Why Your IT Department Wishes You Had Someone Else To Deal With Printers
You're feverishly trying to get your latest sales report printed for the management team. You've spent the better part of the last two weeks slaving over this all-important document, and now all you need is the printer to work. But alas, the stars are not aligned, and no matter how many times you turn your printer off and back on, paper just won't come out of it with your brilliant sales analysis. Time to contact IT, which you know is going to lead to a million questions such as:
What's the error message on the printer?
Are you using the correct print driver? (what's a print driver anyway?!)
What program are you printing from?
When did you last print that it worked? (I don't remember what I had for lunch!)
Can others print or is it just you?
Is the printer on? Are the cables plugged in? (Seriously?!)
Did you try to turn it off and turn it back on? (yep, sure did!)
Did you enter a support ticket?
In the meantime, your meeting is in 15 minutes, and you've been at this battle with the printer for the better part of the last hour. As you answer all of these questions in hopes that the magic answer will appear from behind the clouds, we all realize this printer problem will require someone to come out and physically look at the machine. And IT is working on a mission-critical project for customer service that has to be implemented within the next two days. You can do something about this quandary, and it's called Managed Print Services.
Nearly 25% of all IT help desk calls are printer issues. Imagine that those calls are passed on to the professionals who deal with copiers and printers every day. This is easily done by outsourcing your print management to a managed print provider. This person will now be your single point of contact for all printer-related issues (meaning IT is finally free to get your new CRM fully functional or your ERP system's latest update loaded). A managed print provider will:
Monitor your printer fleet and assist with charge back processes with print management software
Regularly audit your printer usage and provide valuable insight into how to manage your fleet more efficiently
Have toner sent automatically when the printer's toner levels reaches a specified level
Schedule preventive maintenance when it's convenient for YOUR company
Work with your management to set up print rules to help streamline your costs
We understand you have an IT staff, and this has always just been part of their job. But it doesn't have to be. For a fixed fee each month, your IT staff can focus on what technology issues are most important for your organization, while we manage your print fleet. That's OUR job, and we're good at it. If any of this story resonates, we encourage you to contact us at 843.769.7774 or sales@theofficepeople.com. At The Office People™, we are your one stop business solutions headquarters.
Courtesy of fraser-ais.com
