When your printer breaks down, you can run to a printing company to get the job done. However, that’s not always possible – especially if your business relies on printing, scanning, or faxing. Yet repairing your machine may take time.
In such situations, a company that provides managed print services will ensure that your workflow isn’t disrupted by malfunctioning printers. These companies will meet all your printing needs.
In this blog, we’ll explore these services and how they can help you with your print-related tasks.
What Are Managed Printing Services?
You can receive these services from a third-party company that can help you optimize your printing. It’s a collection of solutions that help you understand your printing needs, assess your current situation, and help you simplify and minimize your processes. With the information they gather about your printing activities, they can help you transform your workflow to reduce cost and waste.
Furthermore, these services extend beyond printers only. The service provider can also help you manage scanners, fax machines, and copiers.
Exploring Managed Print Services Solutions
A third-party company can help you in the following ways:
- Track and Resolve Issues: They can track problems in your machines, procure new parts, and service your devices as needed.
- Track Use of Supplies: They can analyze your supply use, alert you when you need to purchase new supplies and send them to you.
- Train Employees: The service provider will train your staff to ensure they can use these machines and their associated applications.
- Authentication Procedures: They can install security features to ensure the correct individuals collect printed documents, including sign-in keypads
- Audit and Consultation: You can rely on them to give their opinion on your workflow and suggest ways to make it more efficient and sustainable.
- Secure Disposal: They can give you access to features that will dispose of critical information securely. This could be for physical prints and digital data. For instance, they could install automatic hard drive wiping to prevent cyber criminals from collecting information.
- Facilitate Remote Use: They can install features that allow remote workers and staff outside the office to use your printing machines and applications.
- Assess Machines: The third-party company will gather analytics on your printers and associated applications. Then, the service provider will determine whether they’re operating efficiently. If they’re inefficient, they’ll inform you that you should purchase a replacement or an upgraded version.
The Benefits of Managed Print Services
From government offices to hospitals to universities, many organizations and businesses use large quantities of supplies and printing machines. Managing them can be taxing on your workflow. Since these services take over most of the management of this equipment, they’re convenient for these types of businesses.
More specifically, here are the benefits your business could receive by using these services:
Increased Efficiency
The first benefit you’ll receive when you use these services is an increase in your efficiency. These services allow your staff to focus on your core operations instead of having to dedicate time to repairing and tracking supplies. Since they’ll quickly repair your printer and equip you with better machines, your printing will increase speed and quality, allowing your staff to work more efficiently. Moreover, your employees will be able to work from anywhere using these services’ cloud-based applications.
Furthermore, when they assess your printing, they’ll help you eliminate paper-intensive tasks. Then, you can digitize them and make them easier to access for your staff. Alternatively, if you often repeat these print jobs, they’ll facilitate automating them.
Reduced Cost
With these services, you can reduce printing costs. As they assess your workplace, they’ll determine your printing needs and how you can meet them with the least number of equipment. Then, you’ll reduce your expenses further since you’ll only buy the supplies you need. Plus, you can create more accurate budgets for your supply and equipment use.
Enhanced Sustainability
Another advantage of managed print solutions is that it helps your business be more sustainable. When they assess your business, they’ll be able to inform you of which activities you can switch to a digital version of and which machines you can upgrade. Then, you’ll use less supplies and energy. Additionally, their assessment will show you where your workflow creates unnecessary waste.
Improved Security
Lastly, these services can help increase the security of your data. If you’ve connected your machines to an internet network for ease of remote printing, they’re at risk of hacking. So, these services help you monitor who accesses these machines, ensure that only the right person picks up a sensitive printed document, and alert you if there’s been a breach.
What to Consider when Selecting Your Printers’ MPS
Knowing how beneficial these services can be, it’s clear that, as a business, you should rely on them if you handle sensitive information or print often. However, these third-party companies aren’t equal.
To ensure you select a third-party provider that will offer all of these benefits, you should consider the following:
- Security: They should have features to help protect your data from theft and cyber attacks.
- Scalability: Their services should be able to scale up and down as you need.
- Assessments: You should verify that they’ll offer you analytics reports on your usage so that you can make sound decisions.
- Sustainability: Since the creation, use, and disposal of printing machines and supplies can harm the environment, you should seek services to help offset this damage.
- Remote Features: They should have features that help you digitize and manage documents online to increase collaboration and productivity.
Conclusion
Now you know that third-party companies manage print services to optimize your workflow. They manage your printing activities from an initial audit to the day-to-day issue resolution and replacement of machines and supplies. Moreover, they can help safeguard sensitive information and ensure sustainable printing.
By taking on these tasks, third-party service providers enable you to focus on your core operations. In addition, your employees can be more efficient since the machines they’ll use work faster. These services offer solutions that can reduce your printing costs while giving you access to modern technology.
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