Business owners and employees are not in the office every day anymore. Many are working from home or are being asked to work remotely at a moment’s notice. Sure, duo screens can get you by, but sometimes we still need to print it! That used to be possible with just a click of a button -but not in 2020. In this work environment, we are constantly asked to install, manage, and reconfigure printers. Our employees often need access to unique printers like plotters or high-res color options. So what are all the tech-savvy companies doing to make printer management work for today’s business demands? Many are looking at cloud-based printer management. Here are three reasons businesses upgrade to the cloud for their printer management needs:
Reason #1: Cloud-Based Printer Management Is Easier for ‘IT’ and Employees
Often, employees and your IT team complain about how difficult it is to install and configure printers. With a cloud-based printer management system, the printer management tasks like printer deployment, drivers, and settings are managed in a centralized, web-hosted location. This means there is less your IT team has to do in your office. And you can assign the role to the right person by giving them access to the management portal.
If your company has multiple offices, you might often hear complaints that employees don’t have access to the right printers at the right location. With a cloud-based printer solution, it can be configured to automatically add office printers based on location. So when an employee turns on their computer in their California office, the California office printers will become available. When the same employee turns on their computer in their Massachusetts office, the Massachusetts office printers will become available and the California printers will be removed.
Some printers do not need to be accessed everyone in the company. A cloud-based printer management solution makes it easy to deploy printers to select users. This comes in handy for large plotter printers or label printers. It can be costly and wasteful to accidently print a report to a plotter. This can be avoided by restricting printers to specified users. For example, an accounting user will not see the plotter printer. This avoids confusion, saves time, and saves money.
Additionally, printer settings can be defaulted and deployed. For example, a printer can be deployed as black and white only, as well as in color, perform only two-sided printing, etc. All of these printer drivers and settings can be managed from one location.
Reason #2: Cloud-Based Printer Management Saves Money for Most Businesses
As was mentioned above, a business will likely see less print errors from the employees and over time, that can save some money on ink and other supplies. But the bigger savings a business will realize when upgrading to a cloud-based printer management solution is from cutting out on-premise servers/fees. Business owners know that printer servers to be expensive and difficult to maintain.
Reason #3: Cloud-Based Printer Management is Scalable
If your company has plans to grow and wants to maintain tech-savvy solutions, a cloud-based printer management solution offers scalability and accessibility from anywhere with an internet connection.
When Might a Cloud-Based Printer Management Solution Not be the Right Choice for a business?
I’ll give you three…
- If your company is run by only a handful of employees that are printing to one printer, then you may not need to consider Cloud-Based Printer Management. In those types of businesses, employees will typically connect directly to the printer which bypasses the need for printer management.
- If you have a lot of personal printers in your business, then cloud-based printer management may not be worth it. Cloud-Based Printer Management is best suited for printers that are used by multiple people. So personal printers can be added via direct connection.
- Companies with employees who are not using workstations (working on their cellphones) may not benefit from Cloud-Based Printer Management. Yes, many of us are remote or mobile a lot! So if your work is on your phones, perhaps cloud-based printer management is not the solution for you.
Implementing Cloud-Based Printer Management
Cloud-based printer management is a streamlined and effective way to administer printers. Its easy to use and is nearly invisible to the end user when configured properly. It removes the requirement of a print server and prepares tech-savvy companies future changes in technology. Most businesses will benefit from the upgrade. If you are not scaling or plan to operate from one office with one server, this may be too advanced. But for all other businesses, it makes sense to upgrade now. If you need assistance implementing, contact Optistar or your IT service provider.
