Tag: Managed Print

How Managed Print Can Save Your Accounting Firm Money and Time
Posted on by deisenberg

Traditionally, accounting is a paper-heavy industry, with many documents to manage. Around 133,949,000 tax returns are filed every year, and many of them are received by accountants at the last minute.

During this busy season, accounting staff can’t afford to be slowed down by a printer malfunction or downtime due to print hard- or software issues.

And the rest of the year? Accounting firms provide a suite of services that assist business owners in keeping organized financially, staying tax compliant, and leveraging cash flow to promote strong business growth.

With the average employee using two pounds of paper every day, and just one four-drawer storage cabinet taking up 10 to 15 square feet of office real estate, there is a lot of opportunity for saving space, money, and time by managing print operations more efficiently.

Completely eliminating paper output within your accounting office is an impossible task but reducing paper output and streamlining workflows through the deployment of managed print services (MPS) can provide many benefits.

By targeting weaknesses in your current print infrastructure, designing more efficient processes, and deploying them MPS can help you manage and grow your accounting business.

Managed Print Services Benefits for Accounting Firms

Accounting firms can leverage the expert knowledge of a competent MPS provider to achieve the benefits of optimizing print infrastructure and workflows, such as:

1. Security for Sensitive Data

Hacker activity is on the increase in the accounting industry as more cybercriminals are targeting tax professionals and Certified Public Accountants (CPAs).

This is most likely because accounting firms often possess high-value information like Employee Identification Numbers, numbers for bank accounts, Social Security numbers, and more.

In addition, firms are required to comply with the Financial Services Act of 1999 — and potentially other legislation — to protect this sensitive data from exposure, theft, or loss.

Fortunately, MPS allows office administrators to keep a close eye on data access by using authentication methods to control who receives printed documents from a specific device. Any unretrieved documents will stay safely in the print queue, rather than being output into a print tray to keep sensitive information safer.

In addition, your MPS provider will stay in front of software patch installation, automatic updates, and upgrades on equipment to ensure your documents and information are always protected with the latest security protocols.

2. Savings for Bottom Line Health

As accountants, you understand how to get the most out of your office environment — and that means controlling costs.

A managed print environment provides many ways to reduce expenditures — from decreasing in-house IT spend to reducing downtime and productivity loss caused by outdated or poorly coordinated equipment.

Adopting an MPS program will give you the tools you need to assess what you have, design and coordinate efficiency-enhancing changes, and implement cost-saving protocols such as:

  • Automating supply replenishment to avoid capital expenditures on surplus purchasing
  • Encouraging zero waste and reducing overbuying by providing supplies addressed to specific printers
  • Providing cost-effective remanufactured toners and inks

Just these few measures can help accounting firms shave 30% off their print budget, in addition to the savings experienced by extending asset life.

3. Streamlined Workflows for More Productivity

Smart print workflows help your staff focus on their primary tasks — meeting deadlines, researching and preparing information for clients, and generating revenue.

Rather than having in-house staff be bogged down in mundane IT or print-related tasks, your MPS provider handles troubleshooting, remediation, and routine maintenance to ensure your equipment functions at full capacity.

State-of-the art software allows you to track documents from creation through delivery and report billable activity for focused auditing, while macros help streamline processes further by reducing redundant commands.

Finally, finding specific client-related information becomes fast and simple through special indexing software that provides rapid and accurate search results.

Choose PointManagement Managed Print for Accountability, Cost Savings, and Productivity

As a firm that handles sensitive financial and personal data, you’re held to the highest of accountability standards. For that reason alone, choosing PointManagement to handle your MPS needs is a smart move.

Our team of experts have the expertise it takes to deploy a state-of-the-art secure managed print program for your firm to provide your clients with the highest level of data safety and compliance.

And our professionals can easily assess your current print environment to determine functionality, uncover hidden costs, and provide advanced technology to take your workflow and business processes to a higher level of operability.

Ready to see how a PointManagement MPS solution can help your accounting firm manage costs, boost productivity, and secure sensitive data? Contact a PointManagement MPS consultant and get an assessment today!

Paper and Law Firms — A Case for Managed Print
Posted on by deisenberg

Lawyers deal with reams of paper every single day.

In fact, most of what law firms handle — deeds, wills, contracts, leases, litigations, and agreements — are all document intensive and paper-centric tasks.

In fact, the average law firm is currently spending about 3% of its gross revenue on printing and hard copy output of documents. Of this percentage, about 30% goes toward toner costs and fees for equipment maintenance.

Still, most of today’s firms are unaware of how much their bottom lines are impacted by printing, potentially due to lack of coordination among departments regarding expenditures on equipment and supplies.

While it’s not possible to completely eliminate the demand for print output in legal firms, these organizations can benefit from leveraging the benefits of a managed print services (MPS), such as:

  • Improved document workflow
  • Printer fleet optimization
  • Auto-replenishment of supplies
  • Reduced dependency on paper
  • Enhanced security

Alongside these benefits are a range of other features and solutions that can be introduced to minimize expenditures while increasing the overall level of productivity.

Managed Print Services Benefits for Legal Firms

Legal firms have a lot to gain from partnering with a competent MPS provider. Three of the greatest benefits of optimizing print infrastructure and workflows are outlined below.

1. It’s the Law — Security and Compliance in Print

Security is critical in law firms since nearly every task may involve a document containing sensitive or confidential information. These can include insurance data, medical information, criminal background checks, court evidence, and financial details.

Handling this information puts firms at risk of data breaches and underscores the need for firms to act in compliance with global, federal, and state data privacy legislation.

With MPS, administrators can provide authorization to specific users, who must then use authentication to receive printed documents from a specific device. If the authorized individual does not retrieve the copy, it stays within the print queue, keeping sensitive data out of the wrong hands.

Additionally, MPS provides automatic updates, software patches, and upgrades on equipment to ensure the latest security protocols are in place to protect your documents. With hackers targeting law firms in increasing numbers, keeping current with the latest cybersecurity is paramount.

2. A Clear Case — How Cost Transparency Saves Money

The print environment is rife with hidden costs — from high maintenance and downtime on outdated equipment to the salaries of in-house IT professionals who must spend valuable time performing mundane maintenance or troubleshooting tasks.

Other factors to consider are the lack of compatibility among various operating systems, hardware, and equipment and how that affects the productivity of staff when machines break down or are limited in function.

A quality MPS program will assess your current print environment, tighten up and coordinate infrastructure for optimal function, and implement a series of cost-saving conventions such as:

  • Automated replenishment of supplies
  • Supplies addressed for specific printers to encourage zero waste
  • Options for remanufactured toners and inks that are up to 35% more cost-effective than OEM products

Deploying these measures can help law firms save up to 30% of their total print spend, in addition to deferring capital expenditures by extending asset life through comprehensive routine maintenance.

3. How Print Optimization Drives Productivity

Optimizing print workflows by creating a smartly designed print infrastructure helps employees excel at what they do best — meeting deadlines, preparing information for clients, managing trial tasks, and generating revenue.

A qualified MPS provider will provide help desk and on-site remediation of issues, and maintenance will be performed seamlessly at routine intervals to ensure all equipment is functioning at full capacity.

Workflows are further streamlined through macros that are set once to avoid time-consuming entering of redundant commands each time your machines are accessed. Using specific software, you can also report billable activity, monitor printing, and track documents.

Software that indexes information for easy searchability makes finding — and storing — client-related data fast, easy, and secure.

PointManagement Managed Print Has You Covered from Boardroom to Trial

No matter what kind of law your firm practices, our team of industry experts can easily customize a managed print program to fit your needs and goals — saving you money and helping to drive the kind of revenue that makes for a healthy bottom line.

Our professionals have the in-depth knowledge to conduct an assessment of your current print environment to uncover hidden costs and assess functionality.

Afterwards, we’ll design an MPS program that will help take your firm to the next level of productivity, security, and cost-savings without interrupting your current workflows.

Ready to see how a PointManagement MPS solution can help your law firm excel, cut costs, and drive revenue? Contact a PointManagement MPS consultant and get an assessment today!