To address "avoidant" behavior, one critical piece of information Santa Clara University could use from Ricoh's findings was this: If the device did work quickly and easily, information about this success spread quickly by word of mouth. That explained the rapid growth of these printing devices over a period of two months. So, these early adopters could be an important influence on those students who generally avoided printing to new devices. The IT Department learned that a powerful form of growth, therefore, was possible through word of mouth (a friend telling others about having printed from the new device), or more generally by students hearing of other students who have successfully printed from previously "unproven" workstations.

In Summation

From their partnership with Ricoh Innovations, Santa Clara University's IT Department gained valuable insight into technology adoption patterns of their student population, and a clear idea of just how quick, easy, and positive the desired print experience needs to be for both early and late adopters of new technology solutions. The IT Department saw that they could incorporate this form of growth into their strategies, leveraging the power of viral growth as a way for students to adopt new printing technologies.

Santa Clara University's IT Department came away with a rich source of findings that addressed not only their students' current printing needs, but also uncovered critical information that helped them to understand their students actual motivations and behaviors around printing, something that would be instrumental their ability to plan for the future. At the conclusion of the project, IT Director Fussel stated, "We've engaged in research with other groups, but never gotten such valuable results. The Ricoh team was very professional and respectful of our policies. We are pleased with the results."