The Internet of Things is certainly blazing a course at the moment. To try and determine where it leads, we should examine the pathway of a similar disruptive technology – Managed Print Services (MPS). Drawing a link between the Internet of Things and MPS is easy. Both track, trace and follow things – in MPS’ case, it’s printers and MFPs- with every device connected and communicating data that can be centrally managed. The insights they provide, such as reports on device usage, user behaviour, state of operations, help organisations increase efficiency and improve the relationship between people and technology. Here are five lessons from Managed Print Services experiences that an organisation should keep in mind as it embarks on Internet of Things strategies in a business. Remove inefficiencies from your business. MPS helps organisations identify over-capacity of devices, maximise utilisation of those devices, and then spot inefficiencies in document processes as a function of moving from paper to digital documents. Knowing workloads require only 80 of the 100 printers on the floor makes it an easy decision to eliminate 20 devices. Enterprises also need to monitor an Internet of Things environment to constantly look for inefficiencies that can be wrung out of the system. Tap intelligence built into the system to speed productivity. Print management capabilities in MPS match individual privileges to device usage. They enforce rules like a certain type of document can only be printed double sided, or some scanned documents can’t be emailed from the printer to… [Read full story]
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