Solving Systemic Document Problems Through Proper Print Management

Among the many growing pains companies can go through, few can be as debilitating as print management issues. Not only can they bring operations to a halt -- perhaps the printing error is resulting in a failure to print invoices, labels, contracts, or other mandatory operational documents -- but they also can consume your IT or help desk staff. This hinders them from working on other IT projects or problems. You can see now how a problem that at first seemed like a slight annoyance can quickly hemorrhage your company's resources -- whether it be your internal technology services, production line or client and customer service.

Solutions to these problems often are complicated, even for people with a strong background in IT or computer networking. And while servers typically offer native print management systems or functionality, these sometimes do not support many functions beyond basic print spooling. A native or proprietary spooling system typically does an excellent job when performing in the capacities for which it was designed. But typical business printing and enterprise printing can exceed those capacities, leading to the aforementioned debilitating print management failures.

"Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?!"

Such print failures can have several sources, for example: incomplete or improper document spooling can prevent a document from printing, or perhaps a document won't purge from the print queue, whether it was printed successfully or not, which prevents queued jobs behind it from printing. These are just two possible scenarios, but to end-users, the result is the same.

Print Management to the Rescue

Often, such print management problems can be solved (or significantly alleviated) using off-the-shelf or turnkey print spooler software solutions such as our OM Plus print management software product. There are, however, many such software solutions on the market, and picking one can be a complicated task in itself. Of course, the best solution depends on your organization's specific needs, but some things to keep in mind as you shop around are:

1. Centralized Control - Does the software centralize control of the print system so that your system administrator retains control and accountability over the printing system?

2. Platform - On what platform or operating system will the print management solution be implemented?

3. Scalability - Is the software capable of operating efficiently on a larger scale, should your company expand? Is the software capable of cross-platform implementation?

4. Interface - What is the user interface? Does the software need to be installed universally on end user machines or can it be installed and operated off the server? (This also relates to centralization.)

5. Printer communication - Does the software enable bidirectional printer communication? In other words, does the software recognize a print failure has occurred and alert the user or administrator? (This is something native print spool systems generally don't do.)

Plus Technologies' OM Plus software for print management, of course, does all this. OM Plus is a server-side software solution that will function across basically all popular proprietary and open-source platforms. Fortune 500 companies with multi-national printing networks have successfully solved print failure problems with OM Plus, and it has successfully been implemented at organizations operating on a more localized level as well. Its has a Java-based GUI for the administrator's interface, and rather than requiring a universal install on all networked computers, end users can access an HTML interface through their web browser. Its bidirectional printer communication is capable of notifying the system administrator and the end user of printing failure or success.

In the final analysis, a print management solution such as OM Plus or another type of high quality print spooler software will save your company time, money, paper, and resources because it will manage documents efficiently and prevent downtime due to print technology problems.

Plus Technologies
A Division of Digital Controls
444 Alexandersville Road
Miamisburg, OH 45342
937-384-0444
877-899-7587 (toll free)
www.plustechnologies.com