Big businesses need a specialized large enterprise print management solution (EPMS). Applications designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs) just won’t cut it.
Enterprise printing is different from printing in an SMB environment due to various factors, including the need to support a greater diversity of users, workflows and devices, integrate with more applications and tools within their existing IT infrastructure, and meet more stringent security and compliance requirements.
Additionally, it may involve specialized equipment and software, which can add complexity to the overall system. Furthermore, an increasing demand for mobile printing and cost control can complicate the process.
To make the long story short, key differences include:
- Significantly more employees printing
- More applications and workflows that need to be supported
- Dozens of printer models and manufacturers
- Offices spread across the globe
- A wider range of employees to be supported (i.e. remote or hybrid workforce, contract employees, etc)
- Massive infrastructure to maintain
- More stringent cybersecurity and compliance requirements
- Cost control mandates
- Unique edge cases that must be supported
Managing large-scale print operations can be challenging for even the most experienced and well-staffed IT teams. If they have gaps in knowledge or are slightly understaffed, this challenging situation may become unmanageable.
In this article, we’ll outline the challenges faced by enterprise organizations and provide insights on how you can tackle them.
Challenges Created by a Complex Environment in Printing
IT Teams
- Processes that don’t easily scale
- Overinflated infrastructure
- Complicated workflows
- Security vulnerabilities
- Too many print servers, print drivers, and print queues to manage
- Help Desk Call mania
Finance Departments
- Unmonitored printing costs
- Non-essential printing
- Over-purchasing consumables
- Security vulnerabilities
- Unnecessary infrastructure costs
- Human capital mismanagement
End Users
- Difficulty adding the correct printer
- Need for rapid support
- Incompatibility issues
- Undue time spent and potential frustration
The Printing Challenges of Mobile Devices
Mobile printing can be more challenging because it adds a layer of complexity to the already complex process of managing and controlling printers. Here are some of the challenges enterprises face with mobile printing.
- Security Concerns: Mobile devices can be more vulnerable if not properly managed, and therefore need more supervision and management to prevent security issues and data breaches.
- Compatibility Issues: It can be difficult to connect to the printers on the network from a mobile device, send print jobs, and then have them print correctly.
- User Authentication Problems: If employees’ mobile devices aren’t integrated into authentication systems, validating their identities can be challenging.
- Managing and Tracking Issues: Print jobs from mobile devices aren’t easy to monitor, which can make reducing costs harder.
- User Training Challenges: While nearly all users understand native printing, not everyone is familiar with mobile printing and might require training, which is difficult in a remote setting.
Business Impacts of Complex Print Environments
Productivity
IT teams become less productive than they could be because they’re dealing with the following problems:
Costly print servers: Print server hardware is expensive to buy and time-consuming to maintain.
Queue and Driver Management: Managing print drivers and print queues puts avoidable strain on IT personnel.
The burden on the Helpdesk: IT teams spend an egregious amount of time fielding print-related helpdesk calls.
Decentralized Management: Manual, one-off processes that don’t scale and a lack of a singular point of control create a time sink for IT teams.
Costs
Enterprises spend more on printing than they should for the following reasons.
Difficult to Monitor Costs: Unmonitored printing and mixed-fleet environments can make it difficult to track printing activity and understand the true cost of enterprise printing.
Overpurchasing: Without first-party insight and an optimized operation, companies default to over-purchasing hardware and consumables.
Time: Complicated print processes require extra time from users and admins. At an enterprise scale, this time cost is extreme.
Cybersecurity
Office printing is often overlooked in an organization’s security strategy–no wonder most organizations confidence in their print security is very low:
Inherent Vulnerabilities: Print drivers require implementation as shared resources in a traditional Windows environment, opening the network to unnecessary risks. In addition, many organizations rely on unencrypted protocols such as RAW and LPR printing for print job delivery.
Document Security: Often documents–even ones with sensitive information– are left unattended and forgotten at the printer for anyone to read.
Hybrid Workforce Support
Hybrid and remote workforces may require printing as well, which can lead to these issues:
Document Security: Ensuring the security of printed documents can be difficult when employees are printing from home.
Cost Control: Tracking and managing printing costs becomes more challenging when employees use personal printers.
Support issues: Supporting a variety of unfamiliar personal printers.
Taking an Efficient Approach to Print Optimization
A centralized approach to managing printing involves using a single platform to manage and control all the printers within an organization.
This approach allows IT staff to manage and monitor all printers from a single application, making it easier to identify and resolve issues, manage users and print queues, and implement print policies.
This differs from a decentralized approach, where printers are purchased and controlled by location or department, with little or no central oversight. A decentralized approach is more costly, and also less efficient and less secure.
How to Streamline Enterprise Printing
No hacks, no tricks — simplifying the enterprise print environment takes strategy, hard work and persistence. In our experience over the last 30 years, the juice is well worth the squeeze.
There’s always room for innovation, and while this list is not exhaustive, here is what many of our customers do to reduce the complexity of office printing.
Implement Print Management Software to Centralize Print Operations
As previously discussed, taking a consolidated approach can help you more easily monitor, manage, and control your business’s printing needs behind a single pane of glass. From managing users, groups, and drivers to setting print policies to monitoring toner levels and fleet, unifying the management of your print operations allows you to do more with less.
Utilizing Cloud-based Printing Solutions
Like many applications, software for managing enterprise printing is now more commonly deployed in a true cloud setting. Cloud-based, serverless printing eliminates the need for on-premise print servers and their ongoing maintenance.
In addition to eliminating onsite print servers, cloud-based solutions:
- Easily scale to accommodate growing numbers of users and devices without the need for significant infrastructure changes
- Better supports the increasingly mobile, remote and hybrid workforce by enabling users to access printing services anywhere with an internet connection
- Enhance security by taking advantage of the latest security frameworks and standards
- Provide a rapid cadence of updates, so organizations can take advantage of new feature functionality and innovation
For more benefits of cloud printing software, see this article.
Standardizing on a Few Types of Printers and MFDs
Scaling down your fleet to a standardized set of printer models can help reduce complexity. That makes it easier to manage and maintain them and drives efficiency in any troubleshooting that will inevitably arise. This takes time and planning, of course, and may be impacted by existing leases or contracts.
Regularly Reviewing and Consolidating Print Infrastructure
Regularly reviewing and consolidating your printer fleet can help you identify and eliminate unnecessary or redundant devices to reduce costs.
This became especially apparent after many companies adopted a hybrid or remote workplace policy. Where five years ago, an entire office could be filled with printing employees, today we might see a half-full office with a stockpile of underutilized printers.
Taking a proactive and ongoing approach to optimizing your print fleet can help remove complexity in the long run and drive user satisfaction and productivity when you have the right size and the right-featured devices in the right locations.
Building in Security
Cloud print infrastructure enhances print security and relieves your IT staff of the burden of securing prints. Well-designed cloud platforms support the latest security frameworks and standards, like zero trust.
Reducing Cost
You can change your users’ wasteful printing behavior by enforcing company print policies and educating users on mindful printing habits with technology. This prevents wastage through repetitive printing or abandoned prints.
Well-designed cloud-based solutions also provide you with the reporting and analytics needed to set goals and track your progress to achieving those goals.
Our Enterprise Print Management Solution
For the last 30 years, Pharos has worked with large organizations to reduce the complexity of their print ecosystem.
While there is no silver-bullet solution to managing the print environment of large enterprises, the right technology can alleviate many of the print-related challenges large organizations face. It can free up time for your team, save money, and remove the pain points your users face.
At Pharos, our goal is to be your enterprise’s most valuable resource for print-related operations. We strive to help you:
- Reduce complexity
- Enhance security & compliance
- Reduce IT burden and cut help-desk tickets
- Make it easy for users to print
- Reduce the cost of printing
In our years of helping large organizations optimize their print environments, we have taken tackling complexity personally. Our long list of customers views us as a partner in their optimization plans as much as a software vendor—and that is how we prefer it. By combining our expertise with your unique knowledge of your business, IT environment, and users’ needs, the complexities of print can be significantly reduced.
As you evaluate your current print environment, don’t hesitate to call on Pharos to leverage our decades of experience and deep expertise.
