Moving Print to the Cloud: A Buyer’s Guide to Print Management Software

What This Guide Helps You Do

The guide is designed to help you confidently support decisions such as:

• Determining whether your current print environment aligns with cloud
  modernization goals
• Identifying the operational and financial impact of legacy print infrastructure
• Evaluating vendors and solutions with the right criteria
• Building a clear, defensible business case for leadership
• Navigating internal approvals and procurement processes

This guide follows the typical IT purchase journey, from early problem definition and research through evaluation, internal alignment, procurement, and deployment planning.

The Business Challenges

When building a case for change, it helps to connect print management to the broader priorities leadership already cares about. Legacy print infrastructure can create hidden costs, security risks, and operational complexity that work against cloud modernization, cost control, and employee productivity goals.

Understanding these challenges allows you to position print modernization not as a standalone IT project, but as a practical step toward improving efficiency, reducing risk, and supporting future innovation.

The Executive-Level Priorities at Stake

When speaking with leadership, print modernization should be framed within these core business drivers:

Cloud Modernization

Many organizations are moving core systems to the cloud, yet print often remains tied to legacy infrastructure. Aging print servers, fragmented systems, legacy drivers, print queues, and inconsistent device management create complexity that conflicts with cloud-first strategies. It is no surprise, then, that nearly half of enterprises say they are actively looking to modernize print infrastructure to better align with their broader cloud migration efforts. ¹

Cost Reduction

Distributed print environments, unmanaged usage, and limited visibility into print activity
contribute to hidden operational costs. IT resources are often consumed by print-related help desk tickets, maintenance, and troubleshooting. In fact, according to IDC, 35 percent of enterprises say that cost management (reducing print costs, capex vs. opex, financial flexibility) is a top business priority for the print and document environment). ²

Enhanced Security and Risk Reduction

As cyber threats increase and compliance requirements tighten, unsecured print workflows represent an overlooked exposure point. Limited auditing and inconsistent controls can introduce gaps in document security. According to Quocirca, 56 percent of organizations reported at least one print-related data loss in the past year, underscoring just how significant this risk has become. ³

Employee Experience and Productivity

In hybrid work environments, employees expect seamless, flexible access to systems. Yet print environments built on legacy infrastructure often create friction across devices, networks, and locations, leaving employees unable to print when and where they need to. The result is frustration and lost productivity. At the same time, the shift to hybrid work is increasing complexity, with 70 percent of enterprises reporting that keeping pace with print security challenges has become more difficult. ⁴

Sustainability and Waste Reduction

Reducing unnecessary printing and improving visibility into usage supports environmental goals and corporate sustainability initiatives by lowering your carbon footprint. Quocirca cites 37 percent of organizations report that their digitization initiatives are driven by sustainability, rising to 45 percent among large organizations. ⁵

Enable AI Focus and Innovation

Maintaining legacy print infrastructure increases technical debt and diverts IT time toward operational maintenance. Modernizing print can help free resources and create a more flexible foundation for future AI-driven automation and innovation. A recent Quocirca report states that organizations anticipate that AI will transform employee productivity and business operations, with a significant proportion (66%) already increasing investment in AI initiatives by 2030. ⁶

When positioned this way, print modernization becomes part of a larger business conversation about efficiency, risk management, and strategic investment.

Aligning Print with Cloud Modernization

Modern organizations are rapidly modernizing core infrastructure, yet print environments often remain tied to legacy systems and on-prem print servers. This gap can introduce unnecessary complexity, hidden costs, and security exposure within otherwise cloud-aligned IT environments. As hybrid work expands and security expectations increase, maintaining traditional print infrastructure can create operational friction that slows modernization efforts and diverts IT resources from higher-priority initiatives.

Building the Internal Business Case

Successfully moving forward with a cloud-based print management strategy requires more than technical validation. It requires translating operational improvements into business outcomes that resonate across a diverse buying committee.

In many organizations, the primary competitive alternative to cloud-based print management software is maintaining the current environment. Legacy print infrastructure often continues operating for years, which can make the status quo appear acceptable. However, doing nothing typically means continuing to absorb hidden operational costs, ongoing infrastructure maintenance, security exposure, and growing technical debt.

Talking Points by Stakeholder

As an internal advocate, your role is to connect print modernization to broader organizational priorities such as:

• Cloud transformation
• Cost discipline
• Security risk reduction
• Employee experience
• Reallocation of budget and resources toward innovation initiatives like AI

Framing the conversation around these outcomes helps shift the decision from “whether to change” to “how to best modernize.”

When preparing your case, tailor your messaging to your organization’s strategic language. The suggested scripts on the following page are examples. Use your company’s terminology, priorities, and executive framing so your proposal aligns naturally with how leadership already talks about modernization and investment.

In general, modernizing print is a low-risk operational improvement that supports higher-level business outcomes, including cost optimization, risk reduction, sustainability, and reinvestment in innovation. It removes legacy infrastructure, improves security and visibility, and aligns with broader cloud strategy.

A successful business case anticipates the perspectives of a broad buying committee.

*While employees are not typically decision-makers, their experience directly impacts adoption and overall success. Leadership will often ask how a change will affect users, so it is important to proactively address the employee experience. When speaking about benefits for employees, focus on simplicity, flexibility, and consistency rather than infrastructure changes.

Addressing Common Objections

Even well-aligned proposals may face concerns. Preparing responses in advance helps maintain momentum.

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Estimating Cost Impact and Building the Financial Case

To secure approval, you will need to clearly communicate the financial impact of your current print environment. Print-related expenses are often distributed across infrastructure, supplies, and support, which can make the true cost difficult for stakeholders to see. A structured assessment can help consolidate this information and translate it into a clear financial narrative for leadership. By gathering baseline data on infrastructure and print usage, you can quantify current costs and identify areas where modernization may reduce
operational overhead.

This assessment becomes the foundation for your business case. Rather than relying on assumptions, it allows you to present leadership with data on the current environment, estimated cost drivers, and potential savings opportunities.

Inputs Required and How to Gather Them

To generate meaningful ROI estimates, gather data in two primary categories: infrastructure costs and print-related operating costs.

Translating Technical Benefits into Business Outcomes

When positioning a move to cloud-based print management, focus on outcomes rather than features:

• Eliminating print servers reduces operational risk and infrastructure burden.
• Centralized visibility improves cost control and financial predictability.
• Stronger security controls reduce exposure and audit risk.
• Cloud alignment supports enterprise-wide modernization initiatives.
• Reduced maintenance frees up budget and IT capacity for higher-value initiatives, including AI and automation investments.

Separating infrastructure and operating costs helps present a clearer picture to leadership. It shows both the direct savings opportunity and the broader operational inefficiencies tied to legacy systems.

Understanding Existing Managed Print Services (MPS) Contracts

A common way organizations manage printing today is through Managed Print Services (MPS) contracts. These agreements often bundle hardware, supplies, software, and service into a single cost structure, but they can also make it difficult to fully understand what the organization is actually spending.

To build an accurate financial picture, it is important to understand how print is purchased and managed across the organization. This includes:

• Whether printers are leased or owned
• Cost-per-click pricing, including differences between black-and-white and color printing
• What is included in the contract (supplies, maintenance, service levels)
• Whether the organization has standardized on a single MPS vendor or allows individual facilities to manage their own agreements

In many organizations, this information is not centralized. Different facilities, offices, regions, or departments may have their own local MPS contracts, often managed outside of IT. As a result, building a complete view of print costs may require reaching out to individual facilities to identify contract owners and gather details.

Understanding these agreements is a critical step in assessing total print cost. Without this visibility, organizations risk underestimating spend, overlooking inefficiencies, and limiting their ability to make informed decisions about modernization.

Presenting ROI to Leadership

When sharing ROI results, focus on clarity and outcomes. Highlight total cost savings, payback period, and risk reduction, and connect the numbers back to broader business goals such as cost control, security, and operational efficiency. Keep the narrative simple and use the data to reinforce why modernizing print management is a low-risk, high-impact investment.

Evaluating and Validating Print Management Vendors

Once you have secured internal alignment, the next step is selecting the right vendor. Choosing a print management provider is not just about comparing features. It is about identifying a partner that can meet your security requirements, scale with your organization, and reduce long-term operational risk.

Equally important is ensuring the vendor’s platform integrates smoothly with your existing technology environment and operational workflows. The right solution should be compatible with your current devices, identity systems, and infrastructure, while supporting the way your IT team manages and supports the environment today.

A structured evaluation process helps ensure the solution you choose not only meets your technical requirements, but also aligns with your organization’s architecture, operational model, and long-term technology strategy.

What to Look for in a Modern Print Management Vendor

1. Security Posture and Documentation. Demonstrated security controls, clear documentation, and readily available materials to support internal security and compliance reviews.
2. Cloud-Native Architecture. A purpose-built, cloud-native platform designed to eliminate legacy infrastructure dependencies rather than retrofit older, server-based systems.
3. Scalability and Global Support. The ability to support multiple locations and users with consistent performance and availability.
4. Accessible, Relationship-Driven Support. Direct access to knowledgeable support teams and a proactive customer partnership model.
5. Longevity and Innovation Track Record. A strong history, credible customer base, and ongoing product development.
6. Proven Reliability and Uptime. Enterprise-grade availability backed by clear service commitments, with leading providers targeting uptime levels as high as 99.999 percent.

Developing a RFP

Once you have developed and high-level vetted your shortlist of vendors, the next step is engaging procurement. Understanding whether a formal RFP is required, and how to collaborate effectively with procurement teams, can help streamline the process and avoid unnecessary delays.

When an RFP Makes Sense

An RFP is typically appropriate for larger deployments, multi-year contracts, or organizations with strict procurement policies. In smaller or more targeted rollouts, a direct purchase may be faster and more effective. Another option is to purchase through an existing MSP or VAR relationship, which can often streamline the process if your organization already has approved vendors in place. Align early with procurement to determine the required path.

Sample RFP Sections to Include

Navigating Internal Approvals

Securing approval for a new print management solution requires coordination across multiple stakeholders and processes. Understanding approval paths and preparing the right materials in advance can help reduce delays and keep momentum moving forward.

Nearly all buying teams experienced information or capability gaps that slowed decisions, especially during the earliest stages of the buying process.

Business Case Template

1. Priority-Driven Headline: Link the project to an existing executive goal (e.g., “Securing Hybrid Work Infrastructure” instead of “Buying Print Software”).
2. Problem Statement: Frame the issue as a blocker to that priority (e.g., “Legacy print servers create a security gap that blocks our Zero Trust initiative.”).
3. Recommended Approach: Describe the strategy (cloud-based), not the product features.
4. Target Outcomes: Hard metrics (e.g., “Reduce helpdesk tickets by 40%”).
5. Required Investment: Time, people, and budget.

Typical Approval Paths and Stakeholders

The stakeholders involved in final approval often mirror the buying committee you engaged while building your business case. Approval workflows typically include IT leadership, security and compliance teams, finance, and procurement. Depending on the size and scope of the investment, executive sign-off from the CIO, CFO, or other C-level leaders may also be required.

Because many of these stakeholders were part of the earlier evaluation and business case discussions, identifying and aligning with them early helps ensure that concerns are addressed proactively rather than becoming blockers during final approval.

Documentation Decision-Makers Expect

Decision-makers typically look for clear, concise documentation, including:

• A summary of the problem and proposed solution
• Security and compliance documentation
• Cost estimates and ROI projections
• Deployment approach and risk considerations
• Vendor credibility and customer references

Aligning with Budget Cycles and Timelines

Timing is often as important as the solution itself. Align proposals with budget planning cycles, understand procurement lead times, and account for security reviews early to avoid last-minute delays.

Tips for Working with Procurement

Engage procurement early, clearly define scope and success criteria, and share security and compliance documentation upfront. Providing clear ROI estimates and aligning the solution to existing purchasing frameworks can help accelerate approvals and reduce friction.

Security and Compliance Review Considerations

Security reviews often focus on data protection, access controls, encryption standards, auditing capabilities, and overall vendor risk management. Be prepared to clearly explain how print workflows are
secured, how data is transmitted and stored, and how access policies are enforced.

Decision-makers will also look for recognized third-party certifications and attestations, such as:

• SOC 2®Type II
• ISO 27001 and ISO 27017
• GDPR alignment where applicable
• Documented encryption standards and data handling policies

Providing clear documentation upfront helps streamline security assessments and reduces back-and-forth during vendor risk review.

Validation, Proof Points, and Vendor Transparency

Industry-leading vendors support the approval process by providing comprehensive documentation, technical validation resources, and product demonstrations. This typically includes architecture overviews, security documentation, uptime commitments, and customer references.

In addition to vendor-provided materials, it is valuable to review independent peer feedback through trusted review platforms and industry analyst reports. Third-party validation and customer reviews can provide additional perspective on real-world performance, support quality, and overall customer experience.

Many modern vendors maintain a Trust Center, a centralized location where security certifications, compliance documentation, and policies are readily accessible. Leveraging these resources can accelerate internal reviews and provide stakeholders with the confidence that the solution meets enterprise standards.

Conclusion: Turning Insight into Action

Modernizing print is rarely about print alone. As this guide has shown, print infrastructure touches broader priorities that leadership already cares about, including cloud modernization, cost control, security, employee experience, sustainability, and the ability to redirect IT resources toward innovation.

The opportunity is not simply to replace legacy systems. It is to remove operational friction, reduce technical debt, and align print infrastructure with the same cloud-first strategies guiding the rest of the organization.

By this point, you should have the tools to:

• Frame print modernization in terms leadership understands
• Evaluate vendors and solutions with the right criteria
• Quantify the operational and financial impact of legacy infrastructure
• Build a credible path toward cloud-based print management

The next step is translating these insights into a clear proposal that fits your organization’s environment, priorities, and leadership expectations.

Use AI to Accelerate Your Internal Proposal

One way to quickly turn the information in this guide into an internal proposal is to use AI to help structure and tailor your message.

You can start by uploading this guide into your preferred AI tool and using a prompt like the one below.

You can then refine the output by adding details about your organization’s environment, priorities, and leadership concerns.

Modernizing print does not need to be a disruptive transformation. With the right framing, data, and evaluation process, it can become a practical step toward simplifying infrastructure and supporting the next phase of your organization’s technology strategy.

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