It’s tempting to want to keep printers in the office until they conk out. After all, you want to get your money’s worth out of them.
But here’s why it might be time to upgrade: Printing costs skyrocket as equipment becomes outdated. For one, getting replacement parts will be harder to find when any components break down.
Because of this, the cost of replacement and time it takes for a new part to arrive can be a major setback on budget and efficiency.
And it’s not just the parts that get expensive. Manufacturers may no longer produce the same ink cartridges, making it harder to track down the cartridge you need (and ballooning the price of it too).
In fact, you can often upgrade to a brand-new printer for less than the cost of maintaining the old one.
Current Printers Can’t Keep Up
Anytime your business expands, you’ll find that you need more printers to keep up with the increased workflow. Have you noticed that more and more people are huddling around the office’s printers–forced to wait their turn? That’s a major visual cue that your office is ready for more printers.
On the other hand, it’s also likely that you look around the office and notice a bunch of desktop printers sitting around, barely getting used. This can happen when businesses jump the gun by assuming every staff member needs their own printer. Instead of this improving efficiency, it can actually just lead to unnecessary extra costs.
In this case, you might just need to consolidate these printers into a single, more advanced machine that can handle it all.
Printing Security Hazards
Small businesses are extremely vulnerable to hackers. In fact, they have become a favorite place for hackers to target. Hackers know that small businesses don’t take the same precautions that larger organizations do, making it easy for them to “break in” and steal any private information they need.
One of the worst things that come from out-of-date printers is the lack of security. Old printers either won’t get the same attention from software updates, or don’t have the latest security measures built in to keep up with the newest hacking methods. Newer printers have authentication and encryption to make sure that company data stays inside the company.
Benefits of Scaling Your Print Fleet with Managed Print
Scaling your printer fleet isn’t as simple as just “adding more printers.” It takes a bit of planning to figure out the right needs for you. Too many printers can be just as cost heavy as not having enough. Here’s how managed print can make your office more efficient while saving costs.
A Perfect Print Fleet
Unless you’re a printing expert, it can be challenging to assess which machines you need and exactly how many. Managed print will inspect your equipment and monitor your workflow, so you’ll have concrete reports on where to improve your printing productivity. Need more printers? Or do you need to consolidate by investing in less but better equipment? Through pinpoint analysis, you’ll know the right answers and have the best solution to maximize your workflow.
Improved Efficiency
It’s not fun having to keep tabs on where every printer came from and then having to chase down the different vendors who can fix each printer.
A managed print service takes the weight off your shoulders by taking care of all your printers for you. They keep each printer performing at maximum efficiency, refill the paper and ink before it runs out, and ensure that every printer has strong security protections in place.
And as your business grows, they can give you advice on how to better manage that growth. You’ll never have to wonder if you have too many or too few printers.
Saves Money
Because your office will be running at peak performance, you’ll only be spending the money you need to continue scaling your business. There won’t be any unnecessary expenses that come from having the wrong amount of printers, expensive outdated parts, or security failures. You’ll know that every dollar is being put to good use.
Conclusion
It can be challenging to have to manage a print fleet along with all the other tasks you have on any given day. Managed print takes the load off your shoulders by keeping your office flowing at the perfect pace. What’s more? They can even optimize the performance of your print fleet as your business grows, scaling your fleet to match your needs at every level of your business.
Have you found that your printer setup is working against you? Let’s turn that around together. Contact HGi Technologies to find out how managed print can take your print fleet to the next level.