The right print management system can save your business money, increase your environmental sustainability, and improve your productivity. Choosing the right partner is integral to these benefits; working with the right partner who understands your business and its unique needs can make it easy to see results; working with a partner that doesn’t quite get it can mean you don’t achieve the results you were hoping for.
Whether you’re considering a print management solution for the first time or thinking about changing providers, it’s important to do some research to make sure you’re signing on with the right partner.
Here are three factors to consider when choosing your print management system:
1. What objectives are you aiming to achieve?
A print management system can help you significantly reduce costs, gain more visibility and control of printing, implement a chargeback system so you can pass printing costs onto your clients, improve document security, or let team members print from any device. It’s important to understand which of these goals is most important to you so you can evaluate potential partners based on their capabilities in these areas.
The ideal print management system should provide substantial capabilities in all of these areas. For example, it should include functionality such as:
- Authentication that ensures only authorised people can access devices
- Authenticate to print therefore eliminating sensitive documents being left at the device.
- Reporting that lets you audit print, copy, and scan usage
- Governance through a pre-defined library of rules such as forced black-and-white printing, double-sided printing, etc. which saves paper and ink.
- Secure mobile and BYOD printing including guest printing
- Document capture with secure workflows to share scanned documents to defined locations
- Chargeback functionality that drives accurate billing by individuals, groups, or projects
- Secure pull-printing from any printer so users must be physically present for the job therefore eliminating sensitive documents being left at the device.
- Cloud Print Management without the need of a physical connection to printer.
2. What is your budget?
The budget question seems like an obvious one but there are various pricing models that could mean you can gain a print management system for less than you may expect. If your budget is limited or you want to make sure you get the most value for money, it can be worth choosing a provider that offers a print management platform where the solutions are packaged as suites and you only pay for the modules you actually need. This offers the double benefit of saving you money upfront while letting you upgrade or extend your solution as your business needs change.
Similarly, you should look for a provider that offers you the choice of buying licences upfront or paying as you go via a flexible subscription service. This puts more power in your hands.
3. What functionality do you need?
Many businesses initially consider print management solutions to just manage their organisation’s standard printing requirements. However, a comprehensive print management system should help you manage your print environment, document capture, and, potentially, 3D printing:
- Print management: manages your print environment so you can optimise the use of your printer fleet, reduce costs, and streamline reporting and chargeback capabilities.
- Document capture: creates secure workflows that automate paper-based tasks to increase productivity.
- 3D printing: manages 3D printing environments in the same platform as your regular print environment, ensuring safe, secure access to 3D printers for all users.
By considering these three questions carefully, then checking to see whether your potential print management partner can deliver according to your business needs, choosing the right print management system should be easy.
For more information on how Konica Minolta can help you more effectively manage your print environment, contact us today.
