How to Improve End-User Acceptance in Your Enterprise Print Environment

End users are always a consideration in decisions that involve business printing and print management. How will they respond to a change in the printing workflow? Will they be able to understand and use a new device or feature? Will they actually stick to a certain practice? Questions like these come up again and again.

And yet, even companies that have their end users’ best interest at heart can struggle with getting them to accept new technologies and workflows.

That’s certainly true of cloud solutions. As they become more widely adopted in the enterprise on account of their flexibility and scalability, businesses can still have a tough time getting end users on board. Fear of employee pushback can leave those businesses stuck with a hybrid print environment.

Hybrid printing involves using cloud printing solutions alongside traditional on-prem printing solutions like print servers. It’s a neither-fish-nor-fowl mix that tries to reap some of the benefits of the cloud while trying to appease a user base that’s familiar with legacy printing models.

This compromise between old and new has made hybrid printing one of the most common business printing infrastructures. But it has some drawbacks—including the fact that it leaves both IT and end users caught between two worlds. Hybrid printing doesn’t completely eliminate print servers. It complicates print management. And its inefficiency can offset some of the anticipated gains from cloud printing.

Let’s look at a few of the specific downsides of hybrid printing.

One of the most glaring problems with hybrid printing is the inconsistency it causes in the client printing experience. A number of issues arise from that lack of consistency:

• End users are forced to remember different settings and protocols when printing in different scenarios

• Incompatibilities and configuration mismatches lead to end-user frustration (and helpdesk calls)

• Print-management duties are effectively doubled as IT is tasked with maintaining two business printing solutions

For end users, printing in a hybrid print environment often means having to jump through extra hoops. Printing should be effortlessly simple, but their day-to-day experience is anything but. And that has long-term knock-on effects. It fosters a wider distrust of any new technology that the company chooses to implement.

For IT, the antagonistic relationship with end users and the rising number of helpdesk tickets can be a drain on resources. Printer fleets with various makes, models and drivers just make that situation worse. They only add to the print management workload.

Though it sometimes seems elusive, there is a sweet spot between meeting end users’ needs and adopting forward-looking business printing solutions. It’s PrinterLogic’s serverless printing infrastructure.

By implementing PrinterLogic, companies can eliminate print servers to minimize print infrastructure and achieve streamlined print management. At the same time, end users get to enjoy printing that’s straightforward and uniform across the organization.

Through features like centralized management, PrinterLogic avoids the pitfalls of hybrid print environments. It improves printing workflows and print management by creating a unified print environment that’s:

• Easy to administer: Admins can monitor and control the entire print environment from a single pane of glass. They can quickly deploy and manage printer objects, including drivers and profiles, through one intuitive console.

• Consistent and user friendly: The printing process is the same for users no matter where they happen to be. There’s no more workflow A for cloud printing, workflow B for print servers.

• Empowering for end users: Thanks to PrinterLogic’s self-service printer installation portal, any end user can safely install authorized printers and start printing in seconds. Without calling IT for support. 

• Rich in advanced features: It’s no longer necessary to pile on extra solutions to gain added functionality. PrinterLogic offers optional native solutions for mobile printing and secure release printing as well as print reporting and auditing.

Unlike hybrid environments, PrinterLogic also doesn’t keep IT and end users hopping between two platforms. PrinterLogic SaaS is a fully cloud-based solution, whereas PrinterLogic Web Stack is for companies that feel more comfortable with on-prem. Both eliminate print servers and offer the same incredible advantages, such as centralized print management and resilient printing.

The fact that end users love PrinterLogic has made it a go-to business printing solution for hundreds of companies. Managed service providers like The Conversant Group use PrinterLogic to eliminate print servers and standardize disparate print environments. They also know that end users will respond well to features like the self-service portal. Read the case study here.

With PrinterLogic, you can relieve IT of the print management burden while also giving end users the painless business printing they expect.