What is Managed Print Services?
Most organizations do not know their true cost of printing; 90% of organizations do not track their printing costs.1 With printing costs including initial purchase costs, supply, orders, and maintenance and service fees, many healthcare organizations are unable to spend the time needed to effectively track all printing related costs.
Unmanaged printing expenses can cost organizations between 1% and 3% of their annual revenue.2 A managed print services (MPS) strategy allows you to control printing expenses by having a provider manage your fleet of printers. A MPS strategy includes:
• Optimization of your print assets
• Supplies management
• Proactive maintenance
• Accurate tracking & reporting of your usage costs
The end result of MPS is simple: gaining visibility and control of your printing, which helps you reduce costs, boost productivity, improve environmental sustainability, and increase document security.
MPS Strategy Benefits in Healthcare
Annual health spending is expected to grow an average of 5.8% during the period of 2012 through 2022.3 With healthcare reform, increased costs, and high demand for best-in-class patient care, healthcare administrators need to aggressively look for new ways to save time and reduce costs.
The main benefits your healthcare organization will gain from a MPS strategy are reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), increased productivity and efficiency, an optimized print environment, improved vendor management, decreased carbon footprint, and enhanced data security.
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership
The key to reducing costs in healthcare organizations is to actively manage your print environment. By developing a MPS strategy, your organization will save money and control costs by maximizing the efficiency of print assets, eliminating unnecessary hardware, cutting consumable printing expenses, and allowing you to track your monthly print costs with ease. With an effective MPS strategy in place, healthcare organizations can see up to a 30% savings on printing costs.4
Increased Productivity & Efficiency
Print-related issues make up an average of 40% of IT calls.5 A MPS strategy reduces the amount of calls to IT, increasing productivity and efficiency within your organization. Since MPS includes easy supply ordering, proactive maintenance, and service as part of your upfront costs, your IT staff will have more time to devote to other projects that will continue to evolve and grow the organization.
Optimized Print Environment
A MPS strategy optimizes your print environment by transforming and consolidating your printer fleet. Tracking printing, controlling costs, and optimizing your hardware gives you the flexibility to easily adapt to your organization’s changing print needs.
Improved Vendor Management
Managing your print vendors is a difficult and time consuming task. Under a unified and well managed print environment, your organization will reduce the number of vendors sending bills and invoices. Your administrators will save time and you will reduce costs.
Decreased Carbon Footprint
An optimized output fleet reduces unnecessary device acquisition, cutting down on waste and power consumption and reducing space requirements in facilities. A more accurate picture of device usages enables you to implement resource-saving measures such as two-sided printing. You can also incorporate recycling and waste disposal procedures for your printing consumables.
Enhanced Data Security
Since passing of regulatory legislation such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, patient confidentiality and compliance are top priority for healthcare organizations. Developing best practices for document printing and disposal, greater control over your print environment, and awareness of document security through a MPS strategy results in enhanced information security. Establishing standards and educating employees on your organization’s security processes and procedures is key to deploying a MPS strategy that will help effectively regulate information security organization-wide.
A Four Step Approach to MPS Strategy
The road to having an effective MPS strategy is a four step plan. The plan is outlined below.
Assessment of Your Current Print Environment
Evaluate your current hardware and print costs to uncover areas of inefficiency or redundancy in your print environment.
Implementation of Your MPS Strategy
Address the issues found while assessing your current print environment through device consolidation and optimization, as well as setting standards and practices for both printing and digital document management.
Supplies Management & Proactive Maintenance
This will ensure your new MPS strategy is effective and relieves the obligations of print management from your staff. Your staff will now be able to focus on strengthening the organizations core activities.
Tracking & Reporting
Long-term success of your MPS strategy relies on accurate tracking and reporting. A MPS strategy gives you greater cost visibility and new tools to track print usage which allows you to enhance business processes, take control of printing costs, and plan for future document needs.
A Winning MPS Strategy from Prosource
A MPS strategy from Prosource in an all-inclusive, customized solution that streamlines the management of your print environment, exposes hidden costs, and implements a cost reduction strategy including:
• Cost control & budget visibility
• Remote monitoring & support
• Automatic meter reads & supply replenishment
• Optimized print output environment
• Improved business processes
• Added value to your TCO
• Extended life of your printers
• Reduced vendor management
For more information about Prosource’s MPS strategy and how we can help you transform your healthcare organization’s print environment, please contact your Prosource sales representative or fill out a contact us form located here.
1 Buyers Laboratory
2 Gartner
3 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
4 Gartner
5 Gartner