Managed Print: All About The Assessment

When managed print services start, there is an assessment upfront. This assessment covers a wide range of aspects of your printers, and it ends with recommendations for making your printer fleet better and stronger.

Assess the Machines

The assessment of printing in your office starts with an assessment of the machines themselves. Each of the printers in your fleet will be examined and the makes and models of all of them noted. Often, older printer designs work less well with modern managed print services, and they also generally run slower. Newer designs also come with more security features. With some of the machines in the fleet, the assessment may show that a few of the printers should be removed or replaced with newer models that have better connectivity. 

Monitoring Printing

The volume of the printing being done has a lot to do with your company’s printing costs. With print volumes being monitored, it’s easier to find out where the bulk of the printing is coming from and whether there is too much of it going on. Often, monitoring results in employees doing less printing, as they know they will be held accountable for their print numbers. This can discourage unnecessary printing and personal printing projects brought to the office from home. Part of monitoring is also noting the specific machines that are being used. This can help the company to eliminate printers that no one is using in order to save both space and power.

Making Fleet Recommendations

With a cohesive picture of how your printer fleet is working, which machines are being used, who is using them and how much they are being used, your managed print provider can make solid recommendations based on those numbers. The end goal is to have a printer fleet that is large enough for your company without being too large, having machines in good repair, and discouraging unnecessary printing. With a leaner, more connected printer fleet that isn’t used for unnecessary documents, a company can expect its print costs to run lower.