Oxygen Technical Services Ltd

How to Assess Your Print and Copy Needs

Whether you’re starting a new business, upgrading your entire printer fleet, or looking for ways to reduce paper and printing expense, it’s essential to step back and take a complete look at your printing needs. A comprehensive inventory of your existing print and copy hardware is only one step in that direction.

Conducting an in-depth review of what is printed, copied, filed, and faxed can shed light on how your business operates, and how you can do it more efficiently.

What is a Printing Assessment?

Printing assessments consist of observing and gathering print information for a period of time, and analyzing the findings to determine where documents and other materials can be managed differently and more efficiently. All types of print activity are considered:

• Printing
• Copying
• Faxing
• Scanning

This assessment includes all print hardware, scanners, copy machines, and fax machines. Both workgroup, enterprise, and desktop devices are part of the analysis. Once the review of print and copy needs is completed, other factors are considered:

• Print hardware costs
• Maintenance and support requirements and expense
• On-going cost of supplies

At the completion of this assessment, recommendations can be made for more effective use of resources, changes in business processes, productivity gains, and the associated cost benefits.

Why Businesses Need a Print Assessment

Without a clear picture of actual printing needs, how can a business know whether they’re approaching the subject effectively?

• Under-estimating print capacity for necessary functions
• Avoid getting sold more hardware than you need
• Increased costs for maintenance and supplies

Benefits of a Comprehensive Print Assessment

There are many benefits to be realized through conducting an assessment of business printing functions:

• Determining how much printing, copying, and scanning hardware you need
• Identifying unused or little-used devices that are costing money needlessly
• Uncovering inefficient business processes such as copying documents that could be distributed electronically
• Review the use of desktop printers vs. workgroup or departmental multifunction devices
• Centralize service and maintenance agreements, simplifying administrative functions
• Understanding printing needs across multiple offices that may have different management
• Gain insight into how documents are used – and where
• Identify weaknesses in security or compliance issues with regulatory agencies

An independent document and print assessment can help businesses eliminate obsolete practices such as generating unnecessary document copies, filing records that are never retrieved, and even storage retention for documents – costing time and money to maintain and manage.

Getting Started with a Print Assessment

Taking that first step toward a total assessment of print and copy needs can be confusing when attempted internally. It’s more efficient to elicit professionals who are experienced in both business operations and modern printing capabilities to take an impartial review of all paper flow to understand what is copied, printed, faxed, and scanned by all personnel.

First Phase Data provides businesses in the Winnipeg, Canada area with a complete review of all print and copy needs including:

• Equipment inventory to eliminate or replace existing equipment with modern multifunction devices that perform more functions with higher quality, faster operation, and improved security
• Cost reduction by better management of supplies and maintenance agreements
• Increased productivity through digitizing documents for fast distribution and collaboration
• Reduce overall printing costs while increasing environmental responsibility
• Mobile document distribution to wireless devices easily and securely

A thorough print assessment will not only reveal how businesses can reduce print and copy needs, but will also audit your workload to ensure you only implement the printing services you need.

Implementing Managed Print Services

Having completed an assessment of actual printing needs, businesses can make informed decisions on print capabilities that are truly required to operate efficiently. Many Canadian companies can benefit from implementing a program of managed print services (MPS). Such a program increases productivity and saves money in many ways:

• Managed service and maintenance from a single source
• Increased reliability of high-performance equipment with additional functionality
• Environmental sustainability through toner recycling programs and reduced paper consumption
• Improved security with integrated protection features of modern multifunction devices such as requiring PIN codes for printing confidential documents
• Remote monitoring of printer devices for timely maintenance and toner replacements
• No reliance on IT teams to manage print devices – let First Phase Data in Winnipeg, Canada do the work
• Right-size your printer fleet to your actual needs, with the flexibility to grow as needed

First Phase Data will customize a managed print services program tailored exactly to your print and copy needs.

First Phase Data – Your Source for Print Assessment and Managed Print Services

First Phase Data is a full-service provider of small business and enterprise printing solutions. Our customers count on us to provide the latest technology in copy, print, fax, and scanning equipment:

• Multifunction printers from leading manufacturers such as Fujitsu, HP, Xerox, and others
• Wide format printers for businesses that utilize larger format documents
• Maintenance and service for your entire printer fleet

Contact First Phase Data today to schedule a complete print assessment for your business.