The Solution to Two Common Enterprise Print Management Problems

Do you know how much printing is costing your company? That’s a multifaceted question that extends far beyond the price of print servers, printers, toner, and paper. Print-related tickets can account for over 50% of IT tickets, and some IT teams have little time to deal with other issues. Poor print management can also cost you in terms of security, both in terms of cybersecurity and physical security, with papers containing sensitive information being left behind on the printer.

While these are serious problems, they’re not insurmountable. With the right resources, enterprise organizations in any industry can curb the time and money they spend on print management while providing appropriate safeguards to ensure secure print. 

In large organizations, an average day in IT involves a lot of time spent on print management. That includes things like printer support, troubleshooting printer problems for end users, managing drivers, and so on.

Most IT admins spend far too much time dealing with the nitty-gritty of the print environment. Basic printer support and print-related issues account for a disproportionate number of helpdesk calls. That puts the IT department in response mode. They’re too busy focusing on fixing issues instead of finding ways to make print management more efficient.

That’s the real financial impact of this constant drain on IT resources. It’s not just the cost of helpdesk calls. It’s the lost productivity from always putting out fires. It’s the inability to make fundamental, long-term optimizations to the print environment.

This problem can be split into two categories. The first is cybersecurity vulnerabilities, such as PrintNightmare, which exploited a vulnerability in spoolers. Since print servers rely on spoolers to work correctly, any company using print servers was at risk. Even though PrintNightmare was in 2021, it exposed how print servers presented a weak spot in cybersecurity.

The second major problem, especially in regulated industries, is a lack of secure print. When employees print, there’s a gap between actually pressing “print” and picking up the printout. Depending on the organization, this can cause a HIPAA violation, divulge proprietary information, or compromise personally identifiable information (PII). To combat this, some companies purchase a printer for each employee printing sensitive information. While this might be compliant, it’s far from ideal.

Simplifying the print environment with serverless printing infrastructure like Vasion Print leads to fewer moving parts. Eliminate print servers and eliminate everything that goes along with them: hardware, software, maintenance, hassle, security risks, and costs. At the same time, printer support becomes easier. Serverless printing creates the platform for centralized management, which allows you to oversee and control the entire print environment from one Admin Console. Print management software from Vasion also features a Self-Service Installation Portal. This empowers end users to easily identify and safely install printers—plus any associated drivers—on their own.

Advanced print management software also provides security features. Some examples of these include:

• Secure Release Printing: Print jobs are delayed until the user arrives at the printer and scans their badge, inputs a PIN, or uses the Mobile App to release the print job.

• Off-Network Printing: This allows employees to print without granting them access to the network.

• Delegated Release: A user can delegate retrieving the print job to another employee to collect the document.
  

Companies in every industry see quantifiable benefits from eliminating their print servers. 

Transportation and Logistics

Both transportation and logistics businesses rely on precision to track moving parts and ensure supply chains are uninterrupted. A key component of this is printing. One large logistics company has over 50 buildings and 1,500 printers. Installing a new printer on one of the company’s 1,400 PCs used to take over five minutes. Getting Vasion’s print management system allowed the company to eliminate print servers and gave employees a simple interface that permits them to install their own printers. “It was easy for us to set up and easy for our employees to learn,” said the company’s desktop services manager. “It made it so much easier for our non-technical employees to install their own printers.”

Then there’s critical print. Every minute of delay when it comes to printing shipping labels, packing lists, consignment notes, or certificates costs the company. Not to mention the importance of cross-border documentation, a GDPR requirement in the European Union. Rather than getting a separate solution for managing critical print, Vasion Output gives transportation and logistics companies a single source of truth for all printing. Connectors to ERP systems, such as SAP, pull in data so all print-related information is accessible from one interface.

Healthcare

Healthcare companies also heavily rely on printing and have strict regulatory requirements to protect patient information, making secure print all the more critical. Secure release printing prevents papers from being left on the printer, and delegated release maintains security even if the person doing the printing can’t be the one to collect the printout. 

“Secure Release Printing will make it easier for us to be compliant with the PHI and HIPAA regulations,” says Saber Healthcare Sr. Systems Engineer Adam Dishong. “By having security features to protect patient information, we’ll be able to reduce the size of our fleet and ask end users to walk around the corner to pick up their print job.” Employees can easily add printers with just a few clicks rather than calling the helpdesk, which helps employees that move between buildings frequently. The company estimates that by implementing Vasion’s print management software, they’ve reduced print-related helpdesk tickets by 75%. In total, Saber Healthcare saves $150,000 annually after switching to Vasion Print.

Government

Government organizations have never been under more pressure to operate efficiently with fewer resources. As such, IT directors in those organizations might feel they have to choose between maintaining headcount and investing in new solutions. Fortunately, with self-service printing, secure print, and the eliminated cost of print servers, government organizations can easily use print management software that allows them to do more with less.

The City of Nashua in New Hampshire was already using print management software when they realized they needed a more robust solution. They were still plagued by print server problems and got over 50 print-related helpdesk tickets per month. After implementing Vasion Print, they’ve seen a 20% reduction in overall helpdesk tickets. Now they can spend their time on more important projects. “Vasion Print makes everything more seamless,” said Technical Operations Manager Nate Llyod. “It just works.”

The results can be the same for your company. Organizations in every industry can see benefits from eliminating print servers. Spending less time on printer support will free up resources to streamline the print environment. And streamlining the print environment will be quicker and less costly, thanks to Vasion’s powerful, easy-to-use features. To see these features in action, schedule a demo today.