Guide on How to Make Managed Print Services Successful

If your business or enterprise is turning a new leaf to improve and reduce complex and costly print, managed print service or MPS is the right solution. Most companies today, due to the need to fully maximise the company’s resources, are now looking at the positive effects of MPS. Through the use of device fortification, both hardware and software development and environment efforts, MPS helps to improve the management burden on their print. MPS is dynamic and is extending beyond the horizon of business print environment to encompass business process automation necessarily needed by the company.

Cost control is the main reason why managed print services are becoming widely used in the business but companies are also looking for an increase in productivity and business process enhancement. MPS can fully bring business value leverage and new cost savings. To fully maximised its value, here are some tips for you and your company.

One step at a time

The application of MPS will vary depending on the scope, capacity and needs of your business. MPS opportunities are also extended into all aspects of business printing such as office, mobility, production and commercial. It also offers the capacity for business improvements in higher-values including IT operations. Consider this when you think of MPS for your company.

Apply a complete rundown of the print infrastructure

A detailed report on the assessment is the core for an effective MPS service. You need to check the methodology applied by the company. A documented analysis is important to consider. Print usage, environmental and security rundown are some of the things you need to consider for your company. By doing so, you can be sure on what MPS engagements your company and business fully needs for you to fully harness the opportunities for productivity and cost saving in the long run.

Appraise the business landscape for new services

Businesses are dynamic and adapts to changes in order to thrive. MPS agreements should be the same. If you are under an agreement with an MPS provider, it is best to discuss options for upgrades and add-on services. It is important to do this for you to get the most out of the availed service of your company. Evolving technologies such as print mobility, cloud services, business intelligence and next generation MPS should be considered for your advancement.

Quality level assurance

SLA is important to ensure that MPS engagement works smoothly across your business. SLA’s must know the nitty-gritty of the business and the MPS application. They should work hand in hand with the MPS provider to provide the necessary analytics for performance and future requirements. They should also be able to give fast and reliable approach for your business needs.

Regular and continued assessment

Proper monitoring and management are both critical to make sure that MPS works seamlessly and adapts to the changes of your business or company. That is why it is imperative to check the contract before signing because MPS providers should provide the necessary emphasis on service analytics and communication. With this you can evaluate and address the needs necessary to resolve issues easily and effectively.

The BYOD Trend

Bring Your Own Device or BYOD is one of the most talked about trend last year. Basically, the trend calls for the attention of both the corporation and employees to utilise what they have on hand. In BYOD, employees are given the freedom to bring their devices may it be smartphone, laptops or tablets to their office and use those personally owned gadgets to access the company’s applications such as documents, printers, scanners, etc. The trend boomed last year as it has garnered a growing attention in the world of information technology. In fact, some advantages and disadvantages were laid down the table as the trend continues to grow.

ADVANTAGES OF FOLLOWING THE BYOD TREND

1. Lower cost for corporations. BYOD generally attracts the employees to bring their preferred devices to work. This has implies a positive effect to companies because purchasing a significant amount of costly equipment will not be regarded as vital. And since employees use their own personal devices, they are expected to take extra care of the gadgets. Sometimes, breakages and wastage occurs because people do not regard the company’s properties as important.
2. More flexibility for employees. Since employees will be given the freedom to access their files using their own gadgets, the works that need to be done will not only be confined in offices. For this reason and another, employees enjoy more their work because they are not forced to use corporate-issued devices which are most of the time, not their preference. Some employees tend to be more productive when they use their own devices because they like them so much that they had invested their own money in them.
3. Better standing for the business. Studies show that 44% of job hunters find companies more attractive when they follow the BYOD trend. A defined policy for the BYOD trend will surely fish top players in the industry. The trend will be advantageous if the company wants to win a person to take over their competition.

DISADVANTAGES OF BRINGING YOUR OWN DEVICE

1. The cost of the trend will be shouldered by the employees. Following the trend will create a dilemma for those employees who do not want to have a device that can be used to access company information even in mobile mode. You cannot expect everyone to have the same preferences. If you are an employee who does not throw much attention to technology, knowing that your company follows the trend will make you feel hanging. The gravity of the agony will be double when the company did not state that the cost will not be shouldered by them.
2. The security of the confidential files. It’s a general knowledge that companies can’t afford to lose their data. If you are the company owner, it’s quite understandable if you will have a little hesitation to give your companies the full freedom to access your company’s information even if they are out of the corporate vicinity. Negative thoughts such as leakage to the competitors and “What will happen when the employee decides to leave the company?” will surely arise.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN IMPLEMENTING THE BYOD TREND

1. A strong policy. Although given the freedom the access to company’s confidential files even in mobile mode, employees should still follow a set of rules to ensure that the company’s code of conduct will not be violated.
2. An established access. When implementing the trend, IT managers should be strict when giving access to employees. The access should be tailor-fitted to what the job description of the employee. To outline which access should be given to an employee, the question of “Who needs what and for what?” should be answered.
3. The right management tools. Data should still be controlled whenever files are being accessed on mobile. IT managers should configure the network access of the users by providing an authentication. 

BYOD is a trend that should be utilised to positive use. Be sure that before implementing a trend in your own workplace, considerations and concerns were outlined first to avoid mistakes, data loss and information theft. BYOD is just one of the benefits that you can utilise when you decide to get the services of Capita Document & Information Services. To know more about our other services, reach us through phone at 0800 313 4910. 

MOBILE PRINTING AT CAPITA DOCUMENTS & INFORMATION SERVICES

TECHNOLOGY AND MOBILE PRINTING

With the emerging innovations for smartphones and laptops today, people are getting more knowledgeable in utilising their mobiles and portable computers by not just using them for their usual functions such as texting, calling and making documents. People are now using their mobile phones, laptops and tablets to connect to the internet, make business presentations and create documents. At present, the world is dominated by technology and people have to keep up with the advancement that the scientific know-how offers. Businesses should take advantage of the technology as well. More and more offices are opening up their doors to mobile printing where their employees can print documents wherever they are.

WHAT IS MOBILE PRINTING?

Mobile printing is the term used to identify the function of products and services that let people print documents when they are away from a printer. Most type of mobile printing works through the aid of WiFi or Bluetooth.

1.     WiFi - WiFi or also known as wireless networking or 802.11 networking lets your smartphone or laptop connect to a WiFi enabled printer. Just send jobs to the printer and you can already have a hard copy of the document you have on your phone in seconds or so.

2.     Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a low power transmission that helps the smartphone or laptop user to send jobs to a Bluetooth capable printer.

In basic mobile printing, all you need to have are:

1.     A smartphone or a laptop that is capable of making printable documents

2.     A wireless connection that is compatible with a printer

3.     A printer that has either Bluetooth or WiFi for a smartphone or laptop user to send printable jobs

MOBILE PRINTING AT CAPITA DOCUMENT & INFORMATION SERVICES

Bluetooth and WiFi printing are just few of the many options that you can choose from our Mobile Printing services which is a part of our services. Whether your employees or valued guests are on a different floor or still on the way to your office, they can be able to print any document to any brand of printer from any device in your office. Mobile printing has never been that easy for anyone! Our mobile printing services are not just anchored to Bluetooth or WiFi -- we take pride in having server-based mobile printing solution that allows users to print through web, drive and email as well.

BENEFITS OF OUR MOBILE PRINTING SERVICES

Businesses can take advantage of the numerous benefits of mobile printing such as:

1.     Staff productivity - With no wasted time, an employee can send document to print wherever they are and just pick them up the moment they get back to the office.

2.     Document security - Our mobile printing services will not only enable documents to be printed on the printers, documents will also be stored in the printer and therefore comes readily available whenever you need to have a hard copy printed.

3.     Supports the BYOD trend - BYOD or Bring Your Own Device Trend is the policy of allowing employees to bring their own mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops and tablets to the workplace and utilise them to access the company’s information and applications.

MOBILITY AND BUSINESS

Mobility changes the way we work -- it helps us to get things done in a timely manner. The fact that it helps us to work easier should open the doors for possibilities for mobile printing to be utilised and improved. Capita Document & Information Services, one of the leading professional services company in the UK, is in a continuous process of innovating mobile printing for our clients to transform their business for the better. To know more about our services, visit our website or get in touch with us through phone at 0800 313 4910.

REDUCE YOUR OFFICE PRINTING COST

Assuming that you have 50 employees in your company and those 50 employees print a 3-page document at least every day, how much do you think do you spend on your digital printing cost? The numbers in the question is quite small if you are to analyse it vaguely, but if you are to really compute the cost that your company spend on printing, you would be shocked more than amazed to know that you are spending a lot on printing. What’s unfortunate is that most of the documents printed by your employees go to waste -- some print outs just contain a one liner text or a link from a printed webpage and some are documents that are totally irrelevant with what the company is doing.

                                   

Giving your employees the freedom to print freely and to print whatever they want is not really unacceptable as long as they also know how to print economically.

TIPS TO PRINT ECONOMICALLY

Printing is one activity that you cannot avoid completely in an office. Employees use documents in their daily reports, presentations and proposals. Printing makes the lives of the employees easier. However, employees must also know how to fully utilise printing to their advantage.

• Print in “draft” mode whenever possible. Draft mode is a setting that can be used when printing any Microsoft Office software. Draft mode works by printing selected dots from the matrix of the document if it were to be printed in normal mode. When a document is printed in draft mode, the document will appear to be lighter and dottier but still, you can perfectly read the text and recognize the images that are printed. And since draft mode only select dots from the matrix of the document; it increases the print speed too.

• Print in duplex or multiple.You can cut off your company’s printing cost through printing on both sides of the pages or by printing multiple pages on one paper. You can do one of these techniques or you can do both. Printing in duplex or multiple is especially useful when printing Microsoft Powerpoint presentations.

• Use print preview and shrink to fit when printing. Aside from printing in draft mode and printing in duplex or multiple, you can also use print preview and shrink to fit to cut down on your printing cost. Before printing anything, preview the document and see how it will look on paper by using the print preview button. You can choose to adjust the font size of your document’s text or you can add spaces to the paragraphs to make your document more presentable.

Avoid wasting valuable ink and learn how to reduce your printing cost. However, if you feel that the printing cost of your company is not moving according to the way you wanted it to be, then you must probably seek for the help of the experts.

Facts That You Don't Know About Documentation

As we all know, documentation has been an essential part of the human race and has been the keeper of information that has gone through one generation to another. Since the earliest days of human literacy and knowledge, documentation or bookkeeping has been a need to preserve the information that has been acquired or knowledge that must be passed on. The print industry has already had so many advancements through time and because of that, documentation has been easier and faster. Though there have been changes in both the process and appearance of the current format of documents, the value that it has remains the same.

We may be aware of the basic information about documentation which includes its history, process, formats, and even its uses. But there are still other things about documents that a person might not know but has to, to see the value of managed document services to the industry of documentation. Here are some statistics and facts you might want to know;

• An average printed document is more likely to be copied 19 times after the original has been produced.
• Of the total documents present and produced around the world, 7.5% of their total gets lost because of different reasons (e.g. fires, mishandling, being misplaced). While 3% of the remaining number that don’t get lost are misfiled under a different category or name.
• Around the world, companies pay as much as £12.50 for labour to get their documents filed correctly. While it will cost them £73 to pay for someone who would be searching for misfiled documents. If documents are totally lost, a company has to spend £133.50 to reproduce the missing product.
• Searching for documents compared to actually looking at them takes more time. An average professional would have to spend 50% of his time just to look for the document he needs and only 15% will be spent in actually putting the document to use.

Being presented with these facts and statistics, it is now fairly easy to point out that documentation services that exhibits good quality and excellence is always appropriate to have for every company. Not only do these services cut the costs for printing and slash off the use of materials like paper, ink, and printers, managing documents also cuts the company’s expenses from paying for labour trying to look for mishandled or misfiled documents and/or reproducing these documents which would mean doing the process all over again. Good document management not only saves companies money, it also helps efficiency with employees and professionals by making it easier for them to find a well managed and properly filed document.

Advantages of Managed Document Services

Every company is always looking for a new way or method to cut the overall business costs. In an office setting, document-related output is the most common factor that greatly adds to the total business costs. This is where document solutions come in. One of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of expenditure is by maximising the value of various functions at the office such as printing, copying and scanning of documents.

Although MPS or managed print services have been introduced to the industry not so long ago, there is still an even greater document strategy that is far superior and this is known as MDS or managed document services.

What is MDS or Managed Document Services?

Compared to MPS or managed print services, which is focused only on output, MDS or managed document services aim to provide a holistic approach on the whole document output process. What does this mean? Managed document services are not only looking into the output, but they are making sure that every step of the process is maximised - starting from the capturing of data, up until the  archiving of information, managed document services take care of it all.

This unique document technology is a perfect strategy that makes it possible for offices to reduce output costs of about 30% to 40% in total.  This is a considerable cost savings that can definitely affect the business positively.

How does Managed Document Services work?

A managed document services provider will first make an assessment of the current existing solution. After this step, the service provider will come up with figures on the total costs of company ownership and production. From here, a tailored plan for the business will be laid out to address which issue needs to be attended to right away.

Additional benefits of Managed Document Services

Aside from the big savings that could be achieved from this document technology, managed document services have more benefits to offer a business and these include:

• The probability of lowering the present Total Cost of Ownership or what is also known as TCO.

• A very positive impact on the environment as there will be fewer devices or machines that will be used at the office.

• A much improved document strategy, from a simple output-based strategy, to a more holistic document solutions approach, starting from scanning, copying and finally printing.

Managed document services is a great way to not only reduce business costs, it is also effective in increasing the quality and efficiency of work in the office setup.

What is Docucheck® Consultancy?

EFFECTS OF THE PRINTING COST OF EMPLOYEES

An average employee is estimated to print 60 pages per day which amounts to 12,000 sheets in a year.  The figure is surprising because managers give the employees the freedom to print on their own -- giving them the option of printing whatever they want, how they wanted a document to be printed, etc.

What’s unknown to us is that a huge amount of the printing cost of employees goes to printed pages that were never intended to be printed like web printouts that only contain a URL at the bottom of the page or a banner ad at the top or the chain replies of an email.  When analyzed, the waste that was generated by sloppy printing is truly frustrating. Additionally, the number of wasted pages does not only contribute to the large printing cost of the company but to the carbon footprint of the company as well.

In order to hit the two problems stated, Capita DIS designed Docucheck® Consultancy.

WHAT IS DOCUCHECK CONSULTANCY?

Launched in 1996, Docucheck® Consultancy helped Capita and their clients to minimise the printing cost of their company through analyzing the working environment of the business. After the thorough analysis of the problem, Capita Right Documents Solution has generated a way of reviewing the printing cost, usage, user needs and office environment needs of the business. It paved way for the business to better understand how they can utilise the number of equipment that they have. Additionally, proper printing management were learned resulting to defining the best way to support and manage the solution going forward.

Through continues innovation, Capita Right Documents solution has devised a way to reduce the cost of total cost of ownership of their clients from 15% to 40%. Furthermore, Docucheck® Consultancy has provided better environmental working practices for the employees of their client. All in all, it can be concluded that this innovation is a win-win situation for both Capita Right Document Solutions and their clients. Docucheck® onsultancy opened the possibilities for the client to improve its business while having user satisfaction and user productivity.

CONCLUSION

Companies are not fully aware of their true printing cost, volumes and requirements. Furthermore, employees of those companies are not well knowledgeable of the available devices that they have leading them to not fully utilising the equipment. Thus, it can be said that employees doesn’t have a strategy when it comes to office print solutions.

Since everyone is getting active to become a part of an environment-friendly community, Docucheck® Consultancy, one of Capita DIS’ services, can enable companies of all sizes and industries to save money while meeting the growing demand for environmental responsibility and accountability.