Printing is an essential part of most businesses, but how you choose to print will differ for each company. The approach you choose can affect your level of responsibility, the cost of devices, and effectiveness. Unfortunately, most companies don’t track printing costs. But document costs can actually represent up to 15 percent of your revenue, making Managed Print Services (MPS) a vital part of any business plan.
What Is Managed Print Services?
Managed Print Services is a solution that is offered by print providers to manage or optimize a company’s document output. Managed Print Services can come in different forms, so they are tailored to your unique business needs. It’s a partnership that can enhance the effectiveness of your print environment. The main components provided include a needs assessment, general or selective replacement of hardware and the service for it, and supplies and parts needed to operate the hardware. Your Managed Print Services provider will also track how your imaging equipment—including printers, copiers, and MFPs—are being used, any technical issues that arise, the cost your company incurs to printing, and your satisfaction with the product. Your devices are monitored remotely in order to manage your print environment effectively. Ultimately, your provider will offer suggestions and oversight tools to ensure your printing costs are vastly reduced.
What Are the Benefits of MPS?
There are a number of benefits to incorporating Managed Print Services as part of your business strategy. Please consider the following:
Analyze Your Printing Needs: Your IT department can be capable of analyzing your printers and other hardware, but it may not be the best use of their time. A provider has experience in analyzing printers with various functions and sizes. Such companies also have specialized knowledge in consolidating methods to make sure that your business has the right equipment to match your workflows at an affordable price. This includes all aspects of printing needs, such as faxing, copying, printing, and scanning. For many businesses, this is a challenging first step, and the lack of concrete data to analyze, interpret, and act on can impact your business processes. Are your printers breaking down often? Are you spending too much only on printing supplies, or do you have too many printing consumables that are simply taking up space? Are staff members able to print important documents when they need to without fear of streaked pages or the printer not working properly? Your Managed Print Services provider can answer these questions for you and many more to make sure that your printing needs are met.
Reduce the Need for Local Printers: One of the first things that your Managed Print Services provider will look at is the use of and need for local printers. These local printers are usually more costly and inefficient than realized by business owners. The printers likely only service one user and are hardly ever set up on your network. Their use is often ineffective in many business environments. Moreover, these printers require unique toner or ink cartridges and other consumables that add up over time and are cost-prohibitive while causing purchasing and tracking issues.
Streamline Printer Placement: It’s essential to ensure that printing equipment is placed in accessible areas to the employees using them and for the right number of employees to be assigned to each device. This placement maximizes the use of each device and improves business workflows. In order for employees to be more efficient, equipment should be easily accessible. Consider the amount of time wasted when employees are required to go to another floor or across the building to retrieve their printed material. This can distract workers and decrease the ability to get their work done. Conversely, think of the productivity gained when the devices needed to complete the task-at-hand are conveniently located near appropriate workstations.
Replace Inefficient Devices: Managed Print Services identifies which devices aren’t performing up to their potential or meeting your workflow demands and then helps you replace them with more efficient ones. Your provider’s team is comprised of knowledgeable specialists who know which imaging devices are available to meet your needs and help you stay within your budget.
Automate Supply Delivery: With Managed Print Services, you can eliminate the need to keep track of ordering your imaging fleet’s consumables—like toner cartridges—internally. With these programs, your provider will take the work out of monitoring your devices and will automate shipments of your consumables based on when the machine runs low. This perk ensures you can keep your employees productive and operations running smoothly with less equipment downtime caused by a lack of supplies.
Gain Invoice Predictability: This program allows you to consolidate your vendors and costs and gives you the ability to have a consistent monthly payment for your imaging fleet and consumables. With service and monitoring included, there are no more surprises regarding unpredictable printing costs or maintenance fees on your equipment.
Employee Training on New Technology: Your business’s IT staff or department is likely focused on high-level tasks, and fixing printing problems and training employees on technology is not high on their priority list. However, Managed Printer Services can help you with employee training, and help desk support is available if printer issues arise, allowing your IT team to focus on value-adding initiatives.
Print Remotely: Mobile printing allows employees to print remotely from off-site locations and from any device. This mobility provides significant improvements to your business. For example, employees can print work orders or agreements from the field directly to your AP Department’s printers, streamlining workflows and billing processes. If your business wants to support this type of mobile print environment, your Managed Print Services provider can help you facilitate setting up and managing your mobile printing environment.
Save Money: It is true that Managed Print Services requires a monthly fee. However, this solution ensures you save money in the long run. One of the foundational tenants of Managed Print Services is to reduce your overall printing costs. Additionally, employee productivity is maximized, and your IT staff can spend time focused on value-adding tasks. We all know that time is money, and Managed Print Services is designed to increase your bottom line.
Is MPS Right for Your Business?
Most companies reap the tremendous benefits outlined above after implementing Managed Print Services. It can be a helpful place to begin to make your company more efficient and streamline costs, particularly if you can’t immediately identify how much your business spends on printing. You may not realize how much of your budget is allocated to printing until you get help from a Managed Print Services provider. Managed Print Services is an excellent solution for businesses of all sizes looking to save money and boost employee productivity.
If you’re in the San Diego area and want to learn more about Managed Print Services or the specifics of how this solution can help your business, contact R3 Business Solutions today.