Managing a print fleet across multiple locations is no simple task.
Multi-site businesses typically have to juggle countless administrative tasks between their offices. And if each office has its own way of doing things, management becomes a nightmare.
Disorganized, unstandardized businesses create chaos not only for their employees, but for you, their IT providers.
And one of the biggest offenders of creating systemic chaos? Print fleets.
If your national client has 20 locations, each with different methods of printing, things get messy when networks, which are often interconnected with print fleets, need troubleshooting.
It is in your MSP’s and your client’s best interest to standardize their print fleet.
Print standardization is when a single-managed print services (MPS) provider offers the same devices and services to each location across a multi-site national business.
Here at Print Partner, we’re committed to developing relationships between MSPS across the country and our parent company, Green Office Partner. Green Office Partner is a national MPS provider that works with multi-site clients that need their fleets standardized. We’ve been around the block, and we know all about organizing multi-site print infrastructures.
Standardizing a print fleet across a multi-location company offers numerous benefits, including:
- Increased Efficiency
- Cost Savings
- Improved Security
- Streamlined Inventory Management.
In this article, we’ll go over each point in detail.
Increased Efficiency
Every business is looking for ways to improve company efficiency. Who doesn’t want more bang for their buck?
Standardizing print is an easy and effective way to boost a company’s efficiency by a large margin, making operations run smoother and faster. Standardization proves to make a huge difference, especially within print-reliant companies.
Here are some of the ways print standardization can increase efficiency:
1. Consistent User Experience
By standardizing the print fleet, employees at all locations can work with the same type of printers.
For managers that work at multiple locations, or for employees that travel or relocate to different sites, having the standard process and similar equipment across an organization makes their experiences hassle-free.
Standard print reduces downtime caused by confusion or unfamiliarity with different printers, which improves overall productivity. Win, win.
2. Improved Document Management
With standard printers in all locations, employees can easily share documents and collaborate on projects. This leads to improved document management and better communication across different sites.
Standardization also helps with remote training.
At some large companies, especially in our post-COVID online world, managers will have employees that work at other sites. Orienting them on document workflow becomes a breeze if both locations have identical devices and processes.
3. Improved Troubleshooting
In case of technical issues, IT departments can more easily diagnose and resolve problems with a standard fleet.
MSPs don’t have time to learn 100 different printer models from 10 different device manufacturers. But if each location uses the same 2 or 3 Xerox devices, MSP technicians will know what to expect when troubleshooting network issues and what to look for if those issues are print device-related.
The IT department can access the same training and resources for each type of printer, allowing them to resolve issues more quickly and effectively.
Cost Savings
Print devices ain’t cheap! Office-sized copiers are complex machines and can be hefty investments for your clients.
Thankfully, standardizing your client’s print fleet can provide significant savings. Here are some of the biggest areas that standardizing a print fleet can lead to savings:
1. Bulk Purchasing Savings
Standardizing a print fleet allows for bulk purchasing, which reduces costs and provides high-volume discounts.
When your client purchases 100 devices across 10 locations, these savings add up quickly!
Additionally, having a standard fleet can reduce service and support costs. An MPS provider providing support for multiple sites is typically much cheaper than a different MPS dealing with each site, since a “master” print vendor would charge a bulk service rate.
2. Lower Training and Onboarding Costs
When your client standardizes their print fleet, it minimizes the need for extensive training on different types of printers, reducing the costs associated with employee training.
If machines are the same across the board, companies won’t have to waste money paying employees to sit through hours of training whenever they move departments or locations.
IT departments, and your MSP, can support employees at all locations; this will reduce downtime and improve productivity, which means less money wasted on non-productive work hours.
Keep this in mind, as clients with standardized fleets will be more cost-effective for your MSP! Your technicians won’t need to waste time fiddling with different models each time they service a different location.
Improved Security
Cyber security is a significant consideration in any business, but it's especially important to multi-site clients, which share sensitive information between sites all day, every day.
Your clients must always keep their guard up against data breaches. As their trusted MSP, you know this more than anyone.
But when it comes to security, print devices can be liabilities. Mishandled copiers and printers can be some of the easiest ways for hackers to break into clients’ networks.
And if your client has different print processes and types of devices for each location, chances are they don’t have a great handle on printing protocols.
Standardizing the print fleet improves the security of sensitive and confidential documents by ensuring that all locations use the same security protocols. This makes it much easier to manage each location's security, both for your MSP and your clients.
Your MSP’s technicians won’t have to account for 20 different locations’ print security protocols, which would be a nightmare for anyone.
And any boost to data security makes your client’s business much less likely to fall into catastrophe.
For more ways to keep print devices safe and secure, read: Top 10 Tips for Printer Security
Streamlined Inventory Management
Finally, Standardizing the print fleet simplifies the process of managing inventory.
With a standard fleet, it is easier to track and manage supplies, such as toner and paper, reducing the need for frequent reordering. This makes the jobs of office administrators and upper management much more manageable.
When fleets are standardized, it's also much easier to see if specific machines are underperforming or are being underutilized. And if new devices are needed, those can all be purchased from the same vendor.
Corporate overseers won’t have to shuffle through several directories to figure out which print vendor manages which location. Nobody wants that!
Print Partner and Standardization
Standardizing a print fleet across a multi-location company offers numerous benefits that can significantly improve a company's efficiency, cost savings, security, support, and inventory management.
By standardizing the print fleet, companies can ensure that all locations use the same equipment, making it easier to manage and maintain the fleet while reducing costs and improving security.
If your client needs to standardize their fleet, Print Partner can help them with that!
When you refer a client to Print Partner, we connect them to our parent company, Green Office Partner, which provides high-quality managed print services to national clients.
We work closely with hundreds of MSPs across the country to deliver a white-gloved, boutique print service to their multi-site clients that need it the most. We’ll clean up and standardize print fleets to streamline document workflow and save your clients, and your MSP, time and money.
Plus, we’ll pay you! For each deal we close, we’ll pay the person who registers the opportunity at least $500 for the introduction and an additional $250 per $25K in revenue the deal brings us. For the MSP, we’ll pay $1,000 per 11x17 MFP sold, $100 per printer sold, and 5% recurring revenue on the client’s print allotment. And we’ll provide exceptional client service while we’re at it.
So what are you waiting for? Help your clients and your business, and start referring today.
Partner with us, a Print Partner you can trust.
