According to the Gartner Group, an estimated 3% of the total yearly revenue of a majority of businesses is spent on document generation.
This goes to show that despite the growing popularity of paperless systems, printing documents is still actively practiced by many if not all business organizations. Despite the glaring fact that printing does involve high costs, many businesses leave it as an unmanaged expense and consider it as a part of normal business operations – without even counting the costs that are wasted in the process.
We’re so used to printing documents over and over until we finally see the version that we want after using lots of paper and toner. When printing is final, we file the documents into folders and store these in cabinets without ever seeing them again. These are wasted costs that we ignore more often than not. Many executives don’t even realize the impact that these extravagant practices are having on the business. With that said, you should begin to look over your document generation expenses – and discover that your organization is silently incurring unnecessary, wasted costs.
One way to effectively manage your print and document management systems is to implement managed printing solutions. There are lots of managed print service providers in the market, but only a few of them may have the qualities that make them capable of delivering the results your business needs. To be able to identify the right one, you should know the elements that make a managed print services provider stand out:
1. Consolidation Skills
One way to garner significant savings on printing costs is to use a single multifunction printer and place it in a strategic location as a replacement for a number of desktop printers. This works to conserve energy and office space and enables you to streamline your supplies into one or two types of toner instead of ordering various types of consumables for different printer types.
2. Proactive Service
Technology is a complex thing but it works to make things simpler for us. It is even able to clearly define the difference between vendors and partners. When you sign up for an agreement with an MPS provider like us, we become your partner and not a mere supplier of goods and services. Additionally, partnering with an MPS provider qualifies your business to take advantage of these perks:
- Regular preventive maintenance services
- Remote monitoring of all of your networked printing and copying devices
- Identify and arrest issues before they escalate into a problem
- Thorough checking of devices that require service, and
- Interaction with your key IT personnel and train them on the proper operation of covered devices
Proactive service is a standard practiced in managed print services. It is a replacement for the old break/fix model which only involves troubleshooting and repair of specific devices that break down.
3. Security Consciousness
Document security is a top concern for many businesses even before the advent of print management.
Modern multifunction printers like the ones supplied by Konica Minolta printing solutions are designed to contain an immense volume of data. Printers can be vulnerable to security breaches, especially if they are made part of a shared multifunction printer environment. This can lead not only to sensitive data loss but possible loss of a company’s business resources.
When choosing a MPS provider, you should be on the lookout for one that makes comprehensive security assessment a part of its package. A reliable MPS provider should be able to provide its partner companies with secure printing solutions which prevents printers from printing documents unless the user supplies it with important details to make it run.
4. Skills and Competence
An effective print management solution can provide any business regardless of size with access to the latest printing technologies to enhance their employees’ skills and capability to be productive. Changes in business management has made it possible for employees to telecommute and use their own equipment like laptops and other word processing and computing devices. But this doesn’t mean that their printing needs are gone. With that said, it is important to equip your workers whose responsibilities include printing documents with the right skill sets to keep their productivity on top. It is one of the most useful results of working with a good MPS provider.
5. Scalability
Print infrastructures like the ones produced by Konica Minolta printing solutions keep evolving and they become more complex for untrained hands to manipulate. An excellent MPS provider keeps itself abreast of the latest developments in the industry and is always ready to provide its clients with productive and cost saving solutions for their growing needs.
Implementing managed printing solutions is an investment, but it is something that will optimize the performance of your print environment, reduce or eliminate wastes and improve the productivity of your staff.
Allow us to conduct an evaluation of your printing infrastructure and we’ll tell you how we can optimize your systems. We support big names in the industry like Konica Minolta print management solutions because we know that we have what it takes to uphold their brand. We always strive to achieve excellence in everything we do.
Call us toll free at 1.844.633.3050 for a consultation today!