In an intensely competitive world, actively increasing productivity is one way for an organization to succeed. In this article we look at what role your print environment can play in increasing employee productivity.
Get productive!
All organizations want to boost productivity; increasing it can grow your business and raise profitability. There are some tough challenges to overcome including fast-changing technology, increased consumer expectations and intense competition. Organizations often hire consultants to recommend changes to improve overall productivity. Such recommendations often focus on office layouts and business processes within departments. But are they missing an obvious area?
Don’t overlook print services for productivity gains
One often overlooked area of an organization is your print environment. There are many elements of print services that can help employees be more productive. While printing technology has made things easier (who among us remembers carbon copies?!), there are several additional areas that you may want to consider.
7 Ways to Print Services can Improve Productivity
Below are our super seven productivity areas to consider and how to address them.
1. Mobile and guest printing
Problem: Access to printing is restricted to workstations and employees are increasingly using mobile devices instead.
Solution: YSoft SAFEQ
Mobile Print can increase productivity and reduce wasted time for both employees and guests. Authorized users are able to quickly, seamlessly and securely print to any of their company’s printers from any device, anywhere in the world. This is all done without wasting time requesting access to the network or further assistance from IT.
Bonus: Using the YSoft SAFEQ mobile app, employees don’t have to log into the print device or remember to bring their badge. Their mobile device is always with them and with it, they can release print jobs at any printer. It’s also a quick ‘touchless’ way to get prints without touching/cleaning the printer.
2. Location
Problem: Employees are often dispersed and move around frequently. Being tied to specific printers can cause backlogs and delays.
Solution:
Print Roaming® enables seamless pull printing where users can release and collect print jobs at a time and place which is convenient for them. Print jobs can be managed easily from any printer rather than needing users to return to a desktop, enhancing employee productivity.
This is especially handy if employees are coming to the office to collect prints at assigned hours during the COVID-19 pandemic. A printer placed near a main entrance allows them to collect their prints quickly and without coming into contact with other employees.
3. Workflows, processes and repositories
Problem: The manual scanning, naming and filing of documents can be a slow and labor-intensive process. If something has not been correctly titled, tagged or filed, it is difficult and time consuming to locate.
Solution: With YSoft SAFEQ Automated Scan
Workflows, documents are digitized and securely delivered to predefined destinations, including cloud-based repositories, networked folders or email. By creating automated scan workflows for repetitive, paper-based tasks, organizations can improve their productivity. According to a recent IDC survey, 65% of workers stated that adopting digital workflows saved them time, increased productivity and reduced errors.
Bonus: The use of
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) creates digital documents that are text searchable which helps to retrieve documents quickly. And, because the documents are editable, employees can easily make changes without recreating the document or finding its original.
4. Use of the Cloud
Problem: When moving to cloud-based print services, organizations that may face latency and bandwidth issues – especially in locations where internet connection is slow or unreliable, which can slow business down.
Solution: YSoft Safe Edge Core (BETA) is a hassle-free cloud-based Print Management solution. Using edge computing, print data is processed locally, removing the risk of disruptions and delays, increasing productivity.
Bonus: The burden on IT in maintenance and other support is reduced, freeing up your time to spend on other important activities.
5. Usability
Problem: Print environments and multi-functional devices (MFDs) can be complicated and difficult to use. Users need to navigate complex scan and print settings, which can often lead to errors and frustration. Usually only a handful of core users have been properly trained on how to use them, leaving others relying on their expertise or the IT team. Having interfaces which are not user friendly is a drain on time and resources.
Solution: The YSoft SAFEQ system does not require any training to be able to use it proficiently. The user-friendly interface combined with key functionality is quick and easy to use. Both print settings and scan workflows can be predetermined, reducing a complicated process to the pressing of one button on the device's user interface. The simple user experience means that time spent at the MFD is kept to a minimum, employees can focus on more valuable activities.
6. Inevitable business changes
Problem: Organizations do not stand still. They change shape, size and location and this causes problems with a rigid print infrastructure, impacting your productivity and efficiency. The original print environment may not be fit for purpose, with systems being slow and clunky. The burden on IT is real when changes happen, and the print infrastructure cannot easily adapt. IT’s productivity is lower when resources have to be diverted to cover these changes.
Solution: YSoft SAFEQ is designed as a
platform to support organizational change, so productivity is not hindered as your needs change. The
building block modular architecture and extensibility provide a
scalable and flexible solution while delivering reliability, custom features and assured uptime. The Y Soft solution can grow/shrink to meet your requirements, keeping your print infrastructure fit for purpose so you can focus on your business.
Bonus: YSoft SAFEQ Extensions can help your organization’s new work from home situation.
View a recording of our recent webinar: Tips for Using YSoft SAFEQ to Support Home Office During the COVID-19 Lockdown.
7. Technology downtime
Problem: If your on-premises print environment changes – new operating system updates or new security protocols, for example, organizations can be faced with interrupted workflows, downtime and an increase in demand on an already overstretched IT team.
Solution: If you are not ready to move to cloud-based print services, these maintenance issues for on-premises print services can be devastating. You’ll want to be sure that your print management system is backed with software support that includes upgrades to handle these necessary changes.
Get productive with YSoft SAFEQ
As organizations continue to look for ways to increase their productivity don’t forget your print environment. You need to choose the right solution provider to meet your needs both now and in the future. YSoft SAFEQ was conceived to help businesses be smarter in how they work. Increased productivity is one way we do just that.