Have you ever asked your IT team how much they like dealing with toner cartridges and print drivers?
Spoiler alert: They hate printers.
I understand where they're coming from: IT departments today are dealing with many important issues for the organizations they serve; managing printers isn't their favorite priority. When I hear an IT professional complain about printers, I always respond by saying, “We love printers!”
Managed Print Services (MPS) offers a better way of managing your printers. Bundling with MPS not only saves you money, but it also saves your employees time and headaches.
How Hard Can Managing Your Printer Fleet Really Be?
You would think copiers and printers are similar enough (if anything, a printer is simpler than a copier), but effective management of copiers differs greatly from that of printers.
An office with unmanaged printers looks like this: You may buy your printer one place, your toner another place, your service somewhere else and somehow must stay on top of all your printer needs and make sure they’re secure. This causes various people at your organization to work with multiple vendors and can lead to wasteful spending.
What Is Managed Print Services (MPS)?
Managed Print Services (MPS) offers a streamlined, trackable way to handle your printers while saving you money and hassle. Many copier companies offer MPS but get the printer side of their business all wrong and end up costing their customers greatly.
Without MPS, the burden of printer maintenance often falls on your IT department, who have more important things to do than handle printer issues.
Most IT departments have a lot to do with helping businesses strategically handle these things, but many are saddled with printer issues that pop up throughout the week. It’s an unnecessary strain, and print drivers, toner orders and printer repair emergencies are far from their favorite use of time. A true MPS vendor has the resources and ability to provide the services to alleviate that strain.
A Checklist for Managed Print Services
An MPS vendor should be equipped to accomplish all of the tasks on the checklist below. Click here to view a printable version of this checklist.
- Assess your current printer environment to identify areas for improvement
- Optimize, manage and oversee all existing and new printers to cut costs and increase efficiency
- Map and strategically place copiers and printers to reduce the total number of devices
- Consolidate multiple vendors into one point of contact across the enterprise to save employees time and duplicate work
- Streamline supply fulfillment by automatically tracking print volume data and proactively shipping supplies when needed
- Proactively monitor printers for frequent breakdowns to determine when to replace
- Align environmental sustainability with real-world strategies that positively impact your profit by saving paper, tracking supply need and use and programming sleep and wake modes to reduce energy use
- Secure your printer environment and ensure compliance to reduce risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks through printers connected to your network
- Reduce the demand printers place on the IT team by taking on the burden of routine printer-related issues (ex: print drivers)
- Monitor, control and cut costs on an ongoing basis with the ability to document ROI in real time
- Train your team on how to use and optimize your print environment with specialized and qualified trainers
- Centralize and manage your printer needs for small to enterprise businesses, whether they are in one location or spread across several states
- Improve workflows and business processes to reduce the associated time, money, supplies and energy involved in managing an inefficient system
- Review and analyze your print environment quarterly to further improve the program
I’ll admit, we get a little obsessed over printers here at Loffler Companies. When you know you do something well, you’re allowed to be over-the-top excited about it.
If you’re looking for a better way to streamline your printer management and cut costs, we can help.
Jim Loffler is the founder and CEO of Loffler Companies. He started the company in 1986 with dictation machines, expanding to faxes, copiers, IP Phones, IT managed services and much more. Today, the company employs over 600 team members in 18 locations in six states, and focuses on long-term relationships. Jim is proud of the many awards Loffler Companies has received over the years, including ten years as one of INC 5000 magazine's "Fastest Growing Private Companies in America." Loffler Companies is also the official technology partner of the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Lynx, Minnesota Wild, St. Paul Saints and the University of Minnesota athletic department. In 2018, Jim was named one of Minnesota’s Top 500 Business Leaders. Jim has been married for more than 40 years to Darcy, his junior high school sweetheart. They have two children, four grandsons and one granddaughter. In his spare time, Jim enjoys golfing, boating, cooking, photography, music and traveling.
