4 Ways Managed Print Services Can Help Your Company Cut Costs

Does your company ever spend time thinking about ways to save money on printing? If so, has your company put a strategy or solution into place to mitigate printing costs? If your answer is “never”, that’s fine!

The truth is that not everyone fully understands what managed print services are and how they help businesses cut down on print costs. Most employees are even unaware of what each printed page costs their company. 

For over twenty years of experience, LDI Connect has provided managed print services to customers concerned about their printing costs. 

We understand how difficult it can be to devote time to monitoring your device usage and print behavior, that’s why we do that for you. We work with customers to assess their current print behavior and environment to better understand where your money is going. Once we have assessed your print environment, we then provide print solutions that can help you reduce the amount that you are spending.

This article will explain what managed print services are and four significant ways to help your organization cut down on print costs. By the end of this article, you will better understand how managed print services can positively impact your business and save you money in the long term.

What Are Managed Print Services? 

Managed Print Services (MPS) are services provided by an external provider to help manage and enhance your company’s print environment and output. 

MPS can be broken down into the following three categories:

Assessment

A print assessment acts as a review of your current print environment for a managed print provider to offer recommendations on preparing for future savings. Assessments essentially range from basic digital assessments to complete workflow assessments.

Optimization

Managed print services optimize your print environment by identifying ways to rationalize and consolidate your print devices to improve user-to-device rations. MPS also helps companies develop a print strategy and print policies to continue enhancing their print infrastructure moving forward.

Management

Managed print services involve looking for continuous process and workflow improvement opportunities through remote management, service level agreement (SLA) monitoring, and responsive helpdesk support.

MPS is continuously evolving to meet the needs and goals of clients. However, security, service, and cost are critical drivers for why certain companies require managed print services.

4 Ways Managed Print Services Can Save Your Company Money

Managed print services are catered to fit your company’s exact needs. So if you need to stop overspending for your printing device, service, and consumables, then MPS can help you save money within your current print environment. 

How? Well, let’s take a look at four significant ways managed print services can help your company cut costs.

1. Re-Evaluate Your Printer Fleet

The pandemic has influenced the way businesses print. The chances are that you are one of the many companies that abided by a remote or hybrid work model for the past year and a half. However, within this time, companies have had to re-evaluate their document workflow. 

If your company is planning to start working in the office again, you may not need as many printing devices as before.

Managed print services assess the number of devices you currently have, what purpose they have, and their physical placement to understand if your current print environment serves the needs of your employees. 

In addition, managed print services will tell which devices are outdated and causing you to spend more money on maintenance and consumables because the manufacturer has stopped making that particular model.

Rather than continue to pay for device maintenance, leases, and other costs tied to these unnecessary print devices, MPS will help you downsize or right-size your print environment to match your budget. 

2. Implements Cost-Saving Print Management Software

Managed print services have access to cost-saving software such as uniFLOW and PaperCut. These software applications are cost-saving tools that analyze your spending, print behavior, device usage, enact print rules, and more.

An example of a cost-saving functionality within PaperCut are the prompts that appear upon an employee clicking print. If an employee wants to print a document in full color, a prompt will appear and ask the user if that document needs to be in full color. If not, it will then ask if the user can print in black-and-white instead.

This suggestion may seem minor. However, unnecessary printing in full color can drive up costs. In addition, holding your employees accountable for their decisions can have an immense impact on your monthly print costs.

A managed print provider can effectively train your company on the software’s best practices and features that would be most useful to your particular business.

3. Encourages Going Digital 

Going digital can save you money on the number of consumables you’re ordering and using to print. If you’re looking to print less or optimize your document workflow, considering working in a cloud-based workflow may be in your best interest. 

Through an assessment, managed print services can uncover how paper-intensive your current workflow is and assist you in finding a cost-effective paperless process. 

As more and more offices embrace eco-friendly printing practices, more MPS programs have embraced new digital solutions.

4. Provides Reports & Analytics 

One of the main perks of managed print services is the detailed reports and analytics you will receive once your partnership begins. 

Besides providing you with a thorough print assessment of your current print behavior, a managed print service will continue to analyze and monitor your print environment to ensure that your company’s cost goals are being met.

Your company will be able to see informative data represented in charts and statistics over a set period. For example, data concerning how many print jobs were released, how much ink is being used, month-to-month cost comparisons, the amount of money you’re saving, and more can be included in a customized report.

Having the numbers in front of you can help your company accurately plan and see how far you’ve come before working with a managed print service.

Ready To See How Much Your Company Can Save? 

Managed Print Services includes recommending cost-saving solutions to fit your company’s exact needs. 

For example, if your needs include getting a handle on print costs, an MPS provider can work with you to provide you with the information needed to make long-term changes.

However, if your company is currently satisfied with its print environment and the amount it’s spending on printing, that managed print services may not be right for at the current moment.

At LDI Connect, we can help implement the proper print devices into your environment without breaking your budget.

Download and read A Guide To Managed Print Services: What To Expect? to use as a guide to understanding managed print services and what they entail.