It is one of the facts of life that no matter how well you take care of your printers and carefully check all the parts there will be at least one major machinery crisis that will bring the office to a grinding halt.

In companies that handle a high volume of clients and need to work to deadlines for the most efficient service possible this is a serious problem, however; luckily it is one that is avoidable.

For thousands of years the letter of the law has governed society.  Now the tables have turned and it is the law being ruled by three promising and essential letters: MPS.

MPS, or, Managed Print Service, is an indispensible printing system that gives you more control, savings and security without too many drastic changes to your existing office protocol.

Managed Print Service is a way to organize and maintain the printing, copying, and faxing devices throughout the office.  MPS turns several, separate devices into a unified fleet.  The added bonus is that MPS promotes digitizing print files so that your office can become paper free or, at the very least, more paper friendly.  Digitization, in turn, leads to easier file retrieval practices and higher security for confidential documents that, in paper form, are much more likely to fall into the wrong hands.  Finally, MPS comes with a support service that takes care of maintenance and upgrades, which saves your company money – an expense you may not even have realized is eating into your profits.

Though some companies may have ad-hoc IT departments or luck out and have an employee who is a technology wizard, Xerox conducted a survey which, “found that fewer than one third of 
those [companies] surveyed have a single person or role responsible for managing and maintaining print services at enterprise level.”

This is a risky situation where many companies are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk because they don’t have their bases covered or managed properly.

Though we are not saying that printer doomsday is fast approaching the very real possibility of a breakdown should give you pause to think about exactly what you would do if there was an IT crash.  Even if you do have a designated IT department would they be able to handle the repairs?  Would the office be in flux and for how long? Is it even worth the stress of wondering if your system might not be able to solve the problem?

If efficiency, security and savings are the name of the game and there is a system out there that can achieve all these and then some it may be worth looking at what else MPS is capable of offering your business.

Gartner research has shown that businesses can spend between 1% to 3% of their revenue on printing costs.  From toner to paper to machine maintenance the costs of keeping a fleet of printers, scanner and fax machines in tip-top form are daunting.  Toner and repairs actually only account for 30% of your total printing costs.  So where does all that money go?  If you are drawing a blank and trying to mentally sift through years’ worth of receipts then never fear – you are not alone.  Most companies have no idea about their printing expenses and of how those dollars and cents add up.

In a law firm though there is a second and almost more pressing concern than cost: security.  Regular InkJet printers are notorious for losing jobs and then spitting them out later at odd times.  This unreliable machine is a serious liability especially situated in a firm that survives on promises of confidentiality and discretion.

Finally, the beauty of an MPS strategy is that right off the top an expert conducts an assessment which establishes your current spending, paper use, volume, and creates a plan on how to improve all of these factors until they meet your goals.  The baseline is vital to the success of the strategy and is something that is far more easily measured with a machine called an MFP: Multi Function Printer.

Multi Function Printers are a Godsend to business that require a machine that can handle a huge volume of printing, faxing and scanning jobs and are programmed with special features that keep files on lock down and away from prying eyes.  MFPs are 20-40% less the cost of InkJet printers plus all other single-use devices.  They require 40-50% less space and boost productivity exponentially.  Paper jams, day-to-day maintenance and printing jobs or faxes that evaporated into thin air are things of the past.

MFPs also give you the option of digitizing your files, which can be handy for law offices.  Rather than wrestling with binders and briefs keeping the files digital will help you stay more organized and on the occasions where you do have to print the MFP will store the job for you until you are ready to collect it.  Just punch in your password and your employee lineup will come up ready to print, digitize or send whatever file you want.

IT departments are much better suited to get one or two do-all machines working seamlessly together on the same network rather than trying to coordinate dozens of mediocre machines to work only half the time.  It is this confusion that leads to so easily losing track of your printing costs until one day you realize that you are quite literally bleeding ink.

MFPs are available for lease or purchase so if you want to try out the machine before you commit fully you have that option.  We warn you though: they are highly addictive.

MPS and MFPs go hand-in-hand in terms of improving office workflow and organization.  In law time is money and clients are not impressed with lost documents, incomplete files or banker boxes full of notes.  Keep things simple for everyone in and outside of the office by keeping all your documents safely stored, ready for use at any moment without any hassle or shuffling papers, and without the worry that your office machines will fail you and your clients when they need them.

To find out how much your business is currently spending on print, click here for your free print assessment: