NASA Electronic Publishing System: Cost/benefit Methodology

The NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office was assigned the responsibility to examine the benefits of the utilization of electronic printing and duplicating systems throughout NASA Installations and Headquarters. The subject of this report is the documentation of the methodology used in justifying the acquisition of the most cost beneficial solution for the printing and duplicating requirements of a duplicating facility that is contemplating the acquisition of an electronic printing and duplicating system. Four alternatives are presented with each alternative costed out with its associated benefits. The methodology goes a step further than just a cost benefit analysis through its comparison of risks associated with each alternative, sensitivity to number of impressions and productivity gains on the selected alternative and finally the return on investment for the selected alternative. The report can be used in conjunction with the two earlier reports, NASA-TM-106242 and TM-106510 in guiding others in determining the cost effective duplicating alternative

NASAwide electronic publishing system: Electronic printing and duplicating, stage-2 evaluation report (GSFC)

The NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office was assigned the responsibility to continue with the expansion of the NASAwide networked electronic duplicating effort by including the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as an additional node to the existing configuration of networked electronic duplicating systems within NASA. The subject of this report is the evaluation of a networked electronic duplicating system which meets the duplicating requirements and expands electronic publishing capabilities without increasing current operating costs. This report continues the evaluation reported in 'NASA Electronic Publishing System - Electronic Printing and Duplicating Evaluation Report' (NASA TM-106242) and 'NASA Electronic Publishing System - Stage 1 Evaluation Report' (NASA TM-106510). This report differs from the previous reports through the inclusion of an external networked desktop editing, archival, and publishing functionality which did not exist with the previous networked electronic duplicating system. Additionally, a two-phase approach to the evaluation was undertaken; the first was a paper study justifying a 90-day, on-site evaluation, and the second phase was to validate, during the 90-day evaluation, the cost benefits and productivity increases that could be achieved in an operational mode. A benchmark of the functionality of the networked electronic publishing system and external networked desktop editing, archival, and publishing system was performed under a simulated daily production environment. This report can be used to guide others in determining the most cost effective duplicating/publishing alternative through the use of cost/benefit analysis and return on investment techniques. A treatise on the use of these techniques can be found by referring to 'NASA Electronic Publishing System -Cost/Benefit Methodology' (NASA TM-106662)

NASA wide electronic publishing system: Electronic printing and duplicating. Stage 3 evaluation report

The report is presented in four sections: The Introduction describes the duplicating configuration under evaluation and the Background contains a chronological description of the evaluation segmented by phases 1 and 2. This section includes the evaluation schedule, printing and duplicating requirements, storage and communication requirements, electronic publishing system configuration, existing processes and proposed processes, billing rates, costs and productivity analysis, and the return on investment based upon the data gathered to date. The third section contains the phase 1 comparative cost and productivity analysis. This analysis demonstrated that LaRC should proceed with a 90-day evaluation of the DocuTech and follow with a phase 2 cycle to actually demonstrate that the proposed system would meet the needs of LaRC's printing and duplicating requirements, benchmark results, cost comparisons, benchmark observations, and recommendations. These are documented after the recommendations

NASAwide electronic publishing system: Prototype STI electronic document distribution, stage-4 evaluation report

This evaluation report contains an introduction, seven chapters, and five appendices. The Introduction describes the purpose, conceptual frame work, functional description, and technical report server of the STI Electronic Document Distribution (EDD) project. Chapter 1 documents the results of the prototype STI EDD in actual operation. Chapter 2 documents each NASA center's post processing publication processes. Chapter 3 documents each center's STI software, hardware, and communications configurations. Chapter 7 documents STI EDD policy, practices, and procedures. The appendices, which arc contained in Part 2 of this document, consist of (1) STI EDD Project Plan, (2) Team members, (3) Phasing Schedules, (4) Accessing On-line Reports, and (5) Creating an HTML File and Setting Up an xTRS. In summary, Stage 4 of the NASAwide Electronic Publishing System is the final phase of its implementation through the prototyping and gradual integration of each NASA center's electronic printing systems, desktop publishing systems, and technical report servers to be able to provide to NASA's engineers, researchers, scientists, and external users the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the result thereof to their work stations