Managed Print Services is incomplete without Fleet Management
The right Managed Print Service ensures that consumables never run out, machines are proactively maintained, and costs are reduced – thanks to remote fleet management via the cloud.
There are two parts to Managed Print Services (MPS). The first is around controlling wastage and identifying who is printing what, but the second is just as important, ensuring you get the maximum performance and potential out of each print device in the business.
Heinrich Fourie, COO at Symbiosys IT, says that this is known as fleet management and involves using agents to enable proactive management of these devices.
Effective management of print devices helps decrease the organisation’s carbon footprint – making it more environmentally friendly – while also reducing wear and tear on individual machines and cutting down on the cost of peripherals and maintenance.
Says Fourie, “You can deploy agents that alert you when paper or toner is running low, provides early warning when a device is about to fail and enables you to make sure you have new parts on hand in time.”
“With MPS, you can set thresholds for individual machines to order new consumables. So, for example, a machine that is in high use may order new paper and toner every few days, while a less used one will only order when its capacity is down to 30%.”
Chris Rube, general manager at Oxbow, suggests that when it comes to these alerts, the MPS provider will set these to ensure that they receive timeous warnings. “We may set a toner alert to provide us with a three-day advance warning, giving us time to process it, acquire the toner and replace it. This usually takes place without the customer even being aware there was an issue.”
Symbiosys and Oxbow highly recommend and supply a fleet management solution called KPAX – which is vendor-agnostic, centralised, and cloud-based. “What makes KPAX unique to other fleet management systems out there is that we also offer a proprietary hardware agent in favour of the traditional software agent,” says Rubé.
The hardware agent called KPAX-Liberty is not susceptible to viruses, or other issues like employees uninstalling machines or reinstalling software, which makes it a very stable and reliable option.
Says Rubé, “This reduces costs significantly, as most issues can be resolved remotely through proper analysis. And if a physical repair is required, the technician knows exactly what has gone wrong and can ensure they arrive with the right tools and the correct replacement part.”
Fourie adds, for those larger enterprises that require a more customised approach when it comes to reporting and interpretation of MPS data, there is a plugin called Intuitive for PaperCut. “Intuitive plugs natively into PaperCut and allows organisations to create a fully interactive business intelligence (BI) dashboard to which you can export and display the data.”
“Essentially, MPS helps customers reduce challenges created by a lack of peripherals or device breakdowns, limit maintenance costs and free up more internal resources to focus on the company’s core business.”
“Why should your employees be distracted by dealing with paper and toner issues, or your helpdesk inundated with calls to repair broken machines? Using an MPS provider eliminates these challenges while saving you time, money and letting you drive your business forward,” concludes Fourie.
