How To Make Managed Print Services Work To Your Advantage?

Your business could be losing money from mismanaged printing resources. Even if you have a detailed record of your printing consumption, you might still be losing more than you can tell. Some hidden costs like fees from printers for lease professionals may not be properly accounted and could really result to a huge budget loss.

One way of evaluating your printing needs is through Managed Print Services or MPS because it can help monitor and assess each of your departments’ printing behavior. The MPS will provide a data for analysis to avoid cash-flow issues because the reality is, some departments could be printing more but generates lesser income while others may not be generating any value at all.

There are ways to use the print management to your advantage, so you can avoid any possible business loss.

Establish a company-wide print policy.

As an organization, it is best to have a print policy implemented in the work area. More than anything else, it will promote transparency as well as manage out unnecessary printing activities that could be eating up your budget.

Imagine half of your employees printing out copies of emails they receive, which is totally unnecessary when they can easily go back to those messages anytime they need through their email. Educate your employees on which documents need a physical hard copy from those which can be kept online. Giving them the power to decide on their own is not a problem as long as they have been made aware on the value of your resources.

If a policy is implemented, make sure to make this transparent. Each of your employees should understand the reason for the policy. Otherwise, it would just be taken as another restriction from the management.

Manage all hidden costs.

The cost of getting a printer does not stop after the purchase was done. Printing supplies like toner, ink, and paper has to be considered. Another hidden cost associated with printers is the cost for repairs and servicing.

A single printer downtime, where repair is needed, is an extra cost to your budget. In order to avoid this, make sure to assign a maintenance team to regularly check and inspect the machine. It will address small issues, so they do not develop into bigger problems in the future. It is also important to conduct a short product training on proper care and handling of the machine.

Securing data collected from each printing job is very crucial and it is also the same for printed output. Never leave any printout on the tray for a long period of time, especially if you are printing sensitive business or customer personal information. Any business is susceptible to information security breach.

Adjust internal document workflows.

It may seem harmless but in the long run, unnecessary steps in your document workflow can cost a lot. Review the internal workflows and remove irrelevant steps, which require printing of hard copies. If documents can be distributed online through emails, then it would take a load off from your printers for lease costs.

You can also evaluate between printing and scanning. A good example is a copy of customer application. Instead of printing a copy to send to the accounting office, you can just scan it and send the document through email.