Is your IT department spending most of its time chasing an ever-growing pile of support tickets? It’s a common problem for many organizations.
Instead of working on meaty, long-term strategic projects, IT teams often get stuck in an endless troubleshooting hamster wheel. The truth is, when it comes to printing, many of these tickets are entirely preventable.
By implementing the right policies and automation, you can transform your print environment into a system that largely manages itself. In this guide, we’ll explore how print management software reduces the burden on your staff. We’ll look at everything from driver deployment to self-service solutions that keep your help desk queue empty.
Why is print management so support-ticket heavy?
Print management refers to the systematic control and administration of print services. That includes print policies and protocols, monitoring and reporting, quota management, cost allocation, device monitoring, and network security.
For a lot of organizations, IT becomes the default print management department, but that’s not always the most efficient use of their specialized skills.
Streamlining printer driver deployment
Deploying print drivers across multiple MFDs, locations, and devices can be a pain, especially for decentralized teams. Print management software fixes this by giving sysadmins a unified console to manage all drivers across the network.
It also provides a repository for all necessary drivers, so they’re not floating around in unsecured storage folders, or on USB sticks.
Automating print queue management
Spending most of your time untangling print queues? Some third party print management software, like PaperCut, can automate print queue creation, and even auto-assign print jobs to the most efficient printer on the network (based on location, current load, or any other parameters you want).
This optimizes print resources, cuts down on wait times, and takes work off IT’s desk. Win-win.
Empowering users with self-service solutions
Print management software is mostly directed at admins, but it’s worth remembering there’s an entire User Client side, too.
User clients help transform your print environment into a slick, self-service machine. You can set up software that allows users to check their own balances, toggle pop-ups, and authenticate their own print jobs. The more your users can do themselves, the fewer tickets through to your busy IT department.
Enhancing print security and access control
In any print network, there’s an inherent tension between security and usability. The trick is to design a system that’s robust and secure, but also frictionless. Print management is ideal for this, since it gives IT granular control over user authentication and access controls without creating friction for the user.
You can quickly set up new users, update passwords and PINs, issue swipe cards, and refresh print quotas and balances. What used to take hours is now run through one central, easy-to-navigate dashboard.
Proactive monitoring and automated alerts
Prevention is always more efficient than cure. True in medicine, and true in IT. It’s much faster, cheaper and less painful to proactively monitor and fix your print environment, rather than waiting for something to break.
With software like PaperCut, you can configure custom notifications, alerting you to anything from low ink and toner, to printer errors, to security breaches and application glitches. There are also systems in place that allow sysadmins to proactively monitor and audit their network health.
Managing the complexity of remote printing
Remote and hybrid work have been great for employees. Less so for IT managers, who now have to wrap their systems around various BYO devices, multiple operating systems, unsecured home Wi-Fi networks, and shonky cyber hygiene.
his shift has led to a surge in help desk tickets and potential data risks. With print management, you can easily integrate mobile and remote print solutions, setting up secure cloud-print servers, and allowing employees to print from wherever they work.
By taking print tickets off your sysadmin’s desk, you’re freeing them up for the value-driven tasks they were hired to perform. The move toward an automated system pays for itself through recovered time and increased organizational security.
A well-managed print network doesn’t just save money; it creates a more productive environment for everyone on your team.
Ready to empty your help desk queue?
Speak with our sales team to find out how PaperCut can help you automate your print management and reduce IT overhead today.
