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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.

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How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs
Managing Print Costs, Print Management, Secure Print Management

How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs.

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How managed print service reduces print and paper costs

Managed print services allows user authentication,reduces print/copy costs and reduces paper waste.

Installing a managed print service solution offers substantial cost savings by re-routing and managing the amount of paper and printing processed in your office.

One of the frustrating challenges for organisations is reducing the volume of print and paper processing.

The management of paper, print and print devices cost money but often overlooked because they are seen as essential for modern-day offices and not perceived as a true cost reflected on the bottom line.

Recycling paper, implementing a duplex print strategy (printing both sides) or using recycled paper as part of a company’s drive to go green won’t save a company money in the long term.

Dispensing with mountains of paper often secure or confidential information requires the services of a secure disposal company but that all adds to the costs of managing your paper flow.

Many companies believe that office print is necessary and stockpile paper, re-print if there is an error on the printer or PC without any consideration for the environment or the cost implications to the company.

When an organisation analyses when, where and how often paper is used and what the re-ordering frequency is, do the printing costs then become visible?

Implementing a managed print service strategy does help reduce print costs, removes unwanted printing and enforces print rules such as using black rather than colour or simplex/duplex printing.

Companies are overburdened with many print devices – desktop printers, scanners, photocopiers with employees territorial and protective of their printers.

Cost reductions are achievable with a reduction of 3:1 by implementing modern MPS (managed print services) and MFPD’s (multi-functional print devices).

Include sizeable reductions in consumables used across an organisation and the cost savings are evident.

With a mobile workforce, employees want to be able to print anytime and anywhere.

One critical issue that halts the adoption of MPS is security.

Securely printed information runs the risk of being visible to prying eyes without MPS implementation and the management of how and when printed documents are managed in the paper flow is critical.

How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs

Secure print tracking software eliminates confidential information being left on the printer.

  • How do you prevent wasting paper prints?
  • How do you keep printer consumable costs down?
  • What happens to unclaimed documents?
  • How do you print off secure documents without a desktop printer?

By removing the need to rely on a single printer, users are able to divert their print jobs to the most cost-efficient printer and not have to worry about a device being out of service or having to wait for I.T. to resolve the problem.

Using secure print technology with user authentication ensures that the right device is selected, when it is printed and by whom as the print job can only be released when the user authenticates the print job at the device.

A secure document release application and secure print tracking software encourages user mobility, minimises paper waste and protects personal information and customer confidentiality.

Intelligent print rules and routing software removes the burden of the user to decide which printer is best for each job because when the user hits “print” a window pops into view advising the user which printer and what the cost is for the printing of the job.

Implementing an MPS solution will save you time and money in the long term and there are some easy to implement solutions that can be put in to practice without delay in addition to utilising a managed print services solution:

How a managed print service reduces print and paper costs

Managed print services reduce print costs, removes unwanted printing and enforces print rules

  1. Duplex (double-sided) printing get more out of each of the pages you print, print the odd pages first by setting your printer and then print the even pages thus reducing the number of sheets you use; particularly useful for when you want to print notes.
  2. Print using a smaller font/typeface – as long as you can read you will find more content will fit onto an A4 sheet.
  3. Check before you print – the print preview button ensures you see what you are printing. Changing the margins or scaling the document ensures you optimise the whole sheet for printing.
  4. Print only the pages you need – using the print preview button you only print the pages you want. In the print dialog box enter the page ranges required.
  5. You can adjust your page settings by reducing the header and footer and left/right margins enabling you to fit more content onto the page reducing the number of pages printed.
  6. Print multiple pages onto a single sheet of paper using font size 12 which tends to be the default setting, the document is still legible.

Finally, you can significantly reduce your print costs by working with a print management specialist who will evaluate your print requirements and understand your MPS requirements.

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