3 WAYS SOFTWARE FOR COPIERS AND PRINTERS SUPPORTS EFFICIENCY

How often does the discussion about improving office efficiency include printer and copier software solutions? My best guess would be never or rarely. Even among IT professionals, copiers and printers can seem like a commodity, hardly as exciting as a new application or new enterprise project.

But what if I told you that some of those software solutions could increase your ROI? What if the conversation centered on improving workflow processes and the security of the information in your organization?

Most copier and printer software that comes with your devices is pretty basic. It makes the device print, scan, copy and fax, but not much else. With different software in place, it could manage your copier and printer in ways that improve productivity, increase efficiency and reduce costs.

1. ENABLING SECURE SECURITY

With software such as Papercut and other secure printing applications, you can make your printers both more secure and more cost-effective. First, there’s security. Secure printing also helps with those on your team who go a little print happy - let's call him Phil. We all know a Phil, the guy who prints out his 35-slide PowerPoint presentation, in color, for everyone at the meeting. Papercut can help you control Phil’s costly color printouts by metering his access.

2. SUPPORTING INTELLIGENT WORKFLOWS

What if your copiers and printers were smart enough to make sure important documents were routed to the right people? Canon, for example, has Uniflow, and it can make sure the invoice you just copied also gets routed to accounting, the business manager and the CFO. It’s just a matter of setting up the workflow.

There are two workflow scenarios that we meet with clients about. In the first scenario, it’s a small or new business that has no experience with workflows. In this situation,

In the second scenario, we're working with larger, more established organizations that already have workflows in place. In this case, it's important to make sure the software you are considering will work with your existing workflows. That can be particularly tricky with some proprietary applications.

3. STREAMLINING END USERS

Setting up the copier and printer software for secure printing and workflows is oftentimes the easy part. Getting the end users to actually work with it can be more difficult. To ensure effective adoption, it's beneficial to have a high-level decision maker to champion the change. Then, it helps to recruit early adopters in each department to start using the new solutions and encourage their co-workers by example.

Making good software decisions for your printers and copiers is complicated. When it’s done right, a business can see efficiency and cost savings in a matter of weeks - which continue to grow over months or years.