Managed Print Services (MPS) for small businesses can create an opportunity to capture increased efficiencies and cost savings.
From unnecessary paper waste to time lost hunting down a physical document, your small business might be overlooking the main culprit when it comes to a bottom line that falls short of expectations: your company’s printing habits.
Whether you’re creating the budget for a new startup or just trying to better manage expenses at your existing small to medium-sized business, strong print policies, or the lack thereof, can make a major difference when it comes to annual operating costs. By working with a Managed Print Services (MPS) provider, you can stop spending valuable time and resources on printing and instead invest more in your small business’s success.
Managing print costs
While it seems like just about every business process has gone online, physical documents will continue to be relevant throughout the foreseeable future. Whether it’s day-to-day documents, bills or receipts, your small business won’t be entirely eliminating paper any time soon. However, what you can eliminate is unnecessary printer expense.
Although large organisations might come to mind when you consider MPS, businesses of all sizes can actually benefit from the solutions offered by MPS providers. These companies offer services that can optimise or help manage your team’s document and output — regardless of how many employees you have. This can lead to some serious printing cost savings.
A survey by Research and Markets found that companies big and small are beginning to utilise print solutions in an effort to capture new efficiencies and fuel growth. Traditionally, enterprises made up a large proportion of MPS users. Now, though, small business owners are beginning to take advantage of the ability to optimise their resource usage and reallocate spending in a way that boosts their bottom lines.
As digitalisation becomes increasingly commonplace across SMBs, finding the right MPS solution will play a major part in helping business owners to streamline processes and minimise operational expenditure.
Scaling office technology
Every small business owner dreams of building their organisation from the ground up, eventually adding new employees and one day expanding to new locations. But what happens if your print environment can’t withstand the challenge?
As a business begins to grow, it can be easy for digitised information to become siloed within different departments. Employees who have been with you since day one may struggle when it comes to effective communications with new team members, explained Score, a leading network of SMB mentors. The majority of small businesses start out with basic record-keeping solutions, relying on paper documents for day-to-day operations as well as essential administrative functions such as payroll.
A study by Nintex, a process management and automation software provider, found that almost half of respondents had witnessed how broken document processes and siloed data contributed to decreased productivity. Of the 1,000 respondents, 49% said they had trouble locating documents, 43% struggled with document approval requests and sharing and 33% encountered issues with document versioning.
When your business can’t keep up with data and fails to manage a growing collection of files, cloud-enabled organisational print solutions can provide your team with the clarity it needs to access and share documents with ease. Minimise the time being spent on trying to track down documents so that your team can focus on growing your business and helping new customers.
Addressing your unique printing needs
According to Small Business Trends, 64% of small-business owners have no visibility into how much their printing devices are costing them — they lack the tools to track and monitor overall spending, let alone individual user habits and print waste. MPS will help you to overcome this challenge and provide the expertise in best print practices you’ll need to reduce spending over the long term, starting with a print audit.
A print audit, also referred to as a print assessment, is an evaluation of your current printing environment. Your MPS provider will work with you to answer important questions such as:
- What devices are in your current environment? How old are they?
- How much are you printing in colour versus in black only?
- Which users are responsible for the most print volume?
By working with an MPS partner, you’ll be able to gather data and track user behaviour to generate actionable insights into your current workflows, helping you to optimise your existing systems as well as your future printer fleet as your company grows. As you look for new ways to manage printing expenses and capture efficiencies, the print service provider you work with should provide assistance in developing a long-term print strategy that makes the most sense for your small business.
Deploying Managed Print Services for small businesses
Print management can quickly become overwhelming for even the most experienced small business owner, but the right MSP can help. The managed print solution you select should work with you and your team to determine your current and future needs and then create a flexible contract that helps you to reach your ultimate potential.
At Brother, we offer solutions to your company’s unique printing needs, no matter the scale or nature of the challenges you’re facing. Whether you’re searching for a new way to manage existing hardware or want a partner to take care of every aspect of printing, there is an MPS feature that can match your needs.
If you’re ready to take a more efficient and effective approach to printing solutions and your document workflow, get in touch with us today and find out what MPS can do for you.
