An office is only as good as its people, but if your team is struggling with outdated equipment, you could be missing out on valuable potential. Take a look around. Where are your employees struggling? There’s a good chance you mentioned several office equipment classics such as the printer, scanner, or fax machine. It’s time to upgrade.

Multifunction printers are more than just a way to copy those expense reports. They can transform your office’s center into a productive, easy to use and easy to monitor hub for your office productivity. Let’s take a look at what multifunctional printers can do for your office and the top three reasons you need to make the switch now.

What Can Multifunction Printers Do For My Organization?

Desk printers are notoriously inefficient. They print a page per minute and use a ton of ink. There’s no way to monitor usage, and if you’ve ever tried to print handouts right before a meeting, you’re familiar with the panic of not getting everything finished.

Multifunction printers handle more than just your printing. They also copy, scan, fax, and email. “But I already have desktop printers, a fax machine, and a computer perfectly capable of handling those tasks,” you say, and you’re right. If that’s all a multifunction printer means to you, you’re missing out on your true productivity potential.

Why Should I Switch To A Multifunction Printer?

Multifunction printers aren’t solely about those tasks. Instead, think of them as the gateway to getting all your unstructured data managed. Shifting your focus away from just “feed and speed” thinking opens up the real potential of multifunction printers. Let’s take a look at what that true potential is for your organization.

Digitize Documents

How much time do you spend looking for a physical copy of an agreement or record for historical precedent? Multifunction printers offer the chance to turn those unsecured paper documents into a searchable system right at your fingertips.

Upgrading your single function equipment creates a hub for digitized information. These documents can be routed through your organization, eliminating the need for bulky paper records. Although you may never get rid of your paper copies, you could have a searchable library, customized to your specific workflow and readily available for your team.

Improve Security

Digitizing sensitive documents is a big step, but multifunction printers have security measures in place to ease your mind. They’re networked the way computers would be with built-in security features that patch holes and prevent hackers from accessing information.

They also allow you to set permissions for documents, keeping your most sensitive information behind a digital lock and key, and allow you to track activity to find out who is obeying protocols. Individual access codes define those permissions, and for your old school employees, you have the option of features like secure pull printing, which keeps sensitive documents from sitting in an output tray even for a second.

Upgrade Ease Of Use And Support

Many multifunction printers now come with user-friendly displays designed to work the way our smartphones and tablets do. Instead of black and white displays with minimal information, employees can visually search through options with a touch screen, eliminating or reducing time spent on training and customer support.

Multifunction printers also come with managed support now. A team of experts is available to handle security updates, questions for more sensitive or complicated office needs, and to perform audits designed to set up your multifunction printer more efficiently.

Multifunction printer vendors are committed to providing office and enterprise management through workflow optimization. This could include automatic shipment for toner and supplies, automatic meter readings, customer service support or a dedicated account manager, and regular servicing plus productivity audits.

How Do I Choose The Right Multifunction Printer?

You know that switching to a multifunction printer can improve your workflow, security, and sustainability while saving valuable employee effort by automating maintenance and updates, but there are still a lot of options out there. Choosing the right one can be overwhelming at first, but here are a few key points to keep in mind:

• Laser versus inkjet: laser printers use a combination of powder toner and high heat while inkjet uses liquid ink and digital print heads. Both have advantages and disadvantages so talk to your provider about which could be the better solution for your organization.
• Output: how much printing power do you really need? High volume enterprise solutions will have a different answer to this question than a smaller nonprofit, for example, so a full office workflow audit may help you make the best decision.
• Resolution: most multifunction printers have much better resolution than an old desktop printer, but you’ll still have to make decisions about how high your resolution should be. Design firms may need accurate color representation while law offices need enough black and white resolution to read digitized documents.
• Energy star certifications: how often do you use the printer? Settings like sleep mode, duplex printing, and toner saver modes help you increase sustainability and decrease the overall cost of operation.
• Format: If your office engages in any kind of PR or marketing, you may benefit from wide format options. Even if your office isn’t in marketing, consider how often you send out large format print jobs to the office supply company down the street and add that to your multifunction printer guide. It could free up valuable resources by keeping those print jobs in house.

Making The Switch

A managed print service is an excellent way to switch to a multifunctional printer and office hub without significant downtime. It also helps you make the best decision for your office’s needs, so you’re neither overpaying for features you never use, or underpaying and kicking yourself for missing that one feature your office really needs.

Our team is excited to help your office make the transition from your outdated single-use equipment to the multifunction printer and managed services right for your workflow. Contact us to schedule an appointment and turn your office equipment from a fight to flow.