Cost containment is a critical strategy for any business that wants to increase revenues and maintain a lead over its competition. Distinct from cost management, cost containment or control is concerned with actual costs as opposed to creating budgets or planning financial resources for the future.
The first step in managing costs is understanding them. Many companies have no idea what
they are spending to accomplish their daily print activities, often underestimating how much printer
downtime, machine maintenance, and paper waste is costing them. That is why many businesses are
turning to print management solutions that can get control of — and reduce — the overall cost of
printing.
And one of the most reliable and effective ways to deploy a print management strategy for your business is to adopt a cloud-based print management solution.
Benefits of a Cloud-Based Print Management Solution
As the pandemic continues to disrupt the way we work and live, businesses have begun to
look for technologies and solutions that help manage those changes more effectively. For example, a
stronger emphasis on remote or hybrid work environments has caused the print industry to develop
new tools to help companies adapt — and thrive. One of these is a shift to cloud-based print
management.
Adopting a cloud-based solution brings higher levels of access to leading-edge print technology while
lowering the cost of resources. Cloud printing, at its basis, moves your traditional on-premises servers to
a virtual — or hosted — environment. In this way, you can connect all your print devices, even those in
remote or mobile locations, to your company’s network through the internet without the need for
complex installations or drivers.
Besides ease of use, these solutions bring a host of benefits, including:
1. Reduced Costs
Cloud-based print management allows you to track print costs by offering a single monthly charge for all services, including maintenance, troubleshooting, repairs, and supplies. It also reduces the need for up-front capital expenditures to secure hardware such as on-premises servers which, in turn, reduces
energy costs.
2. Flexibility
As your business’s print needs change, your cloud-based system can be quickly modified to scale
upwards — or downwards — to reflect evolving needs. New functionality and features can be easily
added and services implemented to keep business continuity a priority.
3. Security
With information and systems in a cloud environment, redundancy is easily achieved, ensuring you have
access to your necessary data, even if there is a natural disaster, theft, or loss. Administrators have full access control over print and data functions and can easily add or remove authorizations as needs arise or change.
4. Cost Control and Transparency
At their core, print management systems give businesses the reins when it comes to controlling print
costs and reducing waste. Because processes are automated and tracked, full reports are available to
help determine where most of your print spend is happening and give insights on how to better control
costs in the future.
Look to ASE for Leading-Edge Print Management
In today’s hypercompetitive environment, every penny counts. Most companies are unaware of what they are spending to keep up the day-to-day task of printing. Gaining transparency into your print spending through print management is a smart step toward greater cost containment.
At ASE, we service and support all the devices we sell. Our team can help maintain your current fleet,
assess your print environment, design a more efficient print set-up, and proactively manage your
fleet over time using leading-edge remote technologies. As you move forward, we will provide
everything you need to keep your workflows efficient, such as maintenance, supplies, support, and
repair — all for one defined monthly fee.