Why You Can’t Afford to Go Without Managed Print Services

Printing can be an expensive and wasteful process, and even a potential security risk, when not managed properly. This is where outsourcing it could help save your company money, while tightening up your current printing processes.

Reactive Versus Proactive Printer Management

Medium to large businesses monitor their costs when it comes to IT, human resources and almost every other area of the business. So why should printing be any different?

Does your company take a reactive approach to printing? Does it only order ink cartridges when the current ones run out, service the printers when they malfunction and replace technology on an ad hoc basis. Not only does this approach waste money and limit productivity, it could also put your business at risk of a data breach.

If this sounds like your company, maybe it’s time you invested in managed print services (MPS).

Seeing the Bigger Printing Picture

MPS is a way of outsourcing the whole printing process to a third party. The selected company analyses your business and tailors a printing solution specifically to your needs. This includes which printers to use, when to service them and how often to replace consumables such as ink and paper.

By leasing the equipment, providing regular servicing and continually reviewing and improving the service it provides, MPS means you don’t have to worry about maintaining your printer fleet. Let’s look at some of the other advantages:

Reduce Business Costs

MPS allows your business to see the total cost of ownership for all the devices in your print environment. This will ultimately help your business consolidate your fleet of printers, photocopiers and scanners, and jettison or upgrade unnecessary or inefficient devices.

Improve Security

As well as providing enterprise-level devices that have built-in authentication protocols, an MPS provider can encrypt device data and ensure that only those with permission can access confidential information.

Manage Devices Remotely

Your managed print supplier should provide you with remote access to your print fleet, meaning you can access your device from anywhere with an internet connection.

Reduce Your Environmental Impact

An MPS solution means you can limit paper use and wasted supplies to reduce your impact on the environment.

More and more companies are embracing MPS. In fact, according to Transparency Market Research, the global MPS market is currently worth around US$31.5 billion (AU$40.49 billion). This figure is predicted to rise to US$95 billion (AU$122 billion) by 2024.

Challenges to Overcome

There are some challenges in convincing management to adopt MPS. Some don’t see printing as a high-value area of IT, while others balk at the cost. While it will require an initial investment, the savings can quickly outweigh the costs.

One major US university used MPS to cut its paper use by nine million pages a year. This 22 per cent reduction saved the university US$500,000 (around AU$650,000) annually. Meanwhile, 3M Australia used MPS to reduce its number of printers from 130 to 72, and automate document processes, saving it AU$170,000 a year (around US$130,000).

By taking a proactive and holistic approach to printing, MPS can help streamline your business, cut costs and provide valuable insights into your processes. The question isn’t can you afford MPS, but can you afford to go without it?