Benefits of Managed Print Services for Education

Modernize your educational institution with printing and digital document solutions that drive down operational costs, streamline workflows, save time, and minimize security risks. Managed print services bring multiple benefits to educational organizations, school district head offices, and vocational training centers to improve operations, enhance service delivery, and produce better educational outcomes.

What are managed print services for education?

Today’s educational environment is driven by the movement of data between digital and paper formats. Cloud-based managed print services (MPS) provide the print infrastructure that enables administrators and staff members to efficiently print, scan, copy, and fax securely across the entire organization.

By outsourcing your printing needs to a qualified MPS provider, your printer fleet will always be online and in top working order. Maintenance will be taken care of, and supplies will be monitored, re-ordered, and automatically delivered. Staff will never be forced to waste time troubleshooting device or network issues, and resources can be directed towards initiatives that drive better educational outcomes.

Some educational organizations that benefit from managed print services include:

• Public school systems
• Universities
• Community-based learning centers
• Private schools
• Membership associations
• Vocational schools

What do managed print services include?

Print management services enable a smarter document management system to operate between staff, departments, and other stakeholders. Some of the key components of MPS include:

Managed Print Assessment

How many printers does your educational organization own or lease? Are they efficient? Do they break down often? Are they in optimal locations? How much paper is wasted?

A managed print assessment of your current print environment answers all these questions and more. A comprehensive analysis conducted by an expert will help you identify inefficiencies and opportunities to improve services. That way, you can create an effective print strategy that leverages the most efficient printing devices to reduce costs, save paper, and improve printing workflows.

Remote Print Device Monitoring

Have you ever sent a print job only to discover that the printer has malfunctioned or is offline? Besides causing frustration, this wastes time and energy that is better spent on initiatives that drive productivity.

Remote device monitoring is the solution. By engaging the services of an MPS provider, your entire network will be monitored continuously to ensure the print fleet is in top working condition. Besides making sure that all devices are online and working, remote monitoring identifies minor issues and addresses them before they become serious problems.

Automated Supply Monitoring and Replenishment

Tracking supplies like ink cartridges, toner, and paper can be a time-consuming and redundant task. Innovative sensor technology allows your MPS provider to monitor supply levels and receive alerts when they run low. This means you’ll always have the supplies you need, and staff will never have to worry about making sure everything is in stock.

Secure Document Management

Information transmitted among staff and between departments requires consistent protection and additional document security. Unsecured networks and devices can put sensitive student data and administrative documents at risk, in addition to compromising compliance policies that require student information be kept private.

MPS minimizes the risk of data breaches by eliminating vulnerabilities in your network. Some standard solutions to enforce security include:

• Device protection via access control
• Comprehensive print security policies
• User authentication
• Data encryption
• Built-in protocols that strengthen compliance
• Continuous network monitoring

On-Site Support and Help Desk Service

Malfunctioning printing devices and unstable network connections can bring productivity to a halt, cause frustration, and impede productivity. MPS services are a solution that provides on-site repairs to keep your fleet in top working condition.

In addition to ongoing maintenance, MPS services provide exceptional service through their help desk dedicated support team. By engaging the services of an MPS provider, the burden on your IT department will be reduced. This allows valuable IT resources to be directed to critical technical matters that affect your organization rather than printing issues that can be best resolved by industry experts.

Benefits of Managed Print Services for Educational Institutions

MPS benefits everyone, from staff to students to the environment. By digitizing and streamlining document workflows throughout your educational institution, you are creating a smarter document management network that improves efficiency while reducing costs and paper waste. Some of the benefits of MPS for educational institutions include:

Better service delivery

Engaging the services of an MPS provider puts your printing needs into expert hands. Network and supply monitoring ensure your fleet is operational, and enhanced security protocols keep sensitive data safe and secure. An MPS provider can also provide you with an optimized infrastructure plan to include multifunction printers, wireless printing solutions, campus printers, and cloud-based connectivity to enhance staff efficiency and collaboration.

Reduced Printing Costs

Managed print services reduce print jobs by using print data captured by your provider. Besides reducing unnecessary print jobs, you can reconfigure your print policy and create a printing environment that is more sustainable and cost-effective.

Improved content access

MPS providers use tech-powered analytics and process management software to automate document digitization. By automatically digitizing and archiving documents, staff members save time spent searching for documents. MPS services can also reduce reliance on paper-dependent processes while improving content access both on-premises and in the cloud.

Easy scalability

Engaging the services of an MPS provider gives you a future-forward strategy that gives your organization the power to quickly scale services with the growth of your educational organization. When you have a printing strategy in place, your organization can easily accommodate an increased student population, changes in print budgets, and the addition of remote workers.

Lower operational costs

MPS optimizes and streamlines all printing-related business processes, resulting in improved efficiency that reduces costs. This is achieved by reducing waste, lowering the burden on IT employees, using more efficient printing equipment that requires less maintenance, and automating workflow management.

Improved integration

MPS leverages innovative print management software that addresses integration inefficiencies created when software, onsite equipment, mobile devices, and cloud-based print workflows fall out of sync. Engaging professional print services helps you integrate all parts of your print environment so everything stays in sync and connected.

Reduced security risk

Confidential student information and critical in-house documentation require protection when being transmitted between departments. MPS reduce security risks by minimizing vulnerabilities in your network with continuous monitoring. Other components of an effective strategy include built-in device security and standard network protocols that ensure data is kept safe when being transmitted throughout departments.

Easier to meet compliance requirements

Public, private, community-based, vocational, and all other types of educational institutions must follow FERPA requirements to protect sensitive student data. Secure printing protocols implemented by MPS providers ensure you stay compliant with the regulations by restricting access to specific printers or credentialed staff members.

Less paper waste

MPS helps you leverage the latest in software technology to track print jobs throughout your educational institution. Analysis of this data gives administrators the power to create and enforce rules to save paper and produce less environmental waste.

Ready to get started with managed print services?

Educational institutions across Oklahoma rely on Standleys for managed print services to help them increase efficiency, enhance productivity, reduce costs, and improve security. Schedule a complimentary print assessment to get a comprehensive overview of how MPS can benefit your educational institution.