In the modern office environment, companies are constantly seeking ways to improve their proficiency and minimise their expenses. Inefficient printing practices have been identified as an important factor of stifled productivity during the work day, as well as a main source of wasting valuable company time and money.
Managed document services’ (MDS) solutions are constantly being developed in order to help companies become far more efficient, prudent and sensible in this regard by offering print management solutions that enable complete control over the printing environment.
These solutions add considerable value and result in reduced printing costs and complete control over environmental impacts, as the actual cost of the print job or transaction can be tracked and reported accordingly.
Nashua Limited’s Optimum Solutions Consultant, Herman Otto, notes that print management solutions are changing the face of printing functionality.
“Until recently, most companies have lacked the tools required to adequately monitor and control printing within an organisational environment, with users largely unaware of the costs of printing a page.
“These print management solutions help companies overcome these problems by providing functionality that is geared towards minimising costs and furthering efficiencies, whilst taking into account the need to reduce an organisation’s environmental impact.
“Subsequently, companies and organisations have the means to conduct daily office activities in a far more prudent and green manner, which allows them to be more efficient, cost effective and play an important role in contributing towards environmental sustainability.”
Today’s print management solutions are implemented via a Web-based user interface which allows organisations to easily monitor and manage an individual’s use of printing resources.
The offering of document security reduces the volume of unclaimed printouts by ensuring users release print jobs at the point of printing. Users are able to queue print jobs to a virtual queue within the online interface, and subsequently release documents for printing at their convenience at an available and network connected multi-function device.
Furthermore, an employee within the network can release the print job from another branch of an organisation’s network, no matter where they are located, from their mobile phone. Print jobs can be secured through either a pin or swipe card release, and only authorised users are able to print and collect sensitive documents through customised authentication.
Users are subsequently able to accurately account for each page printed, and responsible printing is encouraged through software quotas and print policies, decreasing paper usage, toner costs and power consumption.
Reports are also able to track which employees are the major print users and identify maximum print activity departments, and can also provide feedback on toner levels, errors, active jobs and average volumes, whilst defining peak printing times of the day.
Specific rules can also be applied to print jobs on the print server to enforce a company’s particular print policies or rules. This might include converting print jobs to duplex, or converting colour prints to greyscale, or routing the print job to the cheapest compatible device.
Green savings are also an important consideration of these solutions, with at-a-glance reporting on CO2 and carbon emissions spent, by CO2 volume or by tree’s utilised measuring a company’s environmental impression.
Many print management solutions can be customised to suit any organisation’s requirements, and has a multi-operational compatibility with the Windows, Mac, Linux and Novell servers and workstations, and offers ERP print tracking and a live fleet dashboard.
These solutions are ideal for use within a large variety of industries, including healthcare, architecture, hospitality, as well as the corporate, education and banking sectors.
Otto concludes that several industries could benefit from Nashua’s expertise, experience and capabilities.
“Nashua Limited has an extensive solution comprising of fleet management, efficient device deployment and document management solutions.
“Moving forward, we are confident that many organisations and industries will benefit from tailor-made print management solutions that have been designed to considerably enhance printing operations within a company and ensure that daily workflow is far more productive, time efficient and cost effective.”