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Share this: © Lasers Resource 1 No More Manic Mondays 9 Ways Managed Print Services Makes Help Desk Managers Lives Easier © Lasers Resource
| Date post: | 10-Jan-2017 |
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No More Manic Mondays
9 Ways Managed Print Services Makes Help Desk Managers Lives Easier
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As if Monday’s weren’t bad enough, when it’s your job to manage IT help requests from your company’s employees Mondays can be the worst.
Between new virus alerts and potential network breaches, the one guy in accounting who’s locked himself out of the system AGAIN, and just getting started up for the week again; the last thing you want to be doing is troubleshooting copiers and printers.
And because anything that plugs into a wall is your responsibility to provide technical support for, copiers are your responsibility.
Your help desk staff has better things to do.
Get them out of printer and copier troubleshooting with managed print services.
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Not only is it another task, you’re probably not going to be able to do much beyond basic troubleshooting. Copiers today are complex beasts, combining hundreds of moving parts AND software for a perfect playground for Murphy to screw things up for you.
Copier service technicians routinely go to class to update their credentials to repair the various lines of copiers from the different manufacturers.
Just for fun, here’s a list of some copier parts: actuators, bearing/bushings, belts, clutches, corona, covers and panels, developer parts, drums, fuser parts, fuser rollers, gears, memory, motors, paper feed components, registration parts, seals, sensors, springs, thermal control, and transport section components.
Good luck troubleshooting that mass of complexity.
You Don’t Want to Troubleshoot Your Copiers
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MPS – You Don’t Have to Do This Yourself
Managed print services removes the burden of providing support for copiers and printers from you and your staff and outsources it to experts who understand the ins and outs of copiers.
Here’s MPS in a nutshell:1. Your partner performs a print assessment to determine your real print needs – you may have too many machines (or too few).2. Create a print strategy – number and placement of copiers, printers, scanners, and fax machines. Also document workflow and process automation suggestions.3. Deploy and set up the equipment – including user training.4. Monitor machine usage, deliver toner supplies on an as-needed basis, service the equipment when needed, and regularly scheduled meetings to improve processes and ensure business needs are continually met.
The final point is the one that will make your Mondays a little less manic – your MPS partner troubleshoots your copiers.
Lasers Resource breaks each
engagement into four stages:
Assessment
Planning
Execution
Review
Click here to see Our Process
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1. Balanced Fleet Deployment
By ensuring that your company has the right mix of equipment (copiers and printers tend to break down more frequently when over used AND when they’re under used), you’ll have fewer complaints from your users.
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Copiers today are network accessible via cable or WiFi. Untether your users from cable by allowing them to print from wherever they are and on multiple devices – laptop, tablet, or smart phone.
2. Make Your Road Warriors Happy
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3. One Number to Call
If your copier or printer does go on the brink, you don’t need to remember that you’re leasing the copier in the hallway from Copier Company Y and that the printer in your president’s office is covered by a different company. One company is in charge of all of your office equipment. You don’t need to think, you just need to dial one number.
One number for:
Toner/ink orders
Questions on your lease
Getting new devices
Ordering consumables
Service repair calls
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4. Multiple Offices
If you run a help desk for a company with multiple offices, you can find yourself spending more time in your car than you’d like as you provide assistance and try to be in two places at once. A MPS provider will provide support where you need it; no more trips on an already-hectic Monday to “fix the copier” in the office across town only to find out that it’s beyond your ability to fix and you need to place a call to a service company anyway.
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5. Never Run Out of Toner
Who wants to be bothered with a “we’re out of toner” complaint on a Monday when you’re trying to manage the fix of a potential security hole in your network. An MPS partner can remotely monitor output volume and send toner “just in time” so you never run out – or have to tell someone to “just shake the cartridge.” (And that doesn’t work all the time because depending on the type of copier, there may be no cartridge to shake.)
Not only is this one less hassle for you to deal with, you’ll also have more storage space so you can stock up on Red Bull and aspirin (which you can use!) in place of old toner.
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Copiers have productivity-enhancing apps. This is another level of complexity you don’t need to manage. Your MPS partner can perform the set-up of these applications, as well as training. In fact, some copiers have video training tutorials on the copier’s interface. A partial list of apps:
• Scan to email• Scan to cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Office 365, etc.)• Mobile printing• Access control • Privacy settings and rules based printing
Be aware that when upgrading laptops and PCs the upgrade can break the user’s link to an app they routinely use. Before upgrading, double-check the apps commonly in use in your business and ask your MSP for advice on how to keep everything running smoothly.
6. App-a-palooza
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7. Shrink the Cost of Printing
Gartner studies have revealed that 1% to 3% of annual revenues are spent on printing. MPS brings predictible budgeting to your print costs – you’ll have a better understanding of how much you’ll print during the year – complete with reports about device use and who printed what documents, even down to the individual level.
The creation of print rules allows routing of print jobs to the most cost-effective printer, enforces black-and-white printing, and more.
Because your printing is now centrally controlled, you’ll no longer have to worry about different locations buying products from different manufacturers. This control means one controlled budget for the entire company, which will lower costs across the board. And no more over-buying toner and supplies that are never used, take up closet space, and is literally throwing money away if you never use them (look in your closets, how much wasted toner do you see?).
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8. Firmware Updates
Manufacturers update copier and printer firmware somewhat frequently. If you don’t update, the copier can stop working. But it’s not just one driver, there are drivers for networking capability, LAN faxing, and to communicate with the computer’s operating system. Going through the menu to find your copier model, then the right downloads, then waiting for it to download, etc. is a tedious pain. Your MPS partner can take care of this, not you.
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9. “But It Won’t Print!”
This isn’t a benefit, but hopefully this short list of tips will help keep you from pulling your hair out when you hear those four words! I’m sure this “request” is like fingernails on a chalk board to you when you hear it.
To the right is a short checklist you can share with everyone in your office to try before they bug you.
Just like rebooting often does take care of some PC issues, you can tell your co-workers to “check the copier list I gave you” before wrecking your day.
1. Did you give the copier/printer time to warm up?
2. Is the device’s power on (sometimes the cord can be caught by the cleaners)
3. Does the copier have paper?
4. Does the copier have the right paper size for what you’re trying to print?
5. Are there multiple jobs stuck in the print queue?
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Less Bangles, More Buffett
So, look into MPS and move from the Bangle’s hectic Manic Monday to the more laid back Buffett version of the day, “Come Monday, it’ll be alright.”
With Managed Print Services it will be alright. You’ll be able to focus your IT troubleshooting on areas that you really understand, unlike the copiers in your office.
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Put an End to Manic Mondays
Start with a free print assessment.
• Can your workflows be streamlined and/or automated?• Is your current print fleet sufficient, but deployed horribly wrong?• Do you need to upgrade some or all of your printers and copiers?• Are your documents secure on your network and via your equipment?
Click here to sign up for your free assessment.
Or contact us at:
