Service tickets for printer or copier issues can easily overwhelm smaller IT departments. This is especially true if your hardware is old — printers and copiers don't last forever, and older units are more prone to frequently breaking down. If your IT department is burdened by the need to constantly fix your business' printers or copiers, a managed print service (MPS) may be the perfect solution.

An MPS eliminates the need for your IT department to manage your business' printers or copiers. The MPS company fields all of the support calls from your employees, services your hardware, and refills the toner in your units when it runs low. Freed from the burden of having to manage your business' printing hardware, your IT staff is able to focus more on other IT issues, such as securing your network. To help you understand more about what moving to an MPS entails, here's how they work.

Your Current Printers and Copiers Are Replaced With Modern, Easy-to-Maintain Hardware

The first step is transitioning all of your current printers and copiers to new models. The reason for this is that newer hardware has better support for remote maintenance and monitoring — it allows an MPS company to easily manage your printers and copiers, fixing problems when they arise.

You can either choose to buy new printers outright, lease them from the MPS company, or enter a printing as a service contract (PaaS.) PaaS is a good choice for smaller business who don't have the capital to buy new hardware or don't want to enter into a leasing agreement. With a PaaS contract, the MPS company provides the printers that will be installed at your place of business, but the company will retain ownership of them.

You Pay a Fee Per Page in Return for Full Maintenance and Repair of Your Printers and Copiers

The MPS company takes over all the service and maintenance duties for the printers and copiers at your place of business. In return, you'll be charged a monthly fee by the MPS company based on the number of pages you print each month. Color pages and black pages will be counted differently. The fee covers the cost of maintaining your company's printing hardware, answering service calls from your employees, troubleshooting problems, and refilling toner. Note that your fees per page will be higher with a PaaS contract than if you were to buy the hardware yourself.

While the fees you pay per page may increase your business' printing costs, your IT department no longer needs to maintain the printers and copiers at your place of business. This may allow you to save money by downsizing the department or increase profitability by allowing more of your IT staff to work on automating your business' workflow instead of constantly fixing printers.

Overall, migrating your business to an MPS is a great way to reduce the workload on an overburdened IT department. Your choice of buying the printers and copiers, leasing them, or entering a PaaS contract depends on your business' printing needs. Smaller businesses who print few pages per month but who need modern printers and copiers are best served by a PaaS contract, whereas a business with a large printing workload should opt to buy printers and copiers outright for the lower fees per page. If you're interested in reducing your IT department's workload by moving to an MPS, contact an MPS company and ask how much the initial hardware purchase will cost and how much they charge per page for their maintenance service.

For more information, contact your local office copiers services today.