The Datamax Thinking Blog

You'll have a tough time delivering a quality customer experience if they have to wait around while you're on a grand adventure for hard copies.

Hard copy documents are talented at hiding away when you need them the most. You have to go on an office safari every time to track them, which cuts into the time you could spend on your work duties. Even a few minutes per day adds up. It's time to throw paper in the trash and get digital with your documents.

On every list of success factors or reasons for failure, you'll find communication.

You can have the best of times or you can have the worst of times when it comes to buying or leasing a fleet of photocopiers with a managed print service contract.

If you have the wisdom to carefully research your office equipment partner, you can look forward to years of hassle-free productivity. 

If you foolishly take shortcuts and settle for any old vendor, prepare for years of lost days on the phone frantically trying to get your equipment to work.

The difference between wisdom and foolishness is communication. Only by talking to your potential vendors can you avoid long years of digital copiers that just don't seem to function.

Identifying less-explored operational costs within a business can be difficult – the cost of enterprise printing is just one such challenge.

In document-intensive industries such as legal, technology can do a lot of heavy lifting for you. Technology can’t solve challenges alone – you have to understand your business processes and then be sure to select the right technology tool you’re your needs. Done correctly, technology can automate tasks – giving you time back in your day to focus on the 101 tasks you juggle.

Here’s a list of common business challenges – and potential solutions to those challenges – that can make a difference in your office.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you don’t know how much you print, then you don’t know how much you’re spending on print – in either time or with your budget.

A commonly used and accepted statistic based on research from industry analyst Gartner is that you can save up to 30% of your printing costs by partnering with a managed print services (MPS) provider. 

But what does that number mean? It’s so abstract. And what are some of the hidden printing costs? 

Here are 8. 

If you’re experiencing any of the following issues regularly, you’re wasting time when you don’t need to.

I can’t think of many worse ways to start a Monday than by having to immediately troubleshoot an unscheduled firmware upgrade that has played havoc with your users’ connections to the copiers in your office. 

Managing the various office devices is a little bit like cleaning your house – it has to be done, and it’s a great feeling when you’ve finished, but no one actually likes doing it. 

Is your partner strategic or tactical? You want a partner who keeps on top of changing technology trends and can adapt new technology and strategies to help you succeed in the future.

Pursuing a managed print services strategy with an office equipment provider is a big investment in time and money. It’s critical that you take the time to ask the right questions of your potential partner – and that they give you honest answers!

We already wrote about seven critical questions a few weeks ago (Crucial Questions to Ask Your Next Equipment Provider, Part 1); here’s part 2.

Your managed print service provider (we prefer to think of this as managed services “partner”) can help show you ways to reduce your printing costs.

Here’s what managed print services is in a nutshell:

You pay for a set number of prints and copies per month (and a pre-determined fee for anything over that set number) from equipment managed by your partner.

For most contracts, you supply paper and staples. The mix of copiers, multifunction printers, printers, and/or fax machines and software to track and manage the printing and copying is supplied by your partner. Printing costs are rarely tracked, but these costs eat into your bottom line. By exposing the costs of printing, you improve your budget AND productivity by printing only what you really need.

There are no stupid questions (though we’ve all heard some stupid answers before!).

When it comes to deciding who to partner with for your copier and other office equipment – whether for purchase, lease, and/or maintenance – asking questions is an important part of the selection process. Truthfully, looking at companies that sell copiers and selecting the right partner can make or break how effective your technology purchase, lease, and/or software implementation will be.

We’ve put together a short list of questions to help you separate the contenders from the pretenders.