Print Infrastructure Management
Providing a print service and creating documents is quite an important component in the work of each company. The continuity of workflow is increasingly placed in a number of strategically important tasks, because the downtime of the print service can lead to serious consequences. Accompanying shipping documentation, certificates of quality, accounts, registration of product catalogs - there can be many examples, and their maintenance can be a serious burden for the IT department staff. We offer a small checklist that will help to cope with this task.
Evaluate whether the fleet of printing devices available in the company is optimal. To do this, it is necessary to audit the printing infrastructure and processes. In fact, it is necessary to analyze the type of printed documents that are produced in each department, the volume of these documents, the process, the timing and the equipment used to produce it. Everything can be much more complicated than it seems at first glance. It will be necessary to analyze the real sample in terms of print volumes from all printing devices, take into account the seasonality of the production of documents and the uniqueness of each department’s requirements for the quality of the document itself and the possible available options for its creation. We'll have to dive deep enough into the process of creating documents and understand the degree of satisfaction and needs of each department.
Having received these statistics, it is necessary to analyze each model of the printing device and to understand whether the device’s functionality is sufficient, its printing speed, whether the device’s resource corresponds to its actual loads, and also to determine when a model may need to be replaced.
Also an important issue will be the total cost of operating the device and the possibility of reducing the price without losing quality.
Having collected the data, it is necessary to evaluate the information and understand all possible options and ways of changes. At the same time, not all information and tools necessary for collecting statistics and subsequent analysis will be available in open sources. Assess your strength: sometimes it is better to find a company on an outsource that has expertise in a given issue and is responsible for quality than to take on this block of work yourself.
One of the most difficult stages, because it is human nature to be wary of any changes. Regardless of whether employees benefit from innovation or not, any changes in the printing infrastructure will lead to additional troubles in the workflow, which can be a problem for the IT department.
The changes themselves can be carried out both gradually and instantly, but, in any case, the opinion of users must be considered. All the advantages of the updated system should be clearly and clearly communicated to each employee of the company, as well as the goals that the company pursues when implementing these changes. Information letters, trainings and instructions on the use of new devices and software, training administrators and key users, an overview of changes for top management will help you in this process. If all this is included in the process of updating the service, then the work has been done qualitatively. Otherwise, any flaw can lead to certain issues and problems.
It is important to remember that without a constant process of control and management, the print service service loses its meaning. The printing process should be uninterrupted and fault tolerant, the quality of the produced documents should always be at the required level, and users should always have access to the highest possible functionality of the current system. Therefore, the organization should be able to monitor the operation of printing devices and software solutions, immediately respond to any incidents and promptly make changes in accordance with the objectives of the company's main business.
It is also necessary to carefully control the number of incidents related to the print service, the response time to the elimination of the incident data, and the time to restore the service. It is very important to assess the workload: depending on the size of the company and the volume of tasks, all this can mean both the serious time spent by the system administrator and the allocation of an entire department of employees to manage the processes of creating and maintaining documentation.
Another important point to control is the security of the documents produced and the possibility of information leakage. In the end, before each business there are 3 ways to solve this problem: close your eyes to inadequate control, set certain tasks and load your own employees or give this process to management service provider.
Taking into account all the latest technological advances in the production of printing devices and accompanying software, you can implement almost any management wish: printing from mobile devices, automatic document routing after scanning, starting the process as agreed in the internal ERP system, document recognition and searching for certain words notifying the security department, customizing the interface and simplifying the operation of devices before pressing a few buttons, barcoded s and subsequent distribution of documents in folders. This list is limited only to imagination, and the possibility of implementation - knowledge and expertise of internal employees.
In any case, already at the first stages, you can assess the degree of load and decide: whether you are able to cope with the task inside or is it worth outsourcing. And we will modestly remind you that we can help you with this.
If you have any questions, please contact in private messages or comments. We will be happy to answer!
Evaluation of current performance
Evaluate whether the fleet of printing devices available in the company is optimal. To do this, it is necessary to audit the printing infrastructure and processes. In fact, it is necessary to analyze the type of printed documents that are produced in each department, the volume of these documents, the process, the timing and the equipment used to produce it. Everything can be much more complicated than it seems at first glance. It will be necessary to analyze the real sample in terms of print volumes from all printing devices, take into account the seasonality of the production of documents and the uniqueness of each department’s requirements for the quality of the document itself and the possible available options for its creation. We'll have to dive deep enough into the process of creating documents and understand the degree of satisfaction and needs of each department.
Having received these statistics, it is necessary to analyze each model of the printing device and to understand whether the device’s functionality is sufficient, its printing speed, whether the device’s resource corresponds to its actual loads, and also to determine when a model may need to be replaced.
Also an important issue will be the total cost of operating the device and the possibility of reducing the price without losing quality.
Having collected the data, it is necessary to evaluate the information and understand all possible options and ways of changes. At the same time, not all information and tools necessary for collecting statistics and subsequent analysis will be available in open sources. Assess your strength: sometimes it is better to find a company on an outsource that has expertise in a given issue and is responsible for quality than to take on this block of work yourself.
Implementation of changes
One of the most difficult stages, because it is human nature to be wary of any changes. Regardless of whether employees benefit from innovation or not, any changes in the printing infrastructure will lead to additional troubles in the workflow, which can be a problem for the IT department.
The changes themselves can be carried out both gradually and instantly, but, in any case, the opinion of users must be considered. All the advantages of the updated system should be clearly and clearly communicated to each employee of the company, as well as the goals that the company pursues when implementing these changes. Information letters, trainings and instructions on the use of new devices and software, training administrators and key users, an overview of changes for top management will help you in this process. If all this is included in the process of updating the service, then the work has been done qualitatively. Otherwise, any flaw can lead to certain issues and problems.
Subsequent control of the printing system
It is important to remember that without a constant process of control and management, the print service service loses its meaning. The printing process should be uninterrupted and fault tolerant, the quality of the produced documents should always be at the required level, and users should always have access to the highest possible functionality of the current system. Therefore, the organization should be able to monitor the operation of printing devices and software solutions, immediately respond to any incidents and promptly make changes in accordance with the objectives of the company's main business.
It is also necessary to carefully control the number of incidents related to the print service, the response time to the elimination of the incident data, and the time to restore the service. It is very important to assess the workload: depending on the size of the company and the volume of tasks, all this can mean both the serious time spent by the system administrator and the allocation of an entire department of employees to manage the processes of creating and maintaining documentation.
Another important point to control is the security of the documents produced and the possibility of information leakage. In the end, before each business there are 3 ways to solve this problem: close your eyes to inadequate control, set certain tasks and load your own employees or give this process to management service provider.
Optimize and simplify workflow
Taking into account all the latest technological advances in the production of printing devices and accompanying software, you can implement almost any management wish: printing from mobile devices, automatic document routing after scanning, starting the process as agreed in the internal ERP system, document recognition and searching for certain words notifying the security department, customizing the interface and simplifying the operation of devices before pressing a few buttons, barcoded s and subsequent distribution of documents in folders. This list is limited only to imagination, and the possibility of implementation - knowledge and expertise of internal employees.
In any case, already at the first stages, you can assess the degree of load and decide: whether you are able to cope with the task inside or is it worth outsourcing. And we will modestly remind you that we can help you with this.
If you have any questions, please contact in private messages or comments. We will be happy to answer!