A great awakening is taking place. IT professionals are becoming increasingly aware of the time, effort and cost they constantly have to invest in their existing enterprise print-management solutions, and they’re starting to consider next-generation alternatives to common approaches like print servers and conventional direct IP.
What exactly are they looking for in those alternatives? The criteria will be different for every environment. They might want the flexibility and minimal footprint of an enterprise cloud-printing solution. They might prefer a highly scalable on-premises solution that provides seamless mobile printing functionality for their floating workforce. They might need the enterprise print security offered by secure pull printing. Or they might want something that combines all of the above.
Change Can Be Daunting
Even with the ideal print-management solution in hand, however, those IT professionals still face the challenge of rolling out the new solution, migrating the entire organization and then having their end users adopt it without a lot of (or any) speed bumps. Each environment will have its own unique mix of printing devices and printer models as well as its own established printing workflow.
As a consequence, the IT professionals—the same people who will ultimately be tasked with the implementation—are forced to ask themselves if the cultural change that accompanies a new solution would take its toll on productivity. Does the risk outweigh the reward?
Organizations also often have to regulate public and private printing among their employees, and any systems they have in place for doing so will have to be adapted to a new print-management solution. The same applies to whatever mechanisms they currently use for auditing or enterprise print security. Once again, IT professionals find themselves at a crossroads. Will they still be able to enjoy the same level of oversight—or ideally more—with a new solution?
These and related concerns can lead many organizations to stay trapped in the status quo. It’s not that they love their current enterprise print-management solutions. Far from it. It’s that, with such high stakes involved, they prefer to stick with the devil they know.
PrinterLogic Makes Migration Easy
PrinterLogic provides two enterprise print-management solutions—one on-premises, one cloud-based—that all but eliminate the uncertainties surrounding migration to a new printing platform and its after-effects.
Each solution has been developed to integrate seamlessly with any device and any environment, starting with powerful migration tools that streamline the transition from print-server-based or conventional direct-IP based print environments to PrinterLogic’s unique centrally managed direct-IP model. As soon as PrinterLogic is deployed, admins can manage every single printer in the organization, from a single pane of glass.
For companies that need an extra level of enterprise print security or universal mobile-printing functionality, PrinterLogic’s on-premises and enterprise cloud-printing solutions offer the option to activate advanced modules like pull printing or mobile printing. These are native features, not bolt-ons, so they work hand in hand with our core solution. That means they can be managed easily through PrinterLogic’s centralized administrative console to provide select (or all) end users with the ability to authenticate before securely releasing print jobs, for example, or to print easily to authorized printers from any mobile device.
When it comes to oversight, PrinterLogic’s consolidated approach continues to yield benefits. Its print auditing capabilities provide a clear window onto print activity across the entire organization. Scheduled reports can be emailed automatically to department heads and decision-makers to keep them aware of consumables usage and excessive private printing. Organizations as diverse as Snider Fleet Solutions and UW Health have used PrinterLogic’s print auditing in this way to identify cost-saving opportunities.
Admins Love PrinterLogic Because End Users Love PrinterLogic
Just as importantly, end users consistently appreciate the usability of PrinterLogic’s enterprise print-management solutions. In particular, they love our self-service printer installation portal, which can be configured with floor plan maps to help new and existing users identify and install nearby printers with a single click. Children’s Bureau, Inc. is one of the many organizations to have its print environment transformed through this feature, with PrinterLogic having “completely changed [end users’] habits and their attitude toward printing.”
Of course, end users who experience trouble-free printing and printer installation lead to happier support staff, who no longer have to deal with frustrated phone calls and urgent support tickets. That frees them to deal with other more pressing IT issues.
And so, while some enterprise cloud-printing solutions and on-premises software come with their share of unknowns, PrinterLogic’s effective migration tools, convenient enterprise print security, effortless mobile printing and comprehensive print auditing—along with our solutions’ ability to eliminate print servers entirely—enable IT professionals to feel confident in transitioning their organizations to next-generation printing.
Have overpromising traditional print-management solutions turned you into a skeptic? Can’t say we blame you. That’s why you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of PrinterLogic Web Stack (formerly Printer Installer) or a free PrinterLogic SaaS (formerly PrinterCloud) demo and test exactly how our solutions perform in your environment.