Life Total for a tri-colour

meter device, the percentages will be applied to the volume calculated from the Colour

percentage of total split applied further up in the assumption.

In an ideal world, you would always gather specific readings for each of the available meter

reading types on a device. For an A3 colour device, that would mean having Standard Mono,

Large Mono, Standard Colour, Large Colour and Life Total readings. Sometimes, however, it is

only possible to obtain a total or Life reading, and calculating a volume from there without

assumptions would mean that you wouldnt have a colour/mono or standard/large split, which

could greatly affect your TCO.

All the values entered into the assumption set will only be applied where there are gaps in your

project data; they will not be used in circumstances where the real installation date or where

functionality-specific readings are present.

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1.2. Editing and deleting Volume Assumptions To edit an assumption you have created previously, click to select the assumption in the list on

the left hand side of the pop-up and type your values into the fields on the right. Click Update to

save your changes.

To delete an assumption, click to select it from the list, then click the Delete button above

the list.

You can create as many assumptions as you require for a particular project.

1.3. Assigning Volume Generation Assumptions Once volume generation assumptions have been defined, they should be assigned to devices in

the Data Preparation tab. Volumes for devices to which a user-created assumption has not been

assigned will be calculated using the Default assumptions.

To assign user-created assumptions to devices, you can select the relevant devices and right-

click on any one of them. Using menu option Assign Assumption Set, you can select the

assumption set to be used for the selected devices. By default, all other devices will use the

Default Assumption Set.

Figure 8. Assigning Assumption Sets to multiple devices

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Alternatively, you can assign Assumption Sets to individual devices by clicking in the

Assumption Set column for the device in the Data Preparation table and selecting the

assumption set to be used.

Figure 9. Assigning Assumption Sets to devices individually

1.4. Generating Volumes

Once Assumption Sets have been created and assigned to devices, volumes can be generated

for all devices in a project or for a sub-set of the devices. To generate volumes for all assets,

click on the Generate Volumes button in the Asset DB toolbar and click All Asset, or

use keyboard shortcut Ctrl-G.

To generate volumes for a sub-set of devices in your project, you should select the devices from

the Data Preparation table for which you wish to generate monthly volumes and then click the

Generate Volumes button in the Asset DB toolbar and choose Selected assets.

To overwrite any previously generated volumes, make sure to tick the Overwrite box. This is un-

ticked by default but any changes made to the tick status are remembered for the project in the

local version.

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Figure 10. Generating volumes for selected assets

You will then be presented with a breakdown of the results of the volume generation calculation,

showing the following:

Eligible assets updated the number of devices for which new monthly volume values

were calculated and applied.

Eligible assets not requiring update the number of devices for which the newly

calculated monthly values are the same as the values already present.

Eligible assets not calculated the number of devices for which no new monthly

volume values could be calculated because not enough meter reading data was

available. This may be because no meter reading data at all is available for the asset or

because only one meter reading is available and there is no installation or manufacture

date available.

Assets with volume generation errors the meter reading data present is incorrect.

Very often, this is because two meter readings are available but the meter reading value

for the later date is lower than a meter reading previously recorded.

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Figure 11. Volume generation summary

3 Calculating costs: The TCO Tool For the TCO analysis, cost and yield data relating to printers and MFDs is held on a server

hosted by Xerox, which allows easier and faster updates of the database. In order to access this

data, an Internet connection will be required. If you choose to manually enter all pricing,

consumable and other data, then you will be able to perform a TCO analysis without needing an

Internet connection.

To access Xeroxs database, firstly check whether your organisation uses a Proxy Server or

direct connection to access the Internet. If using a proxy server, you will need to know the proxy

settings so that you can enter them on the Server tab under Options > General Options, Asset

DB Cloud.

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Figure 12. Configuration for use of proxy server

3.1 Creating a New TCO Analysis

Setting up a TCO Analysis in Asset DB is similar to the core project. You select File > New >

TCO Analysis. This will then bring up a pop-up requesting you name your new TCO Analysis.

Click OK and the new TCO Analysis will be created. An existing TCO Analysis can be opened

by navigating to File > Open, and selecting the relevant one from the list of TCO Analyses linked

to the project you have opened. Once a TCO analysis is created or opened, a new workspace

area is created (see Figure 13), showing a list of all the printers and MFDs in the scope of the

Asset DB project, including the ones that have not been plotted but for which you have data in

the table view. There is a 10 Step process to completing a TCO Analysis.

Figure 13. TCO Tab View

3.2 Assign a TCO Category Status to each printing asset

The first step is to decide how you want to perform the cost calculation on each print enabled

device in the project. To assign a cost category, you can either left-click in the relevant cell in the

Cost Category column to bring up options or you can click and drag to select multiple devices

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from the list, right-click one of the selected assets and use the Cost Category option to select a

category.

Figure 14. Assign a cost category to devices individually

Figure 15. Assign a cost category to multiple devices

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The available Cost Categories are:

Under Contract : Device is subject to an agreement with a lease provider or

vendor.

Purchased : Device has no other on-going cost associated with it.

Both : Applies where a printer has been purchased but there is also a

contract associated with it.

Top tip: Sort data alphabetically by clicking different column headers. You can then select

multiple devices at one time and apply the same Cost Category status allocation to the group.

You can also filter the TCO categories by clicking the filter symbol to the right of the column

header and clicking the tick boxes.

Once a Category Status has been selected this will be shown in the Cost Category column.

Hovering over the red warning triangle in the Status column will display what information is still

required before the TCO calculation can be performed.

3.3 Fetch Pricing and Yield Data

The next step is to fetch pricing and consumable information on all devices so that all the

relevant data is available for an accurate TCO calculation. This step can be performed by clicking

the Fetch Data button . Once this has been done, you will see how many assets data was

found for.

Note: if you use a proxy server to access the Internet you will need to enter your proxy server

details via the main menu at Options > General Options Asset DB Cloud.

Once the data has been collected, it will be displayed on the screen as per Figure 16 below.

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Figure 16. Asset View after TCO data has been collected

When moving to the consumable view via the radio button, you can see the full details of the

consumables.

Figure 17. Consumables View after TCO data has been collected

Keep in mind that if you did not use the drop down menus to select your device in the current

state, the TCO data might not be pulled in automatically. The name of the device must match

exactly with the name of the device in the database in order to pull in the data. If it does not,

follow the directions below to perform a Cost As.

If list prices or consumable data do not exist on the TCO Server, then a warning symbol will

appear in the Status column. In this circumstance, the Cost As function can be used. This is a

right-click function and requires you to remain online in order to retrieve a list of similar models

from the hosted server from which you can select a comparable model whose price you can use

instead.

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Figure 18. Cost As function

Once the Cost As model has been selected, the relevant model data will be fetched and a new

icon will appear in the List Price column illustrating that a substitute model was used.

It is also possible to fetch consumables for a device without fetching the cost data. This can be

done by using the Cost As function and choosing one of the Cost As Find Consumables

options (see Figure 18).

If the Cost as function was previously used for a device in another project, Asset DB will

remember this and give the option to apply the same model and consumables for a device. You

can decide whether to apply this by selecting Yes or No in the Apply column or delete the

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association by clicking on the bin in the Delete column. Once the selections are made, click on

Fetch Cost As data to proceed.

Figure 19. Fetch Cost data for devices without data

3.4 Adding in Customer Cost Data

With the relevant printer data in hand, it is possible to send a list of the printers and their

consumables to the end user for their actual purchase costs to be added in. This can be done by

selecting the Export Data button from within the different views (Asset View for hardware costs

and Consumable View for the consumable costs) or via the main menu at TCO > Export > Asset

Data/Consumable Data.

Figure 20. Export TCO data

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The List price is displayed in an Excel spreadsheet and can be over-written. To import the new

information back in, click the Import Data button on either the Asset View or Consumable View or

use the main menu at TCO > Import > Asset Data/Consumable Data.

Once you have changed the prices, either manually or by import, the List Price icon changes to

a notepad with a pen to show which items have been manually entered by the user or customer

for easy visual reference:

Figure 21. Manually entered price data

Note: Yield data is held in the database and will be used in the calculation but is not displayed in

the export, as this is proprietary information of the data provider.

3.5 Removing Consumables

The TCO server will provide all known OEM consumables associated with any device in the

project. Sometimes a consumable is not required; maybe it is rarely purchased, or the client uses

non-OEM parts (see Section 3.6 Local Consumables).

After downloading data from the TCO server, click to select the Consumable View as shown in

Figure 22.

Figure 22. Consumables View

To deselect a consumable simply click in the Use column next to the consumable you wish to

deselect. When the TCO is calculated, the consumable is ignored by Asset DB.

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3.6 Local Consumables

The TCO server provides access to tens of thousands of Original Equipment Manufacturer

(OEM) consumables. Alternatively, you may wish to use Non-OEM parts or add a consumable

that is not currently on the server. Consumables created manually in Asset DB are stored locally

and can be used in other projects.

To create a local consumable click the Manage consumables for the TCO Analysis button

on the tool bar. Select the Edit Local Consumables tab and fill in the data for the consumable to

be added, as shown in Figure 23. Click Create and the consumable will show in the Available

Consumables table. Please note that all fields are required.

Figure 23. Manage Consumables

Select the Assign Local Consumables tab. The list on the left shows the Available

Consumables. Select the consumable you want to use and click the green arrow to move it to

the TCO Analysis Consumables.

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Figure 24. Assigning Consumables to TCO Analysis

Once the consumable is in the TCO Analysis Consumables table, it will automatically appear in

the Consumable View of the project as options to be used in the analysis.

Please note, as long as the local consumable works out cheaper than the OEM part, it will

automatically be selected. If you wish to force the use of this consumable irrespective of its price,

see Section 3.5 for how to deselect the OEM part.

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3.6.1. Using previously created local consumables

As you build a local consumable database, you will want to use that data for other projects.

When downloading data from the server you will see the option as shown below to use local

consumables. Please select this if you wish to have them available for use. (Note: Only exact

model matches will display).

Figure 25. Use local consumables option

3.6.2. Managing Consumables

The Manage consumables for the TCO Analysis button can also be used to compare and

copy consumables from one devices to another. Going to the Manage All Consumables tab

enables you to compare consumables from different devices.

Figure 26. Manage All Consumables

Having a device selected in the top half, the Consumables table on the right shows the

consumables connected to this device.

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Selecting a device in the Compare Device table shows the connected consumables on the

Compare Consumables table.

Selecting a consumable from one the two tables on the right allows you to copy the consumable

up or down, hence associating it with a different device.

3.7 View Devices for Consumables

If you wish to see which devices use a specific consumable, right-click on Consumable and

select View Devices for Consumable.

Figure 27. Devices which use consumable

3.8 Setting up contracts

At the same time as sending the customer the hardware and consumables list, it might also be

possible to request contract information for both the printers and the MFDs. If the customer is

unwilling to provide contract information, benchmark cost data can be used in this step instead.

There are four types of contract that can be associated with a device:

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a. A lease or rental contract in the form of a one to one relationship or several devices

within the one lease contract.

b. A cost per click contract applying a fee per page or click printed/copied.

c. A cost per click contract for tri-colour devices, applying a different fee per page or

per click printed/copied according to the level of colour.

d. Another support cost contract covering all other types of cost such as an annual

maintenance contract for printers or soft costs like Helpdesk calls.

Since one device or brand of devices may have some, or all, of the above contract types

associated with them, contracts are created within groups (see Figure 28 below).

Figure 28. Setting up Contract Groups

The expectation is that contract groups will be set up by brand or perhaps by brand category

such as HP Mono Printers or Lexmark Colour Printers. You can create a contract group by

clicking on the paper Contract icon (shown above, next to the green waste bin). If the contracts

all terminate at the same time then this can be added in here. Otherwise, the individual contract

dates can be added in the Contracts tab.

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3.8.1. Setting up a Lease or Rental contract

Move from the Contract Group tab to the Contracts tab where a new screen will appear as

shown in Figure 29. The Lease Contract tab requires a number of key areas to be completed:

From the drop down list, select the Contract Group that you want the lease to belong

to.

Click on the Create a New Lease Contract button to start entering new contract

information.

Give the contract name as much detail as possible to make it easily identifiable later

on when you will assign it to a device.

Enter the contract number.

Enter a lease cost and the time period that the lease payment represents (e.g.

monthly/quarterly/annual).

Enter the contract start and end date, which will be useful for early termination fee

calculations.

Enter the number of devices associated with the contract. The TCO calculator will

divide the lease payment by the number of devices to come up with an individual

device hardware cost.

Figure 29. Creating a lease contract

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3.8.2. Setting up a Cost per Click Contract

Creating a Cost per Click contract is much the same as the lease one, enter key

information from a click contract name to any minimum monthly volumes.

Figure 30. Setting up a Cost per Click contract

3.8.3. Setting up a Tri-Colour Cost per Click Contract

A Tri-Colour Cost per Click contract is created in the same way as a single-colour Cost per

Click contract. The only difference is that costs and minimum and maximum volumes can be

specified by colour level.

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Figure 31. Setting up a Tri-Colour Cost per Click contract

3.8.4. Other Support Cost contracts

The final contract type is for any other support costs that are attributed to a device or set of

devices. For MFDs, this might be a software support contract or a managed service fee, while for

printers it could be an annual maintenance fee. It is possible to have multiple Other Support

Cost contracts such as Mono Printer Maintenance and Mono Printer Relocation fee.

Figure 32. Setting up an Other Support Cost contract

As the Other Support Cost contract allows for generic data entry, it can be used for soft costs as

well as hard costs; for example, an annual cost for raising and managing printer consumables

invoices.

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3.8.5. Exporting and importing contract data

It is also possible to export contract data to be sent to your customer for completion, similarly to

how cost and consumable data can be exported. Contract fees can then be completed in a

spreadsheet editor and imported into Asset DB. To do this, select menu option TCO > Export >

Contracts, and choose a location on your computer to save the .xls file generated.

Figure 33. Exporting contract data to spreadsheet for editing

You can then enter the values that you wish to use for lease, cost-per-click and other support

contracts into the table, save and import back to Asset DB via menu option TCO > Import >

Contracts.

You should always export a contracts .xls-type file and fill in details for import rather than

creating your own spreadsheet with similar column headers and trying to import this.

Top tip: Create a contract of each type in Asset DB before you export the spreadsheet. This

way, you can see which columns in the file will need to be completed for each contract type.

3.9 Creating Assumption Sets

Now that all the known costs have been added into the TCO Tool, the last piece to define is the

assumptions to be applied to the variable cost elements in the TCO Calculation. The TCO Tool

applies an important area of flexibility in this step by allowing different Assumption Sets to be

used in order to compare and contrast the effect they have. For example, a Finance Director

might want a depreciation period-only approach to writing down hardware values while an IT

Director might want a Technology Refresh one.

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There are several assumptions to take into consideration, and putting in the correct values will

have a major impact on the accuracy of the final cost calculations for printers where the variable

elements are greater.

The Assumption fields to enter are:

Write-down period - depreciation or technology refresh period.

Toner wastage - the estimated percentage of toner left in a cartridge when the Toner

Low warning comes on. Typically 10-15% depending on the manufacturer.

Discount on hardware - the discount the TCO Tool will apply from the Retail/List Price

provided by hosted server download. This is for devices where the End User has not

been able to provide the specific price they paid for a purchased item.

Discount on consumables - the discount the TCO Tool will apply from the Retail/List

Price provided by hosted server download. This is for consumable items where the

End User has not been able to provide the specific price they paid.

Mono coverage- the average amount of toner coverage on the pages printed. The

average can vary from 3-11% across different departments with a company-wide

average of between 4-6% for mono. Colour coverage is added in the Data

Preparation Tab; see section 1.2: Creating Volume Generation Assumptions.

If the customer uses High Capacity cartridges this box should be ticked and if such a

cartridge type exists for a printer, the TCO Tool will then use this item.

Figure 34. Setting up Assumption Sets

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3.10 Assign Contracts and Assumption Sets

With all the costs and Assumption Sets created, the final step before running the calculation is to

assign the contracts and the relevant Assumption Sets to either a group of devices or a single

device as appropriate. Every device that has been purchased will need an assumption set

assigned to it, and every device that has been listed as Under Contract will need at least one

contract assigned. Those devices categorised as Both will need an assumption set and a

contract assigned to them.

Figure 35. Assigning an assumption

To assign an assumption set, right-click on the row in question, select Assumption Sets > Assign

Assumption Set, and the pop-up in Figure 35 appears. Select and assign the appropriate

Assumption Set and click OK.

To assign a contract is a similar process; right-click in the relevant row then select Assign

Contracts and the following pop-up will appear:

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Figure 36. Assigning a contract

Select your contract group from the drop down at the top, then select the desired contract in the

Available list and click on the green arrow to move it to the Assigned list. You can assign

multiple contracts at the same time.

Please note that a Tri-Colour Cost per Click contract can only be assigned to devices that have

been set as having three colour meter levels. This is determined in the Colour Meter Levels field

on the Specification tab of the Device Details panel in the Current State.

When a device has had the relevant Assumption Set and/or contracts assigned, the Red

Warning Triangle in the Status column will change to a green tick to indicate a TCO Calculation

can now be performed. See Figure 37.

Figure 37. Ready to calculate screen

Top Tip: Hover over the red triangle to see what parts you still need to complete to make it

change to a green tick.

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3.11 Calculate the costs

Once all the costs and assumptions have been entered and assigned, the TCO Tool is ready to

calculate the costs and turn these into a cost per page. This function is carried out by clicking on

the calculator button . If you select Calculate for All Assets the TCO will take all assets into

consideration. Should you only want to calculate it for a few selected devices, select the devices

in your Asset View first, and then click on the calculator button and select Calculate for Selected

Assets.

A pop-up will appear with a message on whether a complete calculation can be made as well as

if any volumes are missing; there is an additional Calculate button to confirm the intention to

proceed. The TCO Tool will then report that a calculation has been completed and when you

close the pop-up, you will see that the Unburdened Mono and Colour CPP columns will be

populated with the actual running costs as shown in Figure 38 below:

Figure 38. Populated running costs

Tip: Be sure to right-click on a column header and choose Clear All Filters before running the

TCO calculations to ensure you have not missed any devices that you may previously have

filtered out.

Should you need to rerun your TCO calculations please make sure you have ticked the Overwrite

box for your assets, before you calculate again. This ensures that the data you already have will

be overwritten by the new calculation.

3.12 Import and Export TCO Analyses

It is possible to export and import TCO analyses Via File > Export > TCO Analysis. The result is

a portable .tco file. If the associated project is synchronised to the Asset DB Cloud (explained in

the Auditor manual), the TCO analysis can then be reimported into any downloaded version of

that same project. This allows a handover of the TCO calculation where necessary.

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3.13 Move TCO data to the Current State in Asset DB

Once you are happy with your calculations, the TCO data can be pushed over to the Current

State of the Asset DB project. To do this, click to apply values from the TCO calculation to

assets in the current project, which will bring up a dialogue box as shown below.

Figure 39. Transfer cost data to the current view

Asset DB will then transfer the data across to the Financials tab in the Current State view. The

actual calculation behind the costs can be verified by right-clicking on an icon on the floor plan or

on a row in the table view and selecting Explain Calculation > TCO Analysis. The pop-up shown

in Figure 40 will appear. This Explanation window can also be exported into HTML format for use

in reports or presentations, etc.

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Figure 40. Show TCO Calculations pop-up

3.14 Confirm TCO costs

With all the costs populated, it is possible to check whether there are any anomalies. This can

either be done on screen or if a total figure for hardware and consumables costs is a better

starting point, then the full data can be exported by going to Project > Export > Asset DB Data.

The export then provides 16 additional fields with cost information. The definition for each TCO

column is as follows:

Consumables Mono/Colour/Colour Level 1/Colour Level 2/Colour Level 3

CPP: the pure running costs per page without any hardware or other contract

information.

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Total Mono/Colour CPP: these two columns give the total cost per page with all

costs included, such as depreciation or lease costs and all other recurring costs.

Useful for a true comparison between devices types (e.g. a printer vs. an MFD).

Monthly Hardware Cost: the monthly depreciation or monthly equivalent lease

cost.

Monthly Recurring Cost: the monthly cost of any recurring costs applied to a

device.

Monthly Mono/Colour/ Level 1 Colour/Level 2 Colour/Level 3 Colour Costs:

these five columns give the actual total consumable costs per month for that

device (monthly volume x the CPP).

Overall, Monthly/Annual Running Cost: these two columns givethe sum of the

monthly/annual hardware, recurring and consumables costs.

4 Calculating CO2: The Green Calculator The Asset DB Green Calculator enables the user to calculate, quickly and consistently, the

environmental impact of devices in a fraction of the time it takes to do this through MS Excel. It

speeds up data collation through access to a quality database provided by leading market

research company, Gap Intelligence, and an easy to use interface. The data supplied covers:

Copy Speed Mono.

Copy Speed Colour.

Operating Power (Watts).

Standby Power (Watts).

Power Save (Watts).

All values are as quoted by the manufacturer. For errors or omissions, please contact us advising

of make, model, the value and the source of your data. All data can be updated manually where

required and variables like toner coverage, hours/days in a working week can all be adjusted

through a simple assumption set.

Using this tool the user will calculate total kW used, CO2 emissions, cost of power and the

number of trees consumed.

4.1 Starting a Green Calculation Analysis

Note: For a green calculation to work you will need to have monthly volumes generated (please

see Sections 0 & 2).

Start by opening the project that you wish to evaluate and clicking File > New > Green Analysis

(Current State).

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You will be presented with a new tabbed workspace called Green Analysis (Current State),

which will show all the devices in a list ready for you to connect to the service and search for data

(see Figure 41).

Figure 41. Green tab

The first icon is the fetch data icon . Click the icon to connect to the server where the master

database of information is held.

Asset DB will search for the information for your devices. Asset DB requires the data to be

formatted correctly, which is why we advise that you use the make and model drop downs in the

details console. Once the search is complete, Asset DB will tell you how many devices for which

it has been able to Fetch data.

Top Tip: If you do not use the drop downs to enter Make and Model you may not get information

back from the server in this first process.

4.2 Treat As

The device shown in Figure 42, an Epson Stylus1280 has not been found, so to locate this

device we click to highlight the device, then right-click and select Treat As > Find Devices with

Similar Name. Asset DB will search the database for all likely options and return them in a list as

shown below. As you can see, the device is in the list as Epson Stylus Photo 1280. Click to

select and click OK. This will apply these values to that device. If there are multiple devices not

found that have the same name, you only need to perform the Treat As procedure for one of

them and Asset DB will automatically match the rest of the same type of device.

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Figure 42. Treat As

Once the data has been returned, it can be exported as a .csv file and if required changes can be

made and imported back using the next two buttons on the Green tab console.

4.3 Assumptions

Just like the TCO tool, the Green Calculator requires assumptions to be created that will affect

the calculation. These elements include toner coverage, working hours and days, cost of

electricity and two assumptions that fill gaps in the data, standby and power save, were you can

use a percentage of the power in operation.

All of these factors will have an impact on the calculation and enable a credible calculation to be

performed with transparency of what assumptions were necessary to arrive at the final

calculation.

To start the assumptions dialogue, click and the Green Calculator Assumptions window

will appear. Click the button shown in Figure 43 to create a new assumption set.

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Figure 43. Green Calculator Assumption Sets

As with the TCO, you can manage factors like coverage, number of hours in a working week and

the cost of electricity, and apply assumptions to standby and power save where you do not have

the actual figures.

Make your selections and click Close. You can now assign your assumptions to your devices. In

Figure 44, all the devices have been selected in order to apply a single assumption set to them

all. Different assumptions sets can be applied to different groups of devices (e.g. to reflect the

set-up of different buildings). To assign the assumptions, right-click the mouse and select

Assumptions > Assign Assumption Set, and then select the assumption you want from the list

and click OK.

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Figure 44. Assigning Assumption Sets

4.4 Calculate

Figure 45. Calculation

Asset DB indicates when it is ready to calculate the environmental impact with green or amber

ticks in the Status column. An amber tick indicates that some data had to be manually added to

complete the data set. With ticks in the status column, we are ready to calculate our

environmental impact. Click the green foot button shown in Figure 45, if you select Calculate for

All Assets the Green calculation will take all assets into consideration. Should you only want to

calculate it for a few selected devices, select the devices in your Green Analysis tab first, and

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then click on the green foot button and select Calculate for Selected Assets. Follow the

instructions and you will be presented with a summary (see Figure 46).

Figure 46. Calculation summary

The final step is to click the globe button to transfer this data to the Environmentals tab in

the Asset Details console in the Current State.

In the same way as for the TCO, you can verify the actual calculation behind the costs by right-

clicking on an icon on the floor plan or on a row in the table view and selecting Explain

Calculation > Green Analysis (current state).

The information will also be summarised in the Print Assessment Summary report.

Should you need to rerun your Green calculations please make sure you have ticked the

Overwrite box for your assets, before you calculate again. This ensures that the data you already

have will be overwritten by the new calculation.

4.5 Import and Export Green Analyses

Green Analyses are also exportable in the same way as the TCO calculations. This is explained

in more detail in Section 3.12.

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5 User Data Being able to visualise how a printing environment is being used is a powerful way of supporting

a design strategy and presenting and demonstrating document workflow arguments. To achieve

this, Asset DB can now import third party user data from programs such as Print Assessor 6 and

SafeCom, which is then visually represented as annotations around user and output device

icons.

5.1 Import User Data

To import a data file click Project > Import > User Data >User Data. Browse to the user data file

which must be a CSV (Comma Separated) file and click Open.

This will start the user data import process. The process is similar to the asset data import, where

you will match the fields in the import to the corresponding Asset DB Fields. Help windows at the

bottom will walk you through the process. Once the import is complete, click Close. Please note

that User Data files can be very large and the import process may take a few minutes.

Figure 47. User Data Visualization

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5.2 Mapping and Viewing

Asset DB will automatically map users to output assets via the IP address, where this is captured

in the User Data file. Directly connected devices will have to be mapped manually.

If the IP address is not included and the only printer identifier is the Print Queue name, there is a

special Asset DB export, which can be sent to the Client IT department. They can provide you

with the IP address that matches the Print Queue. The Client IT Manager will have easy access

to this table. Click Project > Export > User Data > Device IP Mappings, and give this file to the IT

manager who will be able to link the Print Queue to an IP address. This file can then be

reimported to provide the correct IP address mapping. Click Project > Import > User Data >

Device IP Mapping.

To map users, the best approach is to import user data before going on site to audit. The auditor

can then use the imported data to drop user icons on the floor plan as he or she comes across

them.

To see just the unmapped users or devices click either Unmapped Users or Unmapped

Devices tabs. These unmapped users and devices can also be seen shaded in pink in the users

and devices list. Unmapped devices/users can be added by selecting and clicking the

appropriate icon. You can add an unmapped user (highlighted in pink) to the floor plan by

selecting them from the table and clicking this button . You can also select multiple users

and map them as a group using the Add Group icon .

When adding a device it is important to select the correct asset type:

is printer is MFD and is a production device.

You can also map a device or person by linking user data to a device/person previously mapped.

Select the device/person icon that you have placed on the floor plan and then highlight the

device in the un-mapped users/devices list. Then click the following button to link the

user/device data to that icon. Un-mapping a device or user is simple, select the user or device

and click the un-map button.

Once users are mapped to devices, you will see the links as shown in Figure 48. The green line

indicates the link between the user and the device, while the circle around the user or device

represents the volume, split between colour (light red shade) and mono (light blue shade). To

see all the devices to which a user prints, simply click on the user in question.

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Figure 48. Visualisation of all users who print to a device

If a User prints to a device on another floor, it will be indicated by a green edge to the volume

circle. Hovering the cursor over the user will then bring up an image of the alternative floor to

which that user prints. The same applies to a device where a user prints to it from another floor.

To change the default columns shown, you click and select the columns you wish to

view. If you wish to import new data, you must first remove the old data. To do this click Options

> User Data Configuration, which will present a pop up window as seen in Figure 49. First, delete

all user data mappings and then delete all user data. You can now reimport user data.

Figure 49. User Data Configuration

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6 Analyst Features

6.1 Statistics

In addition to the basic statistics tab found in Auditor, Analyst has Storage Statistics, Print

Statistics and Space Utilisation options, which can be found in the View menu. Statistics are

displayed based on the level of the project you currently have highlighted - Project, Building,

Floor or Department.

These statistics panels can also be exported using the Export button or via a right-click menu into

HTML format.

Figure 50. Storage statistics

Figure 51. Print statistics

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Figure 52. Space utilisation

6.2 Highlight/Filter Assets Tool

Using the Highlight/Filter tool found under View > Highlight or Filter Assets, you are able to

uniquely create filters and display assets based on particular criteria. Figure 53 shows the

various options available to determine exactly which assets to highlight or filter.

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Figure 53. Edit Filter Criteria

Free text and tick

boxes for relevant

criteria

Select any field in

the Icon

Customisation

Choice of criteria

Set multiple filters

for one field

Insert an

additional

criterion

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Highlight styles include a large star surrounding the icon, a star next to the icon or a circle around

the icon. The highlight style is selected using the Shape drop-down in Figure 54 along with the

colour, size and opacity of the highlight type. Each filter is also given a name that will appear in

the filters list along with an indication of the highlight style. Multiple highlights/filters can be

applied to the project at any one time and they can be toggled on and off in the filters list. .

Figure 54. Highlight/Filter Assets

Figure 55 shows a representation of each of the highlight styles available.

Figure 55. Asset Highlighting Options

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The highlight/filter tool can also be used to filter out particular assets by selecting the Hide radio

button.

6.3 Showing Distances around Icons

Distances around an icon can also be shown permanently on the floor plan. To activate this

feature go to View > Show Distances, and the pop-up in Figure 56 will be displayed.

Figure 56. Show Distances settings

For each attribute, you can determine a distance and a colour, which will then be displayed on

the floor plan. If multiple attributes from the same device will be used then the outline feature

may be a better visual indicator than a colour. This is particularly useful in the Solution Design

where a floor plan can be displayed with the distance colours to illustrate that all the users are

covered by a maximum walking distance parameter. See Figure 57.

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Figure 57. Asset Circulation Distances Displayed

The Asset tick box at the bottom enables the user to select a specific asset or icon to display

individually and separately from the others. To activate this feature, right-click the device in

question and select Set Asset Distance.

7 The Print Assessment Summary Report Once calculated TCO and Green analyses have been performed and data transferred to the

current state, the Print Assessment Summary report will automatically include the TCO and

Green data.

The report can be generated by going to Reports > Run, in the top menu and selecting Generate

Print Assessment Summary. You can choose the language of the report and the parts of the

project you want to include in the report before clicking Run to generate the report.

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Figure 58. Print Assessment Summary Report request

The report can be produced in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF and this is determined by

changing the file type when you give the file a name and decide where to save it. All the charts

are generated from the data in the Asset DB project. Floor plans are also included based on what

is visible in Asset DB (e.g. whatever display options you have set up in Asset DB will show on the

plans in the report). Reports are currently available in the languages seen in Figure 58.

8 Portfolio If you have finished working on an analysis and need to keep the data but no longer need to be

working on it day to day in Asset DB, it is possible to mass export/import Asset DB file types for

archiving purposes1. This will provide you with an .atc file you can save outside Asset DB and

allows you to then delete the local version to reduce clutter in the Open dialogue. It can also be

used as a means of sharing data with other users.

8.1 Exporting Portfolio

To export a portfolio, open the project for which you want to export any elements (it is not

necessary to open all of the elements; having the project open is enough), then go to File >

Export > Portfolio.

1 The export/import Portfolio functionality is not available with all licence types.

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Figure 59. Export Portfolio

You can then choose which elements you wish to export by ticking the box next to that element

in the list (see Figure 60).

Figure 60. Select elements to export

It is possible to export any or all of the elements this way in a single file. When it comes to

importing these back into Asset DB, you can either bring all the elements back in or choose

specific ones to import. You can also use this as a means of sharing project data with other

users.

8.2 Import Portfolio

To import a Portfolio file, go to File > Import > Portfolio and navigate to where you have saved

the file. Click to select the file and click Open to have the option to choose which components

you wish to import. You can import some or all of the available components.

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Note: if you choose to import the project part of the portfolio and the project still exists in Asset

DB, this will create a copy of the project and import the other analysis components against that

copy, rather than against the original. If you wish to import the analyses against the original

project, make sure that you do not select the project, but just the analyses you wish to import.

This will import the analyses as copies against the original project.

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