Printer technology continues to evolve and these devices have become a more integral part of the office landscape than ever before. Today’s multifunction printers are capable of helping manage document workflow, increase productivity, and decrease waste.
These devices can also be a source of high and confusing costs, inefficiency, and a security risk. Research has shown that nearly a quarter of all IT help desk related calls are printer related.
Here are three questions to consider how your business might benefit from upgraded printer technology and printer services.
1. Do you know what your true printing costs are, and can the print devices you employ save you money?
Most often business owners accept printing costs as a necessity but when asked, they struggle to quantify exactly how much it is costing them. The fact is print related costs are a “leaking hole in the boat” most businesses deal with.
It is not uncommon for organizations to source the least expensive option available to get the job done without really understanding the total cost of ownership. The reality is that modern printers and managed print services (MPS) can significantly decrease these costs.
Monitoring usage, promoting good print practices, and employing print management applications can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve team productivity.
2. We're all scanning, but what happens next?
Scanning from multifunction printers has been around for more than two decades now, but many organizations still use this powerful feature to simply digitize paper to share and archive.
Today’s multifunction printers can not only scan, but they can capture. These devices can serve as the digital onramp to business applications and workflows. Modern intelligent multifunction printers can identify, validate, and route documents automatically without the need for manual interaction.
3. When was the last time you thought about the security of your print devices?
Network security is on the forefront of everyone’s mind nowadays. However, one area that often goes overlooked is network printer security.
A critical part of your organization’s strategic business technology plan should be a renewed sense of security around these devices as they often possess many of the same features as your desktop computer or laptop. Today’s multifunction devices not only receive and disseminate information, they have operating systems, hard drives, embedded applications, and even connect directly to the internet.
Given these similarities, a conscientious business owner must look to secure them in the same fashion as they do other computers and servers in their organization. This should include device authentication and being able to routinely audit their usage.
