Printer purchasing and maintenance is often low-priority, yet investing in quality printer products can save significant time and money—not to mention prevent major security breaches. It’s estimated that 40% of all IT Help Desk calls are printer related, and it typically costs about $9 to manage every $1 spent on printer services. As modern work continues to require more endpoint devices, IT networks and the means of protecting them are becoming more complex and federal networks are no exception. In the wake of Covid, GSA mandated multifunction printers for all remote workers. Managed Print Services (MPS) take care of all the details—from keeping track of ink levels and reordering supplies, to ensuring your printers are operating at maximum efficiency, to maintaining security software. Below are three ways that federal offices benefit from MPS investment.
Even in today’s digital office environments, many federal agencies have processes that rely on paper. But paper-based workflows are notoriously inefficient: they require storage and staff time to manage, and can majorly sideline projects if documents are misplaced. When the printer jams and the work process relies on physically printed documents, the downtime that ensues while employees wait for the printer to be repaired is incredibly expensive—both in dollars and in productivity. Moving to digitized documents improves workflow by making access, permissions, and storage more efficient.
Through the course of the pandemic, many government agencies discovered that their processes weren’t particularly friendly to hybrid environments. From requiring signatures on final documents to storing physical documents securely, employees struggled to know how and where to process important documents that weren’t coming from the office’s main printer tray.
Managed Print Services help improve workflow for federal agencies by providing reliable, multi-function printers. A multi-function printer can print, scan, copy, and fax from the same machine, making the process of sharing documents more seamless. HP has added Wolf Security measures to their printers for both home and office use, so that employees can securely share and print documents no matter where they are, and can limit access for viewing, editing, and copying. MPS further improves efficiency by providing regular attention and maintenance for printers—from updating software to sending paper and ink on a schedule. Essentially, MPS prevents typical printer-related surprises that derail productivity.
While federal agencies continue to invest in making their office processes more efficient, printing infrastructure might be the last major unmanaged expense for many. Agencies can save substantial money through strategic planning and collaboration across departments including IT, facilities management, and administrative support.
Employees may prefer desktop printers for convenience, but in a centralized office handling sensitive documents it’s efficient and secure to use consolidated workgroup printers. Selecting one preferred brand makes it easier to manage replacements for supplies, as well as cheaper than buying multiple brands of ink and toner for everyone’s individual desktop printers. Setting your printers up on a monthly billing cycle makes their expenses predictable and requires less administrative and accounting time to manage and process invoices from multiple vendors.
ABM Federal offers analysis services to provide agencies with valuable insights into how they print. Our “print-cost center” facilitates informed decisions that can save your agency money, stretch your budget, and allow for more predictable expenditures. An added benefit is that our program includes multiple components that support the federal government’s environmental sustainability goals, including ENERGY STAR, EPEAT and other efficiency ratings.
Printers are an often-forgotten endpoint liability that are increasingly easy to hack over computers. In 2020, a group of researchers from CyberNews hacked 30,000 printers across the globe to call attention to the nearly one million printers that they identified as being vulnerable. Add to this all the personal printers that are now required for remote federal workers, and the endpoint security risk has increased exponentially in the last two years. It is essential that federal agencies invest in strong security measures to protect their networks and their documents; the stakes are very high.
MPS systems monitor and update security on printers to avoid serious breaches. The ABM Federal Managed Print program helps agencies procure devices that are inherently more secure, like HP’s printers embedded with Wolf Security. Wolf Security includes both hardware and software solutions—from self-healing security measures embedded into printer firmware, to tamper-proof cartridges. Measures for constantly monitoring the memory and firmware of networked printers are also included to ensure that there are not any gaps in security. ABM Federal furthermore provides a Data Collection Agent program in compliance with Federal information security laws, ensuring that no unauthorized viewers can see, collect, or transmit documents while maintaining and updating printers. We can track who used a printer and when, which applications they printed from, which printers they used, and other behavioral data that is important for maintaining tight security measures.
ABM Federal knows that procuring security-minded devices for government agencies comes with its own set of challenges and considerations. We help federal agencies to assess, manage, and optimize their fleets of multi-function print devices, from procurement to management, with improvement and future growth in mind. Our “Simple and Secure” commitment keeps us focused on straightforward design & implementation, streamlined procurement, clear visibility, and an overall end-user ecosystem that puts IT security first. We are proud to partner with HP, raising awareness and simplifying the procurement of preconfigured, asset-management-ready devices, featuring the industry’s best hardware-enforced security. Contact us today to learn more about equipping your office with secure endpoint devices of the highest standard.
Simplify and Secure Your Federal Office IT
ABM Federal, an HP Platinum Partner, provides HP Security Solutions to government agencies. With over 40 years of experience, an excellent past performance record, and Best In Class (BIC) contracts, ABM Federal offers a variety of innovative products and services to simplify and enhance your federal office IT.
Contact us at (800) 522-9226 to learn more.
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