Nothing provides more insight into the inner workings of your print environment than a print assessment. And when it comes to optimizing your print environment, print assessments – a standard fixture of any Managed Print Service (MPS) – are the best way to gain clarity on improvements needed.
A print assessment is exactly what you would think it is: It’s a process of analyzing a company’s printing environment to identify areas for improvement and cost reduction. A successful print assessment requires an understanding of the organization’s printing needs and a thorough evaluation of the current printing infrastructure.
What’s the goal of a print assessment?
Let’s start off by looking at the bigger picture. What’s the goal you’re trying to achieve with a print assessment?
Not every business has the same needs and goals, so a tailor-made experience is what is the need of the hour. Some companies may be looking to cut down on costs, so their goal is to make printing more cost-efficient. Some may be ready to spend money upfront to increase their workflow efficiency and employees’ output. And some may just be looking to go green and are looking for the best alternatives to achieve that.
Depending on your priorities, a print assessment focuses on specific aspects that will help flourish your print environment and your organization’s goals. An MPS print assessment typically involves analyzing the company’s printing habits, including the number and types of devices used, the volume and types of print jobs, and the associated costs. The assessment may also examine the organization’s printing processes and workflows and the security and compliance risks associated with the printing environment.
Considering the following components are key to any successful print assessment so you can carry out your daily tasks without having to worry about your print network:
#1 Data collection
A thorough understanding of your organization’s current printing environment, including the number and types of devices, usage patterns, and costs associated with printing, is a crucial step.
This is done while mapping the locations of the devices. A comprehensive review of the printing infrastructure, including software and print management tools is also done. This step helps understand which devices are doing the majority of the work and which devices are no longer worth being leased as they are not working up to the needs of your organization.
Malfunctioning devices can thus be replaced, which will decrease downtime and increase productivity. Through a holistic approach to the print environment, it’s possible to consolidate a large number of printers and copiers into fewer, larger multifunction printers that are strategically placed to optimize the organization’s overall print volume and minimize costs.
#2 In-depth analysis of device usage
To understand the actual print usage across your organization’s networked and non-networked devices, data collection tools play an important role.
These tools can assess device usage by type, age, and preferred color as well as offer basic information, illustrating usage patterns during a document’s life cycle.
Analyzing device usage can help identify problems that may have been overlooked previously. For example, you may profit from swapping out your large, complicated copiers for smaller, more straightforward ones if you have fewer employees or less space on your floors. Digitizing your documents can be another way of managing storage while eliminating costs.
#3 Document workflow analysis
Carrying out a document workflow analysis is an essential component of a print assessment to evaluate and optimize document management processes within your organization.
This involves thoroughly examining how documents are created, edited, stored, and printed By mapping out the existing workflows, potential pain points and challenges can be identified enabling your MPS provider to suggest ways in which tasks can be streamlined and completed with more efficiency.
#4 Evaluating the total cost of ownership (TCO) & printing costs
After taking a deeper dive into understanding habits and device usage, an analysis of the total cost of printing, including the cost of supplies, maintenance, and energy consumption, is then created.
A review of all print-related costs helps you understand if you’re paying a fair rate and if there’s any room for savings. Additional overhead costs like paying for repairs when your printer or copier is down could significantly hike up your expenses if it’s something that happens often. If the machinery is broken down, your organization could even suffer a great loss of revenue if no replacement is sent in the interim.
In some cases, the repair could take days, and this could completely disrupt the workflow of the documents and the functioning of the organization by causing traffic in certain areas with well-working machinery. Reviewing your current print costs and future expenses will help smooth out the processes and help your printing infrastructure be more efficient.
#5 The Implementation plan
What’s the obvious next step once the problem and route cause has been identified? Finding a solution or workaround that’s tailored to your business.
A summary of findings and recommendations will be put together to improve your organization’s printing environment, including cost savings opportunities, process improvements, and technology upgrades. The assessment will also include an implementation plan with timelines and responsible parties.
This can help shine a light on inefficient processes that unknowingly hamper the smooth functioning of your organization. For example, document management software can be implemented in cases where the volumes of the copies being printed are in excess.
With an automated invoice entry and approval, you can significantly reduce your monthly printing volume by over a thousand pages. A sharp decrease in these unsupervised printing errors can remarkably help reduce additional overhead costs while also helping your organization use sustainable ways.
#6 Sustainability Analysis and Environmental Impact
An evaluation of the organization’s printing security policies and compliance with regulatory requirements is done to ensure they are implemented and followed strictly.
The impact that certain printing habits can have on the environment is not something to be ignored. Your organization’s environmental impact is analyzed, including the amount of paper and energy used, and the potential for cost savings through sustainable printing practices.
Additional Print Audit software can be enabled that creates ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ rules to guide your team. An example of a soft rule would be a prompt displayed questioning the end user if the document being printed single-sided is really of utmost importance. If a double-sided print can be done instead, it would help save the environment. Another example of a prompt would be limiting the printing done from web browsers to only black and white instead of using colors. This is especially in cases where insignificant documents are printed in color when not needed.
Want to schedule a print assessment for your business?
It’s not unusual for a business to not know the real cost of its print environment or the most effective way to optimize it.
At Flynn’s, we’ll support you to shape your print environment to enable productivity and high-quality results.
We understand that it can be confusing to unearth what needs improving within your print environment. This is why we take a step-by-step approach to learning about your print devices, activity, and costs before recommending solutions.
If you’re interested in carrying out a print assessment for your organization or have any questions about your current print environment, reach out via the options below and our team will be happy to assist you.
