Printers failing mid-report, toner failing during client deadlines, and IT tickets flooding the queue on something no one can remember ever ordering. This is not exactly headline news, but this kind of interruption happens every day, all of which eat away at productivity.
And yet, when such incidents occur, teams typically work to patch the problems rather than fix them. Someone stashes a spare toner cartridge somewhere, someone else figures out how to shake the paper tray just so, and the IT team quietly adds another tech ticket into its already overflowing queue without ever tackling the bottom-line problem.
This problem is uncoordinated, mismanaged print infrastructure. Managed print solutions fix that by consolidating all of this into one easy, efficient system.
Want to see how that works in practice? Continue reading.
1. Start With a Clear Baseline
What you can’t measure, you can’t fix, and very few organizations have ever measured their print environment.
Managed print services begin with a complete audit of hardware, volume of output, and workflow. In this way, organizations get an accurate picture of cost instead of a wild guess.
Now that there is a baseline, decisions can be proactive. As noted by studies, printing comprises 1-3% of yearly revenue in most cases, with about 15% of that budget wasted. A complete audit helps to identify exactly what is being wasted.
Quite often, organizations are surprised by the results of an audit because there are many devices that are rarely used in one department and constant bottlenecks in another department without anyone having any idea of what was going on before.
Visibility alone can impact the speed at which further changes are approved because decisions are made without any element of guesswork or the potential conflict that might arise when teams are unclear about where the savings might be.
2. Consolidated Fleets Cut Costs and Confusion
The spread of redundant desktop printers throughout various departments presents more complications than advantages. Every printer requires its own stock of supplies, its own maintenance, and a point where it can malfunction.
By right-sizing the fleet of printers, you will centralize all that diversity into a set of standardized printers based on actual demand. The number of machines that can break down and the number of supply chains you must maintain decreases.
There is another benefit from the process of standardization that is difficult to underestimate, but that is not immediately visible. Once you have similar equipment at every location, it becomes easier for your IT staff to provide assistance. They will have one interface to master rather than many.
It also facilitates training for your employees since they do not have to learn different interfaces for various printers.
3. Predictable Pricing Removes Budget Surprises
Uncertainty about print costs makes budget planning a shot in the dark. In one month, there’s an unexpected expense on repairs; and then, in another, an unexpected need to buy supplies.
A managed print service consolidates hardware, repairs, and supplies into one predictable cost per month. The predictability of that model eliminates any unexpected costs that used to happen all the time.
Finances gain visibility, while operations no longer have to scramble at the last minute to get approval on a purchase. The very fact of predictability becomes a type of efficiency in its own right.
It’s particularly useful for organizations with multiple locations that want to standardize budgets among their locations. Having one consolidated invoice rather than many different charges from many vendors saves the finance department many hours when they have to reconcile all their invoices at year-end.
4. Automated Supply Management Prevents Downtime
Getting caught in a situation where there is not enough toner to complete a project is not limited to that one project; it stops the employee waiting for their document and sometimes even the next one.
Such situations can be prevented through automated reordering and proactive maintenance that takes care of the device before any problems arise.
It also takes away the burden from the IT staff, who were never supposed to take control over this task in the first place. No more absorption of calls relating to printers, but one helpdesk for all questions about printers.
Having one point of contact in mind is important because now it is not up to the employees to guess whether they should call the manufacturer or an internal department to solve their problem with a particular printer.
Having fewer distractions allows employees to focus on what they do best – working.
5. Security and Workflow Automation Support Compliance
There is no point in pursuing efficiency at the cost of security, especially in highly regulated businesses.
Managed Print Services can provide HIPAA-compliant solutions such as secure pull printing, user authentication, and data encryption. The confidentiality of sensitive information is maintained, while employees do not need to go through additional procedures.
Workflow automation becomes yet another source of efficiency, as documents will be automatically directed through digital channels rather than manually handled. It leads to fewer mistakes, quicker approval processes, and less paperwork to deal with.
This solution helps to maintain consistency of brands. Through fleet-wide color management, the company can ensure the same quality of printed material regardless of the place of printing, as many companies require consistent branding of client documents.
The time saved may not appear in a spreadsheet, but employees feel its effects the moment the constant nagging tension is stripped away from their day-to-day routine.
Efficiency Built to Last
Efficiency at work seldom involves one solution alone. Rather, it involves the replacement of piecemeal, reactive print activities with something structured in terms of data, consolidation, and proactive assistance.
This is precisely what managed print services offer, transforming an ongoing source of pain into something efficient and easy to manage. Every component from assessment to automation contributes to saving time, budget, and internal resources.
Small organizations tend to think such a degree of infrastructure would be suitable for larger companies only. However, such an expectation usually turns out to be a myth, as fragmented or unaccounted-for print expenses are just as important for small companies that lack internal resources for managing the print infrastructure.
As a result, the workplace becomes productive thanks to printing.
Caroline is doing her graduation in IT from the University of South California but keens to work as a freelance blogger. She loves to write on the latest information about IoT, technology, and business. She has innovative ideas and shares her experience with her readers.
