One thing is true when it comes to enterprise printing. The bigger your printer fleet gets, the more complex it gets, and the harder it gets to manage.
Managing a large printer fleet across multiple departments presents a bunch of challenges: inconsistent device models, varying consumable needs, complex IT support requirements, onboarding that makes employees’ eyes glaze over. Then there’s the lack of visibility into user patterns and inefficient deployment that often leads to blowout costs and operational bottlenecks – and no one wants those.
This is why everyone needs a well-structured enterprise print management strategy. If you’re looking to standardize your MFD fleet across departments, or even across continents, start here.
Why standardization is key
Let’s start with the obvious stuff. Standardization equals efficiency, and efficiency equals cost-effectiveness. Standardizing printer models and configurations simplifies maintenance, reduces compatibility issues and lowers operational costs. A uniform print environment allows you to streamline stuff like supply management and minimizes security vulnerabilities and attack vectors. By consolidating vendors and device types, IT teams can also improve support response times and provide a consistent printing experience across departments. In other words, you eliminate all the messy real-world problems of trying to run a legacy fleet and new models side-by-side.
Automating print queues and driver deployment
Manually configuring print drivers and queues often results in user frustration and increased IT workload. (Tickets. We’re talking tickets galore). That’s why if you’re consolidating your fleet, we also recommend looking at automating print queues and driver deployment . Automating driver deployment through an enterprise-grade print management solution ensures the correct drivers are installed based on user roles and locations. This reduces the chance of misconfigurations, minimizes those endless helpdesk tickets, and enhances productivity by eliminating printing disruptions. All good things.
The importance of centralized print management
Print management works off a simple principle: one dashboard to rule them all. A centralized print management platform ( hello there ) gives IT administrators full visibility into print operations across all departments, no matter the fleet makeup. From a single dashboard, IT teams can monitor print usage, enforce policies, and troubleshoot issues in real time. This consolidation reduces complexity across fleet environments, improves efficiency, and enhances security by maintaining strict access controls. You can see how all this works with our whizz-bang interactive demo .
Implementing print policies
To wrangle complex departmental printing, it’s usually a good idea to implement consistent print policies across departments. Things like enforced duplex printing, restricting color usage, and implementing user quotas all help to control costs and reduce your environmental impact (we’ve actually set up an Environmental Dashboard , if you want to learn more about ESG reporting). Rules-based printing makes sure that high-volume jobs are directed to cost-efficient devices, ideally within departments, while user authentication features prevent unnecessary or unauthorized printing. All of this stuff leads to measurable savings and sustainability improvements.
Securing enterprise printing to prevent data breaches
Complex printer fleets are kind of a security vulnerability, which is another reason we recommend streamlining and standardizing your printers. But if you are running multiple models side by side, at least support them with robust security features. Sensitive documents left uncollected at printers pose a genuine security risk. That’s why we bang on about secure print release mechanisms, like PIN authentication or ID card scanning; they ensure documents are only printed when the authorized user is present. End-to-end encryption, audit logs, and data loss prevention measures are all good too. For more info on building a secure enterprise print environment, check out our security section .
Supporting remote workers with cloud print
With more and more employees working remotely, traditional print infrastructure has to evolve. It’s why we’ve seen such a surge in cloud print platforms. Cloud-based print management enables secure printing from any location, across multiple devices, without the need for pesky VPN access. This makes it great for complex enterprise fleets. Mobile and BYOD printing solutions allow employees to print from smartphones and tablets while maintaining enterprise security policies and compliance standards, too. In other words, you get the best of both worlds.
The role of analytics
If you can’t see it, you can’t control it. Words to live by. Print analytics provide IT departments with valuable insights into stuff like usage trends, cost allocation, and potential inefficiencies. By analyzing print and user data, organizations can quickly identify underutilized devices, adjust print policies, and allocate resources more effectively. Predictive analytics also help IT teams anticipate maintenance needs, reducing downtime and improving overall print environment efficiency. With the benefits this offers, it’s surprising how many large organizations overlook this. We’ve got more info on print analytics over here .
Integrating print management with your existing IT architecture
To keep things simple, you’ll need to integrate your print management solution with your existing enterprise architecture, including stuff like Active Directory, Single Sign-On (SSO), and cloud collaboration platforms.
Compatibility with enterprise security tools and automation platforms simplifies administration, making IT’s life much easier. It also enhances the user experience and enables organizations to maintain compliance with industry regulations. This is particularly important if you work in healthcare, law, finance, or education. We’ve got an exhaustive list of PaperCut’s integrations and add-ons
over here
.
In summary, an effective enterprise print management strategy simplifies fleet complexity, enhances security, and optimizes costs. By standardizing devices, automating workflows, and integrating analytics, your organization can boost efficiency while maintaining control over your print environment. And as print technology evolves, embracing cloud solutions and security best practices will be key to future-proofing enterprise printing.
PaperCut can help you create the best ongoing and scalable print management solution for your enterprise – contact our team today to chat about your needs!
