Tag Archives: Printer

Managed Print Services – How to control your print costs

Managed Print Services – reduce print costs, remove unwanted printing and enforce print rules such as colour or simplex/duplex printing.

Most organisations these days have people working remotely from the office and constantly on the move.

The one thing they have in common is the ability to print documents at anytime and anywhere.

How do you keep print sensitive information safe from prying eyes? 

Using a secure document release application makes it easy to keep confidential information viewable for the user only. Accounting and reporting features for document output activity helps organisations comply with privacy requirements.

How do you prevent wasted paper?

How do you keep printer consumable costs down?

What happens when documents are left unclaimed?

What about the loss of productivity in time waiting for documents to be printed at the most convenient printer, not always the nearest one?

Do you call I.T. to ask for more print drivers to be installed or a request to purchase new printers?

Networked printers are not always located for easy access by workers who spend increasing amounts of time away from their desks and documents left unattended can divulge company information such as plans that have yet to be announced or organisational re-structuring. Jams, malfunctions and queues make printers unavailable when people need them. Server based printing with document authentication increases mobility, security and reduces cost for the company.

Not having to rely on a single printer, users can output documents when and where they are needed and avoid the inconvenience of printers out of service or busy. Managing any number of personal printers in an organisation is costly and employees often insist on having their own printers because of wanting their own privacy. By managing your print devices properly ensures security is prevalent at every shared device.

Implementing a managed print services solution ensures that only those documents that are required to be printed use the most appropriate printer for the job i.e. colour printer or to print simplex/duplex. Using a secure document release application encourages user mobility and helps to minimise waste and protect personal information or customer confidentiality.

Print management solutions and ‘Follow-You’ Printing® holds documents in a secure print server until users authenticate themselves at the networked printer of their choice anywhere on the print network, across servers, departments and even geographic locations.

What are the benefits of managed print services?

  • Security is increased by only releasing documents when users are physically at the printer
  • Mobility is enhanced by allowing users to release documents at any convenient printer, anywhere in the organisation
  • Reduces waste by eliminating unclaimed print items and encourages users to print only the documents they actually need
  • Simple authentication implemented using card based ID systems
  • Integrates into multi-vendor environments

Users swipe their ID card enter a PIN or both to authenticate themselves and release their print jobs.

Simplifying and centralising print management using Follow-You Printing works with any printer manufacturer and is available as as both device and terminal based software. Providing one convenient administrative interface for managing your entire fleet of MFD’s (multi-functional devices)
Education – end wasteful and unclaimed printing only allowing print jobs to be output when users are ready to authenticate them at the printer. One University reduced their printing by 41% in one term using Follow-You Printing integrating it with existing campus card systems and on line accounts, students, faculty and staff were able to use the same machines.
Legal – Protect work and client confidentiality by preventing documents from sitting in output trays at unattended printers. Follow-You Printing safeguards clients trust and compliance with corporate accountability and privacy laws.
Office – Give employees the convenience of swiping their I.D. cards to release their documents and the flexibility to bypass printers that are busy or out of service. Follow-You printing operates geographically and users can output queued documents at network printers in your company’s branch offices to avoid the risk of losing or exposing them while travelling.

As an authorised channel partner of ProcessFlows, Digital Print Management provide intelligent print and cost management software solutions for the corporate, legal, education, health care and financial services. Designed to create more effective printing environments, reduce printing costs, increase security and lessen environmental impact.

For more information and a discussion on how we can show up to a 30% saving on your overall print costs by using our Print Management Solutions fill the form in below and one of our advisors will call you:

[gravityform id=”1″ name=”Arrange a call back!”]

 For news, views and updates please don’t forget to follow us on twitter, like us on facebook and connect with us on linkein.

Managed Print Services – How to manage your print costs!

Managed Print Services.

One of the biggest challenges facing many companies today is the management of paper, print and print devices.

Implementing a Managed Print Service (MPS) is one of the quickest and measurable way of managing costs because it enables the organisation to consolidate its many devices. Word Cloud "Paperless Office"

Organisations often have an excessive number of devices such as desk top printers, old PC’s and redundant equipment that can either be eliminated or replaced entirely with modern technology.

The ratio of 3:1 reduction in devices is achievable and cost savings on consumables is evident when you consider how expensive desktop printers are to operate, manage and maintain on a standalone basis.

In fact if the cost savings are so transparent you’d think organisations would jump at  implementing an effective print management strategy.

But when considering an MPS there can be resistance from your employees’ and their concerns can be:

  • You cant take away my printer I will be less productive
  • I need this printer because I need to print off confidential information
  • Its not an I.T. issue or expense
  • I print small jobs so it can’t really cost that much can it?

There are ways to overcome user resistance by being able to communicate to the employee the costs of running their printers and the impact on the bottom line; which the employee may not be aware of.

Making a case to implement a printer consolidation strategy starts with communicating the benefits of consolidating printers such as access to better and more up to date technology and the benefits to the environment by printing on efficient devices.

Modern print hardware provides a better quality printed page gives the user faster printing capability for large jobs and colour printing can be offered to the departments who really need it at an affordable price and there are further cost savings by using duplex printing (double-sided printing).

User secure print technology like “Follow-You Printing” can alleviate confidentiality printing since no print job is printed or released until the user authenticates it at the device. Intelligent print rules and routing software takes the burden off the user to decide which printer is best for each job when hitting print a pop up window gives the user options of where to print the job and the associated costs.

A modern print infrastructure will assist employees to be more productive, documents made more secure, and IT can focus on core strategic activities by not having to provide printer support.

After six months, let your employees know that the company has saved thousands thanks to the implementation of a printer consolidation strategy and their changed print behaviour.

Consolidating your devices will save up to 30% of your overall print costs and create a “greener office” by using one of our Print Management Solutions.

Equitrac Office – For the Enterprise

Equitrac Office print management software helps companies gain control and management of their printing to reduce costs, increase document security and enable sustainability programs. Through measurement, monitoring and ongoing management of print activity.

Equitrac Office measures a company’s printing needs and then deploys the proper equipment to meet those needs. It helps employees become more aware of their printing habits and provides the tools to enforce print policies where necessary, such as routing print jobs to the most cost-effective devices or limiting the amount of color printing.

Benefits:

  • Reduce print/copy costs across the whole enterprise
  • Improve document security on the network
  • Eliminate waste and support environmental sustainability

A large US based Bank saved $2 million in 18 months – Eliminated 88 million print impressions, cut colour printing by more than 50%, saved the equivalent of 70 acres of mature trees and paid for the initial investment within the first 60 days of implementation.

Equitrac Express – For Education

Equitrac Express software brings accountability and control of printed output to any campus, school and Higher Education establishment by providing increased awareness of print habits and their associated costs through user-level reporting, print management helps change print behaviour.

Compatible with leading campus card systems and any printer/MFP, Equitrac Express is used in over 1,000 education institutions throughout helping schools enforce student print quotas, charge for printed output, reduce wasteful unclaimed printing, and make printing more convenient, manageable and secure.

Benefits

  • Reduce print waste and increase cost savings
  • Recover costs via “Pay-for-Print” – Authenticate with Student ID Card or PIN
  • Track and manage print/copy jobs across the site
  • Convenient for users – Documents held in a virtual queue, for printing anywhere to any device (depending on user’s print rights)

A large metropolitan University (24,000 students, over 3,100 staff, 3 separate campuses, 26 buildings) realised £310k savings over three years, eliminating over 4.5 million pages of wasteful printing.

Digital Print Management provides mission critical solutions to enterprises that are looking to effectively manage printing environments, reduce print costs, increase security and and lessen environmental impact.

Call us for more information on: 01234-271156 or fill in our contact form and one of our advisors will get in touch.

For regular updates, news, reviews and features please make sure you follow DPM on twitter, facebook and Linkedin just by hitting the buttons to the left of this blog.

How print management software saves you money.

How to automate print in your company employing print management software.

Most companies have the option to insource or outsource their document printing and manage document flow thereby managing print costs.

Print management software helps companies gain control and management of their printing to reduce costs, increase document security by automatically enforcing printing rules, authenticating users and identifying and allocating document costs.

I’ve exemplified the benefits that can be had by outsourcing documents and demonstrated effective ways where organisations can save money.

But, what if an organisation can’t or simply wont outsource these business processes due to system limitations or compliance to a specific process and or system?

Like every story there are always two sides.

What can a company do to ensure its paper flow is…

kept flowing?

Implementing a strategic print management software application can ensure you automatically control and manage how print flows through your organisation satisfying three primary objectives:

  • improve productivity
  • maximise time
  • reduce paper

Using a print management application with effective print controls automates and optimises the way print moves around a building. Setting specific print controls and denying users printing from certain open applications such as email and automatically re-routing that task to the most cost effective printer such as a mono printer rather than an ink guzzling colour cartridge printer can help drive down the print costs for a company.

Industry analysts estimate that over 44% of printing is unncessary. We print things more than once, instead of selecting the pages we print which might only be one page we end up hitting the “print all” button.

Wasted paper, consumables, escalating electricity bills are the hidden costs behind unnecessary printing therefore opting for print management software helps companies regain control and management of their printing to reduce costs and increase productivity. 

By measuring, monitoring and managing print activity, print management software provides a way for companies to gain a clearer picture of a company’s printing needs and then enables the effective deployment of equipment to meet those needs without spending capital on printing technologies that are either inappropriate for the tasks required or are so costly that the ROI will take years.

The deployment of print management software tools within an organisation helps employees become more aware of their printing habits, provides tools to enforce print policies by re-routing print jobs to cheaper printers, reduce print/copy costs, improve document security on the network and eliminate waste and inefficiencies within an enterprise.

What exactly does a managed print service do for a company?

  • An MPS (Managed Print service) tracks print, copy and scan activity company wide
  • Allocate document costs to a department or office
  • Set and enforce print/copy quotas to prevent paper waste
  • Makes printing easy and convenient and more secure
  • Re-direct print jobs to more cost effective devices
  • Reporting functionality which enables a company to keep print costs down

Deploying a cost effective print managed service can save a company money if implemented in the right way.

What do you do to keep print costs down?

What strategies have you employed to reduce the amount of paper that flows through your company?

Let me know what has worked and what hasn’t?

If your company is slowly going under paper then call us to discuss your requirements.

In the first instance we will do a print audit  free of charge.

If you are here subscribe to our updates by hitting the RSS button.

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and Google+!

If this has been useful drop a comment into the box below we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading.