At Indigo IT, we are always looking for ways we can improve our service and our offerings. This can be learning about new products, investing in new hardware, or in some cases, developing completely new services to add to our portfolio.

This month we are very excited to announce that Indigo IT is now offering a fully managed print service to all of our customers, new and existing. This move has been a long time coming and is something we genuinely think will benefit a lot of our customers in both the short and long term.

But now you’re probably thinking — what is managed print? And why should I care? Let us explain.

What Is Managed Print?

The definition of ‘managed print services’ is pretty broad, since it covers a wide range of services and solutions.

Overall though, it’s all working towards the same goal – to gain visibility and control of your printing. The approach helps you save money, boost productivity and improve environmental sustainability. It includes:

• Pages printed by office workers, mobile workers and other people coming in and out of your office
• Purchasing, maintenance and management of office desktop printers, multifunction printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines and high-volume printers
• Materials released for quick printing, offset printing, mailing and distribution
• IT helpdesk support, technical service, maintenance, as well as add more and change requests for everything to do with printing
• Paper, ink, toner and other supplies and consumables

Managed print also helps you create a roadmap for your print environment, determine ways you can reduce costs, improve productivity and manage your print environment seamlessly so that you can get on with running your business.

Why Choose Managed Print?

Managed print is one of those things that a lot of businesses don’t realise they need until they put it in place. Then, they are suddenly wondering how they lived without it. There are a variety of benefits to using a managed print solution, including:

Saving time and improving efficiency

The amount of time your employees spend on printer-related tasks can be frustrating. Between printing, scanning and copying documents and fixing malfunctions and replacing ink cartridges, it can add up to several hours of work. A managed print solution takes care of all of this for you. Your employees then have a print environment that ‘just works’.

Reducing costs and saving money

A sporadic approach to printer maintenance leads to a lot of inefficiencies. These inefficiencies involve panicked rushing around to fight fires, which can lead to expensive costs. Managed print consolidates and reduces your maintenance costs, saving you money and hassle.

Improving productivity in your organisation

Printing might be an essential part of your business, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be difficult, or take up a lot of time.

A good print solution will run seamlessly in the background, allowing employees to get on with their jobs and be more productive in their work without the stresses of faulty printers.

Reducing capital expenditure and improving cash flow

Printing supplies make up the bulk of the cost when it comes to printing. Things like ink and toner, parts and servicing are where the money is. These tend to turn up in big chunks at irregular intervals.

Reducing your environmental footprint

Needless to say, reducing the among of electricity and print consumables you use dramatically decreases your environmental footprint. This supports your sustainability initiatives and conscientious corporate citizen and organisational efforts.

Improving information security

Print security is one of those areas of cybersecurity that is often overlooked even though it represents one of the most common weak spots.

Managed print solutions help shore up your print security by minimising documents stolen from output trays. It also implements secure print solutions and potentially even involves secure waste document disposal.

Are There Any Drawbacks?

One of the biggest issues we come across when we talk about print management is cost. This is not necessarily in the upfront cost of machines (because many people are usually aware that machines carry a higher price tag thank inks and toners) but in the ongoing maintenance costs.

All too often we see people who have agreed to a set of terms and conditions without really reading them (because let’s be honest, not many people actually read terms and conditions nowadays), and suddenly find themselves on the hook for expensive extras, including:

Multiple clicks per colour print

This is where your provider will say they charge you ‘per print’ (for example, 5p per black and white, 10p per colour), but in reality, they are charging you per COLOUR – so one for Cyan, one for Magenta and one for Yellow, on top of the black meter. That adds up to 35p per print, not 10.

Coverage limitations

Another common technique is for suppliers to make the click costs look cheap, but will sting you for coverage in excess of 5% of black and 20% on colour. Essentially, this means if you go over your agreed limits for printing, you will be charged this percentage on every print.

Most coverage limits are capped at 5%. Unethical companies can also artificially lower your coverage limits so that they can charge these inflated percentages sooner.

Network support charges

Network support is one of those things that is often included in charges, and it can be incredibly useful. But we also believe that you shouldn’t be paying for network support unless you want and need it.

Unfortunately, some providers will offer ‘free’ network support for a few months. They then start charging for it, increasing the bill and leaving you with nothing to do about it.

With Indigo IT, you get NONE of that. We care about you and your business and want to create strong, meaningful relationships with our customers – which means we are up front at all times.

We are competitive on costs without resorting to these kinds of tricks and instead focus on creating tailored solutions that address your needs, without the huge price tag.

Why Indigo IT?

So, why would you choose us for your managed print solution? Ultimately, our clients choose to work with us for a number of reasons. We take the time to understand your needs as a business. We will then design a bespoke print solution for you.

At Indigo IT, we don’t hide any extra fees anywhere – what you see is what you get, every time. We also don’t tie you into long contracts you don’t need. All of our contracts are done on a 30-day rolling contract so you have complete flexibility and freedom.

You also get an annual strategic review to ensure your solution is still right for you and discuss any changes in your business and your needs.

To find out more about our new managed print solutions, just get in touch with the team today.

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