A Guide to Selecting an Enterprise Print Management Program

While working for an organization with a substantial direct mail marketing department, I once witnessed the aftermath of an ill-informed purchase of printers and corresponding print management programs. This company in particular had a drastic increase in their printing needs, so the shot-callers immediately went out and spent thousands on the biggest and best high speed envelope printer on the market.

Unfortunately, the printer was far more complicated than the old printers, and it needed skilled operators to work as it was designed. Eventually, the printer was benched and the reliable (if slow) printers were called up just to continue production.

While this specific example highlights the pitfalls one may encounter after purchasing printer hardware, the moral is just as applicable to print software.

Chances are likely that if you're reading this guide, you already have a pretty good idea why your organization needs a solution for your print and output management needs. Even though you're aware of the need, it behooves you to examine exactly how your organization will implement the print management software, what problem(s) you expect advanced print management to address, and what software features would best help you achieve realize solutions to those problems.

What problems does the software need to solve?

Printer communication--or lack thereof--often causes problems for end users, and these problems typically trickle back down to the help desk. An end user, for example, sends a document to the print spooler; he goes to retrieve his document from the output tray only to find the tray empty. Generally, this process will be repeated in a few permutations of novice trouble-shooting before the problem is fixed by the end user or the help desk.

The time lost in the troubleshooting permutations and the help desk call could be avoided altogether if the printer was able to communicate back to the user's workstation with the status of the print job. But advanced print spool management software (Plus Technologies' OM Plus print manager, for example) allows the printer to communicate mutually with the workstation. This bidirectional communication allows the printer to return a status message to the end user, bypassing any guesswork and eliminating the time spent trying to diagnose the problem.

A lack of bidirectional communication between the printer and the end user or the print server is only one example out of many problems typically addressed by advanced print management software. As such, you need to be very familiar with the particular printing problem(s) your organization faces so that you can ensure you find an appropriate print management solution.



How will the print management solution be implemented?

The next major consideration that should inform your decision is how the print management software will be implemented throughout the organization.

On which operating system platforms will the print management solution be implemented? And more importantly, will the software be able to interact seamlessly across all the platforms you require? Many print management software solutions are multi-platform compatible, but there are a few such as the OM Plus print management software suite that will function across nearly all computing environments.

Another important point to research is the software's interface: What is the user interface? Just as in my example of the super-duty printer that nobody knew how to operate, if an organization implements a print management solution that is complicated, unintuitive, or otherwise is not user-friendly, it can become a systemic pariah, shunned by frustrated individual users on a significant scale.

Some software for print management solves the issue of user interface by simply operating off of the print server. This allows end users to print as they always have, without having to deal with a new interface at all. OM Plus functions like this, with a Java GUI for server-side administration. Advanced end users, moreover, may still interface with the software using a web-based application, so no software needs to be installed on workstations throughout the enterprise, slashing costs for initial implementation and training.



What other features should you look for?

A benefit of a system such as OM Plus is the centralized control of an entire enterprise's output management. This is certainly not a necessary feature in a print management software solution, but anyone who has tried to diagnose issues that a piece of software has across multiple workstation can surely appreciate the convenience and time saved by using a centralized control system.

A final feature, which is most applicable to organizations that are rapidly growing or with plans to expand in the future, is the scalability of the print management software. Scalability really entails much of the previous points--such as functionality across multiple operating systems and centralized control--since organizations often grow organically, acquiring workstations and machines on an as-needed basis. Growth such as this demands flexibility of its software. Scalability also address the issue of size: how many departments and end-users will the software need to support? Flexibility in user load and demand is also of critical importance for fluctuating business modesl.

Following these points as guidelines, you can now make more informed decisions when searching for print management software. And making informed decisions during the research process is the first step to maximizing your return on investment after finally implementing a print management solution.

Plus Technologies

A Division of Digital Controls

444 Alexandersville Road

Miamisburg, OH 45342

937-384-0444

877-899-7587 (toll free)
www.plustechnologies.com