Remote work—and remote printing—are here to stay. That’s what the numbers are showing.
As of late 2022, the majority of Canadian office workers prefering remote work this year. Studies indicate that as many as 74% of entrepreneurs plan to keep offering employees the option to work from home.
Because of this, businesses need printing solutions that address the needs of employees working in a remote or hybrid work environment. Advanced print solutions like off-network printing and managed print services may be necessary to ensure security and boost productivity.
In this article, we go into the challenges of remote printing and how advanced printing solutions can solve these issues.
Let’s begin!
The Challenges of Remote Printing
Setting up an efficient and secure printing system is challenging even in a traditional physical office. Factors like device placement, printer maintenance, and effective software solutions all play a part in making it work.
A remote work environment comes with its own unique set of challenges:
1. Printer Maintenance & Costs
Depending on the needed setup for remote printing, some employees may need to print from home. In such cases, employees are either sent a printer or asked to use their own existing home printer.
If the company shoulders the upkeep of home printers, challenges are likely to arise from the following:
- Expensive retail-priced supplies;
- Employee errors when purchasing supplies;
- The individual maintenance of a fleet of home printers;
- Unauthorized/personal use of a company printer that will bump up costs; and
- Tracking expenses.
2. Document Security
A remote work environment poses a unique challenge for document security. The risk mainly involves printing sensitive or confidential documents from a home printer, which could easily become accessible to people outside of the organization.
One of the solutions for this is to create seamless workflows where sensitive documents can be printed from home and picked up from the office.
3. Unsecured Home Printers
Once an unsecured home printer is hacked, cybercriminals can get access to the devices connected to the printer. Since the number of cybercrimes increased following the onset of the pandemic (and is exacerbated by the current inflation), unsecured home printers are risks that businesses can’t afford to take.
4. Simplifying Print Jobs Between Homes & The Office
If optimizing print jobs for efficiency and security was already a challenge in the traditional office setup, it’s even more challenging in a remote work environment. Employees need advanced print solutions that will allow them to efficiently manage print jobs from anywhere.
How Advanced Print Solutions Enhance Remote Work Environments
1. Off-Network Printing
With off-network printing, employees can send print jobs from anywhere. Documents can then be printed securely on printers behind an organization’s firewall.
Off-network printing helps create an easy and seamless way to print amidst a hybrid remote work environment. This solution helps in keeping sensitive documents secure while also creating an intuitive workflow that will support productivity.
2. Secure Retrieval
Secure retrieval of print jobs complements off-network printing in terms of enhancing document security. Secure retrieval can take the form of scanning a QR code, scanning a badge, or entering a PIN to access a print job. This solution is a must for printing confidential documents because it ensures that the document is seen only by the person who is meant to see it.
3. Managed Print Services
Managed print services boost the ease, security, and cost-effectiveness of remote printing. Among numerous other facets of this service, remote monitoring and improved information security elevate the remote work environment.
By relying on external software solutions to manage your business’ printing needs, service providers can focus on the details and effectively identify any problem areas as fast as possible. As a result, this drastically reduces your internal workload and increases productivity in the workplace.
3. Print Vendor Consolidation
Print vendor consolidation is one of the advanced print solutions that is geared towards cost-effective remote printing. By signing up for print vendor consolidation, businesses get to coordinate their printing needs with a reliable and vetted vendor. This helps streamline purchases and expense tracking. It also minimizes costly errors when restocking.
4. Print Security Audit Services
Print security audit services are the last item on our list of advanced print solutions. It is a service that specifically targets enhancing printing security. This service helps companies avoid costly and reputation-damaging cyber attacks.
Advanced Print Solutions From Busys
Busys.ca is your partner in optimizing your print setup. Whether your business has an onsite, work-from-home, or hybrid setup, our experts can customize advanced print solutions based on your unique needs.
Request a quote or contact us today to learn more!
