The impact of the internet on our daily lives has been profound and embraced by nearly four billion users worldwide, providing access to information that could only be dreamed about 20 years ago. Information workflows have improved beyond recognition and more and more devices are being connected to the internet to feed data back to central databases. This is the process now labeled as the Internet of Things (IoT).
Managed Print Services have been offered for a decade or more and often involve long-term contracts and complicated legal agreements. However, with office printing costs often being the single largest individual cost associated with running an office, services offered to help manage and control these costs can be quite valuable. In order to extract potential savings, it all starts with the installation of a data collection agent (DCA) on a network that's designed to identify all the printing devices and, over a period of time (typically 30-90 days) how they are used and when the ink and toner supplies will need to be replaced.
Full-fledged managed print programs involving multi-year legal agreements with all printing costs bundled into a cost per page program are not for everyone. However, if a full services program is not for everyone, installation of the DCA and providing a business with the intelligence for efficiently managing its printing devices is an absolute must for every business.
Providing business intelligence for the purposes of replenishment and avoiding downtime resulting from empty ink or toner cartridges and expedited shipping charges or top-dollar purchases for emergencies becomes events of the past.
Even more importantly, collecting the data to provide intelligence for the purposes of optimizing a printer fleet for the users work requirements and for that point in time when replacement becomes a consideration, become a significant means for saving capital expenditures and for reducing ongoing print expenses.
Not all that install a DCA will ever become a customer for full-fledged Managed Print Services but, regardless, all those that do will realize significant improvements in efficiency and reduced costs.