How Much Are Unmanaged Printers Costing Your Business?

Though office print volumes are shrinking, yet managed print services are alive and kicking. With the correct plan and right approach, IT time savings can always be delivered. Despite the need to go digital, printing operations and paper documents remain foundational in any corporate setting. Organizations invest in print fleets that consist of modern and advanced machines that are well designed to support the various paper processes within the business. However, it is important for every business to understand that printers are not at all a “set and forget” machines. They require maintenance and most importantly, security. Like every other office asset, they are required to be managed.

Few businesses let their computers remain unmanaged and in this process invites a lot of security threats. However, a printer fleet generally represents one of the highly extensive sets of unmanaged assets that an organization owns. And in 2020, that is a real problem. Letting a print fleet unmanaged can be a costly affair and in this regard, managed print services can prove to be extremely valuable.

More than just print

As per a famous white paper by Gartner, the average cost of print estimates between one to three percent of the annual gross revenue of an organization. This makes printing a relatively significant expense for most organizations. Unlike most other business processes, printing generally is often overlooked. That makes it the breeding ground for hidden costs that drive up the operating expenses of an office. What most offices do not realize is that the print environment requires handling a lot of other additional costs rather than just buying a printer, paper and cartridges. Though these certainly comprise the bulk of it, yet costs do add up in several different ways:

• Too much of printing or employees printing their personal documents
• Weak settings and configurations that lead to a misuse of print and paper
• Wrong supplies or supplies disappearing mysteriously
• Energy inefficient devices that add up to the utility bills
• Too much of downtime which is a result of worn out or overworked machines
• IT teams too occupied with other problems and thereby neglecting the issues with the printers
• Unsecured security systems and devices that result in data breaches or information getting stolen by hackers

How does managed print services help a print fleet?

With the help of a managed print service, you can streamline the print fleet of your organization. It will help you identify the inefficiencies in your print environment and is regarded an invaluable option when it comes to reducing your operating costs internally. With the help of managed print service, your business can save money through:

• You can get an expert guidance of selecting the right device. Having a wrong printer in your office is considered as costly as a printer that is broken or constantly worn out. With Managed Print Services (MPS) you can ensure that you get exactly the printing power that you need, not an ounce more and no less.
• Your inventory management becomes easier. Printing supplies do not just take up space but they are not aesthetically appealing as well. They are also prone to disappearing every now and then. Moreover, the difference between two models may generally come down to a single number which would eventually make it easier to purchase the wrong item accidentally. With MPS, you can ensure that neither of this happens by simply managing the supply inventory. As a result, your printers always have what they actually need.
• Accessing controls become easier and there is gradually a reduction in the number of prints taking place per day. It goes without saying that printing less is one of the best ways to reduce the operating expenses of an organization. With MPS, you can ensure that your employees print responsibly and efficiently, only when they actually need to.
• MPS offers an improved security. Printers generally are regarded as the soft underbelly of the security strategy of an organization. They offer easy access to computers and networks. With MPS, you can close this blind spot and secure all your important business information and data.

Well there are actually many ways in which managed print services can help your print fleet as it gives your business total control over your print environment. A productive print fleet is indeed an asset to an organization as it forms the backbone of several crucial and critical business processes. As so much depends on the ability of an organization to make effective and rapid decisions, keeping your print ecosystem optimized is extremely important. ARC’s managed print services help you refine your print environment with which your can not just achieve operational efficiencies but reduce your expense across the board as well – the two things that go a log way in making an organization competitive.