Nearly every modern office relies on at least one printer or copier in-house to ensure daily operations and workflows are sustained. But, are you managing your print fleet proactively? If so, who did you task with keeping up with maintenance, repairs, and supply orders? Odds are, that person is probably underqualified to take on such a task. Or are you scrambling to get back to business after your printer breaks and a repair service is called to diagnose the problem, find the appropriate parts, and fix the issue? This downtime can be cumbersome and costly to businesses of all sizes.

Luckily, there’s a solution that addresses both instances above: Managed Print Services (MPS). Adding MPS as a solution to your office will help you better maintain and supply your office equipment while cutting costs and optimizing your print fleet infrastructure. Read on to learn more about MPS and how it can benefit your business.

What is Managed Print Services?

Managed Print Services (MPS) is a third-party service supplied by many printer and copier providers, whereby companies outsource the monitoring, management, and maintenance of its printing needs for you. The result is a more efficient and cost-effective way of handling all your copying and printing needs.

Managed Print Services offer several significant benefits, including:

  • Analyzing print usage – Your MPS provider will take a careful look at your overall print usage, costs of each aspect of your printing, and paper flow enable a business to optimize the efficiency of your printing processes.
  • Choosing the right printer for you – Some printers have much higher operating costs than others. The right MPS provider ensures each print job is directed to the most cost-effective option, based on what is needed. MPS providers also will make recommendations for replacing legacy equipment and making upgrades based on your company’s unique needs.
  • Adjusting printer placement – By changing the placement of your printers, an office becomes more productive and operates more efficiently.
  • Automating supply delivery – Your MPS provider will automate the delivery of printer and copier consumables. This helps your business avoid potential downtime while waiting for the delivery of toner and other supplies.

In addition to all of the above benefits of outsourcing the management of your print fleet to a third-party provider, MPS also helps enhance the security of your overall business data.

How Can Managed Print Services Secure Your Data?

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, someone you know probably has experienced a data breach. The digital sea is filled with cyber sharks engaged in a feeding frenzy, and one of the easiest ways to access your business data is through your outdated copiers and printers. Your print fleet is a gateway into your computers’ information, as they are networked to your IT infrastructure. This includes everything from HR information to credit card numbers to the documents you use for daily work, which, if held ransom, can affect operations and your bottom line.

What’s more are the staggering statistics that outline the reality of cyber threats to your business’s copiers, printers, and, ultimately, its data. Hewlett Packard reports that 64 percent of IT managers suspect their printers are infected with malware, 80 percent of CISOs and IT managers anticipate a major security breach within a year, and annual cybercrime costs are predicted to break $6 trillion by 2021.

Many decision-makers are fighting back against these cybercriminals by aligning themselves with an MPS provider who has the resources, expertise, and time to fashion a print security solution that works. The right MPS will enable your business to:

  1. Understand your current printing environment

An MPS provider considers where your printers are located, if your documents have adequate data encryption, and if proper pull printing authentication is in place (passwords, ID cards, etc.), all of which will help secure your company data.

  1. Ensure your devices are protected

When it comes to determining the complexity of your print and document security needed over the next three years, there are some crucial questions that you need to ask:

  • Is your system scalable?
  • What method can you employ to protect your documents from creation to disposal?
  • Can you lock your printers down quickly?

An MPS provider can help you answer these questions and determine next steps to ensure your print fleet and data are secure.

  1. Evaluate your current hard copy vendors

When establishing third-party relationships, trust is essential. Seek vendors that have the core competency your business needs in content management, document and print workflow, and secure print services.

  1. Identify industry-specific requirements

Specific industries, like health and finance, can suffer steep penalties when compliance rules are not followed correctly. HIPAA laws, for example, have one set of data security requirements while the federal government has others. An MPS provider with experience in your industry is your best bet to ensure all of these standards are met.

Does Managed Print Services Make Sense for Your Business?

If you think Managed Print Services is just for big business or a particular industry, think again. It may surprise you what MPS can do for companies of all sizes and any industry, including yours.

The first step to adding MPS to your business is an assessment. An MPS assessment considers the big picture for your print infrastructure as well as your personnel needs to develop a plan to reduce any inefficiencies, downtime, and unnecessary costs. Every business can benefit from an MPS assessment, particularly growing businesses and those that rely heavily on printed or digitized documents. The assessment lets a business know where they stand and provides suggestions for improvement. When these suggestions are enacted through a Managed Print Services program, a company will realize a more secure environment, reduced costs, and improved printing methods.

Foremost, MPS will optimize your business. Most business owners probably think of cutting back on expenses or better allocating existing resources as a way to optimize their operation. Incorporating MPS as a service to your business is one way to do both.

A great MPS provider tailors what is learned from your assessment to your business goals and needs to ensure your business’ obligations are met. Finding the MPS provider that best suits your needs can be challenging, but the time you spend finding the right partner will be rewarding for a long time to come.

To learn more about implementing Managed Print Services in your business, contact Modern Office Methods today.