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Why you need a print management strategy

Having recently attended a great seminar on the future of print print word in letterpress typemanagement and mobile printing I wanted to share some of the insights I learn’t.

Many strive toward the paperless office, and for some it is a utopian ideal.

But documents still drive many of our document processes.

According to the Garner Group office printing represents 1-3% of a company’s annual revenue, which means that a $10 million company will spend between $100,000 to $300,000 on document printing.

If you don’t know:-

What is print costing you?

Who are the biggest users of print?

Then you need to have a print management strategy.

Although figures suggest that office printing volumes are declining it doesn’t take into account the increasing trend in BYOD.

cloud printingWith increasing demands for mobile print solutions and employees working where they want, why should that not include printing what they want?

Office culture is one of the primary reasons companies don’t change their print and paper practices.

The exponential growth in mobile devices and their prevalence in multichannel servicesmeetings could make you believe that the use of paper is almost archaic and yet office practices result in many of us printing off that report or information for a meeting ‘just in case’ technology or the lack of internet connection fails us.

paper stackNot surprisingly many companies don’t know what they spend on print, hardware/software and support. Given that documents drive paper processes it makes sense to know what your annual print spend is.

Not knowing how many printers are in use across the office building, how they are being used and their associated running costs makes understanding the print spend almost impossible but it also means that the organisation may not be delivering what departments really need in the way of document output.

Organisations, Universities, Councils all like print solutions because it enables them to show how much they have saved on print and paper usage.

What is produced is done so wisely and not at the expense of the taxpayer.

Outsourcing print to cut costs whether in the form of print management or managed print services ensures transparency of print costs, an increase in management control over printing, a complete audit review of what is being printed when and on what device.

A managed print strategy means:-

1. You don’t need to buy new equipment

2. You need to understand what you have and how it is used – what volumes are printed and by whom?

3. Only then consider outsourcing the management of your devices using a print management or MPS (managed print service)

4. With your office devices being managed by a print management provider quarterly reviews of print volumes will ensure that recommendations will be put in place to optimise your printing.

Your company has a business plan right?

It also has a marketing plan that determines when and what you are going to ‘sell’ to your target audience?

You probably have an HR strategy if you are more than 5 people so why would you not have a print management strategy?

Even if it forms part of the marketing budget, you need to understand the cost of print and what that means to your bottom line.

If you don’t know what you are spending on print then how can you manage what and where you print effectively?

 

 

Related posts:

  1. How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.
  2. Managed Print Services – How to manage your print costs!
  3. Managed Print Services – How to control your print costs
  4. Print Management Solutions for Professional Service Companies.
  5. Secure print tracking software and why organisations need it.
Document Management, Managed Print Services, Managing Print Costs, Print Management, Secure Print Management

Secure print tracking software and why organisations need it.

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Integrated print management software ensures printed documents are secure and remain confidential.

Secure printing for any organisation is vitally important where sensitive information is concerned. Using secure print tracking software is essential in maintaining an organisations credibility.

Any breaches of the Data Protection Act of 1998 can lead to fines issued by the ICO (Information Commissioners Office).

Professional services companies and local government organisations are particularly susceptible where client data is concerned.

The days when reams of paper were left discarded at the printer should be long gone; leaving confidential information for anyone to pick up and read is careless in today’s office environment.

Sensitivity of data is paramount particularly in departments of local government such as childrens’ services who deal with sensitive data on a day to day basis.

Implementing a secure print management solution and secure network printing ensures that only the person who prints the information can collect and view it using user authentication.

Case study

For one City Council this proved to have a serious effect on the department and yet the situation could easily have been avoided. Two case workers who work with vulnerable children, printed reports to a shared network printer with no secure print software in place.

The first case worker was trying to print a report on child A but the device failed to print, the case worker left with the print job still in the print queue.

The second case worker then went to print a report on child B from the same device by which time the first case workers report had actually printed.

Both prints outs were collected by the second case worker who mistakenly and unknowingly picked up papers relating to child A.

As a consequence of this, the mother of child B was sent personal details of both child A and child B. This was reported to the ICO and the city council.

The mother of child A was also contacted by mother of child B and advised of this breach in confidentiality.

This incident happened because of human error; it wasn’t done intentionally but in this instance it caused embarrassment to the council. The incident was further compounded by the lack of secure print management software. The printing and despatch of sensitive data to clients did not include adequate checks.

Steps taken

As a direct result of the mis-management of information the council installed a new printing procedure requiring staff to enter an ID at the device before their documents can be printed and released.

Any documents which are not printed within twelve hours are auto-deleted from the print queue. This removes any unwanted print jobs from the system.

“Integrated print management software ensures printed documents are secure and remain confidential” 

Setting up print management software that networks printers and MFPs (multi-functional printers) is the the most effective way for safe guarding against print mis-management which can potentially lead to data protection breaches.

Print tracking software saves time and money and is the easiest way of avoiding data protection breaches.

Print tracking software saves time and money and is the easiest way of avoiding data protection breaches.

Benefits of print management software

  1. User authentication before the print job starts means that only authorised people can collect their finished print jobs
  2. By enforcing print rules, print jobs can be allocated to the most economical and efficient printer
  3. There is a potential print saving of up to 30% on print costs
  4. With an effective print management tracking solution in place, printed jobs are only printed when authorised reducing paper wastage and complementing a greener office policy

If you require more information on how setting up a secure print management solution or print tracking software can help your organisation save money, enhance confidentiality and reduce print costs then contact Digital Print Management on: 01234-271156.

You can follow us on twitter, facebook and connect with us on linkedin for regular updates and news.

 

 

Related posts:

  1. How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs.
  2. What is Print Management?
  3. How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.
  4. Print Management Solutions for Professional Service Companies.
  5. How print management saves time and money.
Document Management, Managed Print Services, Managing Print Costs, Print Management, Secure Print Management

How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.

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By implementing a managed print service strategy that saves time, money and is ‘green’.

I recently wrote about the differences between managing your print in-house V outsourcing/print management.

Here! Two similar sounding models yet distinctly different!

In the article, I refer to the management of print in-house often referred to as MPS (Managed Print Services)

The lines become easily blurred when talking about print management and MPS?

Many businesses don’t really understand or know the true cost of printing and often there is no method employed to manage and control print spend.

How can you take control of this seemingly mundane yet essential everyday business function?

Take Control of your print NOW!!

managed print services VS print management

Why implement an in-house print management  system?

Simple!

  1. To manage and recover costs
  2. Be able to print anywhere but with the right control mechanisms in place
  3. Reduce paper waste
  4. Increase productivity
  5. Reduce adminstrative costs
  6. Improve profitability by removing the hidden cost of printing and making it visible
Before I continue I should point out that a print management software/hardware solution employed in-house is not the same as print management and outsourcing all your finance/corporate printing.
Whilst the two sound similar and do cross paths, print management is a unique discipline that includes outsourcing anything from a business card, cheque to pens, mugs, mouse mats and all your finance/corporate print.
Managed Print Solutions are about managing the document process and print such as the printing of emails, photo-copying and document archiving in-house.
Implementation of an effective managed print program can see businesses reduce print costs by up to 30%.
Statistics can so easily be manipulated but for the purposes of this article let me provide an example of a US bank that implemented a strategic print management process and removed some 88 million print impressions, cut colour printing by just under 50% and paid for the initial investment within 8 weeks of it being set up. Impressive!

print management

How does it work?

A suite of print management software tools designed for companies, universities and commercial enterprises installed on your network that help you take back control of what you print by monitoring, measuring ongoing management of print activity.
The software is designed to gain a clear picture of what a company needs and then involves the deployment of the proper equipment to meet these needs.
It also helps employees become more aware of their printing habits and enforces print policies where necessary such as routing jobs to the most cost effective devices or by limiting the amount of colour printing.
Using print management software brings accountability and control of printed output to an enterprise, school, university, law practice, and accountancy firm.
User level reporting hi-lights awareness of print habits, costs and helps influence print behaviour to make employees think more before they hit the PRINT button.
It is a simple one step solution which keeps track of output from all connected printers and copiers by providing:-

Take control of your printed output!

  • Accurate – information for all print and copy costs
  • Secure – only releasing documents for output after users authenticate at the device
  • Mobile –  allowing users to send files to print from one location then pick them up across the building or campus
  • Green –  as it can discourage waste and enforces rules for  output
  • Reduce –  print/copy costs and waste around the organisation
  • Redirect –  large jobs +50 pages to a high volume multifunctional product (MFP)
  • Eliminate –  unnecessary printing by allowing users to delete jobs sent in error
  • Auto delete –  jobs in the print queue so they aren’t printed
  • Duplex printing – colour prints
  • Works with existing printers MFP’s and copiers
  • Adapts to any size

How do you regain control of your print spend and reduce print and paper costs?

managed print services

Easy. Click here and one of our advisors will call you.

You will find us on Twitter, facebook, linkedin, google+ and pinterest. Our updates are posted in your favourite social media platform for reading

 

Related posts:

  1. What is Print Management?
  2. Secure print tracking software and why organisations need it.
  3. How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs.
  4. How print management saves time and money.
  5. Print Management Solutions for Professional Service Companies.
Document Management, Managed Print Services, Managing Print Costs, Outsourcing, Print Management, Secure Print Management

How print management software saves you money.

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How to automate print in your company employing print management software.

Most companies have the option to insource or outsource their document printing and manage document flow thereby managing print costs.

Print management software helps companies gain control and management of their printing to reduce costs, increase document security by automatically enforcing printing rules, authenticating users and identifying and allocating document costs.

I’ve exemplified the benefits that can be had by outsourcing documents and demonstrated effective ways where organisations can save money.

But, what if an organisation can’t or simply wont outsource these business processes due to system limitations or compliance to a specific process and or system?

Like every story there are always two sides.

What can a company do to ensure its paper flow is…

kept flowing?

Implementing a strategic print management software application can ensure you automatically control and manage how print flows through your organisation satisfying three primary objectives:

  • improve productivity
  • maximise time
  • reduce paper

Using a print management application with effective print controls automates and optimises the way print moves around a building. Setting specific print controls and denying users printing from certain open applications such as email and automatically re-routing that task to the most cost effective printer such as a mono printer rather than an ink guzzling colour cartridge printer can help drive down the print costs for a company.

Industry analysts estimate that over 44% of printing is unncessary. We print things more than once, instead of selecting the pages we print which might only be one page we end up hitting the “print all” button.

Wasted paper, consumables, escalating electricity bills are the hidden costs behind unnecessary printing therefore opting for print management software helps companies regain control and management of their printing to reduce costs and increase productivity. 

By measuring, monitoring and managing print activity, print management software provides a way for companies to gain a clearer picture of a company’s printing needs and then enables the effective deployment of equipment to meet those needs without spending capital on printing technologies that are either inappropriate for the tasks required or are so costly that the ROI will take years.

The deployment of print management software tools within an organisation helps employees become more aware of their printing habits, provides tools to enforce print policies by re-routing print jobs to cheaper printers, reduce print/copy costs, improve document security on the network and eliminate waste and inefficiencies within an enterprise.

What exactly does a managed print service do for a company?

  • An MPS (Managed Print service) tracks print, copy and scan activity company wide
  • Allocate document costs to a department or office
  • Set and enforce print/copy quotas to prevent paper waste
  • Makes printing easy and convenient and more secure
  • Re-direct print jobs to more cost effective devices
  • Reporting functionality which enables a company to keep print costs down

Deploying a cost effective print managed service can save a company money if implemented in the right way.

What do you do to keep print costs down?

What strategies have you employed to reduce the amount of paper that flows through your company?

Let me know what has worked and what hasn’t?

If your company is slowly going under paper then call us to discuss your requirements.

In the first instance we will do a print audit  free of charge.

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If this has been useful drop a comment into the box below we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading.

Related posts:

  1. How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.
  2. Print Management Solutions for Professional Service Companies.
  3. Secure print tracking software and why organisations need it.
  4. How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs.
  5. How print management saves time and money.
Managed Print Services, Managing Print Costs, Outsourcing, Print Management, Secure Print Management

How print management saves time and money.

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20 pund note

A managed outsource printing service = savings for your business

Easy really, the majority of businesses don’t have a clue how much they actually spend on corporate print such as letter-headings, invoices, paper, consumables in fact, anything print related. This is because there is no methodology to managing the process from purchasing, stocking and re-ordering.

A print management company can provide a fully automated and customised print management service which will help measure and control your printing costs.

The first step in the process is understanding how much your current spend is on print this is achieved by carrying out a print audit of the various documents used by the business.

A print management company seeks to understand why and how documents are used, what the order cycle is and whom the suppliers are? From the information gleaned determines the total print spend!

A project manager oversees the whole process from start to finish culminating in a proposal detailing current print costs V cost savings on the various print items ordered.

Emphasis will be to demonstrate cost savings through efficiency driven processes.

Each quarter, a review of the usage of the various items is undertaken to see where further cost savings can be made. Managing your company print, usage and spend should be an on-going process of analysis and review.

Managed Print Services is at the other end of the spectrum to print management and enables companies to manage the flow of print in an organisation.

Equitrac print management allows you to automatically control and manage how print flows through your organisation – improving productivity and maximising time.

Using print management software organisations are able to set up automated print controls and rules to optimise the way print moves around the company.  Employees can be denied printing certain applications such as email by automatically routing jobs to the most cost-effective printer for that task.

For example a solid ink colour device is more cost effective to print obligatory emails and letters rather than a colour-cartridge-guzzling desktop printer for colour runs, colour print can be prevented altogether unless user authorised.

Industry analysts estimate that 44% of printing is unnecessary

  • People are printing things more than once which is wasting huge amounts of money
  • They may send a document to print, then notice an error on screen
  • A document is not at the printer when they go to retrieve it
  • The toner is low or there is a paper jam

This results in wasted paper, consumables and larger electricity bills. Print management software enable a more efficient, leaner and greener print environment.

What do you think? Have you implemented one or both solutions? How have they worked for you? Please do share your success or disaster stories.

To learn more about how you can regain control of your office printing costs, contact us today.

Please do follow us on twitter and facebook, connect with us on linkedin and google+

 

Related posts:

  1. How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.
  2. Secure print tracking software and why organisations need it.
  3. Outsourcing Print Services. How To Manage the Process of Outsourcing Print?
  4. How print management software saves you money.
  5. Managed Print Services. Paper Chasing! How paper has changed in our hi-tech world!
General

Digital Print Management – New Website

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The new Digital Print Management website went live in May 2011.

Whilst the corporate logo and colours remain the same the new site is designed to be informative and thought provoking for visitors by helping them understand the maze that is print outsourcing and by removing the myth that outsourcing can be costly, that it is flexible and will save time!

Related posts:

  1. How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs.
  2. How print management saves time and money.
  3. How managed print services cuts the cost of office printing.
  4. How to save time and money outsourcing your debt collection letters
  5. Why you need a print management strategy