Should MPS Providers Hire Psychiatrists?
The multi-function printer (MFP) device is the new water cooler and serves as a meeting place as much as a printer. A good MPS plan has to factor in the human element. There are the neat freaks, the clueless, the control freaks, and the know-it-alls. Each one interacts with the machine on a unique level and is likely to have a slightly different experience.
Doc is somewhat of a specialist in studying how people can screw things up, so he knows how difficult it is to design an interface that works for all the different people you find in a modern office. Avoiding paper jams seems like a piece of cake in comparison.
I know the big guys in MPS have, indeed, studied human behavior and many of them probably have specialists on staff that can predict all the personalities you're likely to encounter at a typical office. This capability, it seems to me, is just as important as how quickly a supplier can get a toner cartridge delivered or how much each copy costs.
In Doc's experience, the people are the variable in the big MPS equation. You can plot out on paper exactly how an MPS system should work, but if you don't take personalities into account, it may not function in real life.
Take Doc, for instance. I'm the guy who can never remember that the good paper goes in drawer 3. Or is it 2?