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If someone in your company needs to print something, there’s a good chance everyone in the office is hooked up to a network printer that gives them the ability to print what they need. But exactly how much is this capability costing your company? The truth is, most businesses don’t know how much they spend on printing, as close to 90 percent simply don’t keep track of printing costs. However, those costs do add up. In fact, research shows the average employee’s printing costs a company $1,200 a year. There are also costs associated with maintaining these printers, as IT departments spend about 15 percent of their hours dealing with printer-related issues. Thankfully, there’s a way to lower the cost of printing, as well as reap a number of other benefits related to your print environment: Managed Print Services (MPS).

An Introduction to Managed Print Services

Many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) attempt to manage their printing needs themselves, putting the responsibility of maintaining and servicing their devices in-house. Unfortunately, many of the employees tasked with this burden are not trained and certified in this area. However, when your company partners with an MPS provider, you’ll pass the responsibility of managing your printers to a team of experienced professionals. As a result, access to this expertise will allow you to benefit from:

• Optimal hardware placement – your devices will be placed in the optimal location(s) for maximum efficiency in your workflows

• Remote and onsite service – Your MPS provider will be able to do much of the maintenance on your printers remotely for faster service, as well as come into the office when the occasion arises
• Automatic supply replenishment – Never run out of consumables such as ink or toner again in the middle of the job, as your devices will be remotely monitored, and replenishments will be sent before you need them
• Access to usage reports – Gain insight into who is printing what to identify and eliminate wasteful printing
• Cost monitoring and control – With a clear picture of your printing environment and its costs, you’ll have the opportunity to find potential savings.
• Support desk access – Take the burden of repairing or servicing your devices from your employees and pass them on to service professionals who will respond to and resolve your issues promptly
• Printer replacement – Upgrade or replace out-of-date, obsolete, or inefficient devices for the latest, greatest technology with the features you need
• Periodic reassessment – Regularly reviews of your printing environment provide opportunities to further improve your workflows

Additional Benefits of Managed Print Services

In most companies, printers are used across departments, and printing privileges are assigned to employees based on business needs. When managed internally, several different departments get involved. The company’s IT department will manage security and maintenance, management will attempt to control volume and access, and yet another department will keep track of supplies such as paper and toner. That’s a lot of chefs in the kitchen, and all these various departments don’t always communicate as efficiently as they could, partly because they need to tend to the various other aspects of their jobs as well. However, with Managed Print Services, you eliminate all of this from your employees’ plate, with your MPS provider handling it all for you.

Another key area in which Managed Print Services benefits businesses is by providing them with a clearer picture of their printing environment. Your MPS provider be able to give your reports on things such as who is printing what, which devices are being used, how much color printing is done in comparison to black and white printing, etc. This data enables you to understand how your devices are being used, enabling you to determine whether they are being used efficiently. For example, if your accounting department on the 2^nd floor is printing the majority of the documents sent to a printer on the 1^st floor, you’d likely benefit from moving that device closer to the accounting department. If users who only print internal documents with no graphics or images are constantly printing in color when black and white will suffice, perhaps their access to it should be terminated to save you on ink or toner. If a certain user is printing ten times the amount of any other employee, maybe it’s time to talk to them about wastefully printing unnecessary documents. Having this kind of information at your fingertips helps you make smarter decisions for your business to optimize workflows and reduce spending.

Why MPS Is Right for You

If your company needs to print documents on a regular basis and share equipment between departments, then investing in Managed Print Services is a good idea. It is a great way to centralize the equipment and related print resources within your company, ensure you have access to efficient devices, and assure that your printers achieve maximum uptime. It makes it less likely that time is wasted, deadlines are missed, and employees are too distracted by your printers to focus on more meaningful tasks.

Time is money, and having your employees operate more efficiently saves money in the long run. New technologies develop all the time that help make our lives easier and our businesses more efficient, but it is time-consuming to keep up with everything. When you work with an MPS provider, they’ll be the ones to manage your printing environment, keeping informed about important innovations you can take advantage of to further improve your productivity.

If your Houston-area company has been struggling to manage its document output, Managed Print Services would be a breath of fresh air. To learn more about what MPS can do for your company, contact Stargel Office Solutions today!