Is your business ready for Cloud Print Management?
How do you know if your business is suited to cloud print management? If you’re a smaller business, whether you want to track and manage or enable your printing, you have more options than running a print server on-premise. You can now manage your printing in the public cloud. But how do you know you’re suited to serverless printing? What’s the checklist? Oh you better believe that’s a hackneyed set-up for a listicle! 4 signs you’re ready for print management in the cloud 1. You’re already in the public cloud More specifically, you’re already using the public cloud for most of your organization’s work. Many SMB workplaces don’t start up with server racks for their data storage. They outsource to Google Drive or Dropbox. Likewise with the various software-as-a-service (SaaS) business applications found in the likes of Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. For these workplaces, it makes sense to also utilize cloud print management solutions. No point in just having a print server if all the rest of your work needs are satisfied by cloud-based software. 2. You’re new to print management For years you’ve had one MFP or a couple of small A4 printers used by a handful of employees in a modestly sized office. You know who’s coming and going, you know who’s printing what, you’re not printing anything more confidential than regular office documents. You’ve never felt the need for print tracking and monitoring. Especially when considering it means you have to shell out more cash for a print server and ongoing IT maintenance. Well, now is your time to dip your toe in the water. COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of cloud services for a variety of business worktools and print management is no exception. With cloud print management, you’re not purchasing any additional equipment or budgeting for resources – it removes the print server from the equation. That means no ongoing maintenance costs – that’s all-inclusive in the cloud print management SaaS model. Once upon a time, there was a barrier to print management for businesses that couldn’t justify the expenditure on infrastructure. That’s no longer the case with cloud print management solutions. 3. You’re embracing hybrid/remote working Covid-19 forced a change to professional life that was well overdue: you can be just as productive (if not more) working from home. Since undertaking remote working out of necessity during the pandemic, many businesses worldwide are adopting hybrid working models with a split between office and home working. With workers now coming and going from the office, this redefines many a workplace’s approach to printing. For end-users, sometimes they’ll need to press print in one location and collect their job at another. For IT teams and sysadmins, they require the ability to manage and track printing remotely and on location. With cloud print management and enablement, end-users can juggle between printing at home or the office. Similarly, sysadmins and IT staff can manage printing flexibly. 4. You’re an early tech adopter Print management in the public cloud isn’t new, but it’s still a maturing technology. It will take some time before cloud-native solutions reach the same feature-set and embedded functionality as on-prem and private hosted print management solutions. But for those futurists out there who love getting their hands on new technologies, cloud-native print management is your moment. Remember how smug your Gen Z coworker was when they were early on the TikTok hype train? That could be you! Interested in learning more about our Document Management solutions? Give us a call or shoot us a message here: https://boring.com/contact-us/ Source: Papercut Blog
How to Digitize Your Documents and Best Practices
Document digitization is the future of document storage for companies that want to be ahead of the curve. Work from home and hybrid work environments do not allow for traditional file storage as most companies now know it. Rising rents and flexible work schedules are also accelerating this move to digitization with many companies. In this episode of the Boring Blog, we are going to go over the rules and best practices for document digitization. Rule 1 – Decide what would need to be digitized first: Many companies start by scanning / storing all their documents. Depending on how your retention policy is set up, you may just want to start with day forward and then look at what needs to be kept. Once you decide this, you’ll need to see if you have a scanner that can handle the volume of documents needing to be digitized. Typically, you can use a desktop scanner or copier / MFP. If the volume is too large for either of these devices, you may need to look at a dedicated high-speed scanner. You may even need to look at a 3rd party that specializes in this type of work if you do not have the manpower for the project available in-office. Rule 2 – Decide how you would like the documents indexed: Once you set up how these documents are going to be named, stick to it. If you take all the time to digitize your files, index fields make sure that you can find and identify those documents in your system. If you decide to outsource, they will ask you for these fields in advance to make sure the documents are indexed correctly. Rule 3 – Decide who needs to have access to the documents: If these documents need to be accessed by large numbers of people, you may want to look at a cloud-based software to store your documents rather than local storage. You may also want to look at this if you are worried about disaster recovery or if the documents in question are mission critical. Cloud-based document management systems are highly secure and easily accessible from a web browser or even a mobile device. They also save multiple copies of your documents in different data centers in case of disaster or accidental deletion. You can also set up rules regarding who can access documents and what they can do with them. Rule 4 – How to handle the old documents: Depending on your industry, a digital copy of a document is just as compliant as a paper one. If your industry requires paper, you then need to look at the retention schedule. With this in mind, you can then look at the retention schedule of your industry and decide if you need to keep or shred them after digitization. Once you have this answer to this question, you can set up the retention policy or just securely shred the documents. In the next Boring Blog, we are going to go over how you can keep digital documents digital and make them actionable with a cloud-based Document Management System. Contact us to learn more about our Document Management Solutions! Author: Tom Hubler, Technical Solutions Consultant at Boring
The Benefits of Document Digitization
Document digitization is the future of document storage for companies now and in the future. Work from home and hybrid work environments do not allow for traditional file storage as most companies now know it. Rising rents and flexible work schedules are also accelerating this move to digitization with many companies. Right now, companies are paying $25,000 to file a file cabinet and $2,000 a year to maintain that same cabinet. The average commercial office is using 50 to 70% of the floorspace just to store those documents. This doesn’t even begin to address the companies and government agencies that use off premises storage for their documents If you need to know what it is costing your company, you can use this chart to calculate: Paper Costs = Monthly Paper Costs x 12 months File Storage Costs = Number of Filing Cabinets x 16 sq. ft. x Cost per sq. ft. of Office Space Third-Party Storage Costs = Monthly Rent x 12 months Printing Costs = Printer Rental Price + Annual Printer Maintenance Fees + Monthly Ink Cost x 12 months Printer Costs: If you purchased your printers, check your records to average their yearly cost. Print-Related Labor Costs = Labor Hours Spent Managing Paper x Average Hourly Wage x Number of Workdays per Year After you look at the cost of this to your office, you may then have to look at another aspect of paper files, accessibility. With work-from-home and hybrid environments, your workers may not be able to access the documents that they need to perform their jobs effectively. This means lower productivity and higher costs to process tasks for your company. Digitization can be easy if done right. Scanning documents into a traditional Windows folder structure could lead to more confusion and misplaced files if there is not a simple and effective way to retrieve those files when needed. This is where a Content Management System or Document Management System comes into play. These systems allow for full text search and a more structured system for filing and retrieving those documents. Bonus, they are typically cloud based, which means that they can be accessed anywhere with a secure log-in and you do not have to worry about the extra burden on your IT infrastructure. Contact us to help make your office more efficient, streamlined and productive! Author: Tom Hubler, Technical Solutions Consultant at Boring
5 Benefits Of Using A Managed Services Provider
Technology continues to play an increasingly important role within businesses of all sizes. However, the important role that technology plays within your business means that you will also have to dedicate more time and resources to keep your IT infrastructure running smoothly. Thankfully, there is an affordable solution that allows you to focus on your core business without having to worry about monitoring and maintaining your IT infrastructure – managed IT services. With managed IT services, your managed service provider is responsible for monitoring, maintaining, and updating your IT infrastructure, leaving you to focus on growing your business. Below, we’ll take a look at the top five benefits of using a managed services provider. 1) Eliminate Downtime Having part of your IT infrastructure malfunction can bring your entire business to a halt. With a managed services provider, your IT infrastructure is constantly monitored for issues and repaired the moment an issue arises, helping you eliminate costly downtime. 2) More Cost-Effective Having a managed services provider is a much more affordable solution than hiring one or more employees to maintain your IT infrastructure. This makes using a managed services provider an especially attractive choice for small to medium sized businesses which may not be able to justify hiring a full staff of IT professionals. 3) Stay Up-to-Date with the Latest Technology Having a managed services provider means that your business will always be up-to-date with the latest software solutions. Technology changes rapidly and keeping up can sometimes be difficult. With a managed services provider, you can rest assured that you and your employees always have access to the latest and greatest technology available. 4) Increased Security At one time, cybersecurity was mainly a concern for large corporations. Today, though, cyber-criminals are targeting small and large businesses alike, making security an important concern for businesses of all sizes. With a managed services provider, though, you can count on your data being secured with the best security software and protocols at all times. 5) Improved Relationships with Your Customers Issues with your IT infrastructure can make it difficult for you to offer high-quality service to your customers, which can damage your brand image. By preventing most issues before they ever arise and quickly fixing the ones that do, a managed services provider can ensure that your customers always have a positive, hassle-free experience when visiting your website, working with your employees, and more. Conclusion Using an MSP is an incredibly beneficial option for businesses that want to drastically improve the quality and effectiveness of their IT solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we at Boring Business Systems can provide your business with top-quality managed IT services in Tampa as well as IT Support in Lakeland. Contact us today for a professional evaluation of your company’s technology needs.
