When managing your business's printing needs, a print management solution is invaluable. These systems help you track and control printing and provide useful insights into your printing habits. However, with so many options available, choosing the right one for your business can take time and effort. That’s why we’ve written this helpful article.
When considering a print management solution, remember these 5 essential factors:
- Real-time monitoring
- Quota management
- Integration with existing systems
- Ease of use
- Level of support and customization
Why Consider a Print Management Solution?
Why consider a print management solution at all? Because print management software has the power to streamline operations, drastically increase your throughput, and much more.
Consider these benefits of implementing a quality print management solution:
- Helps track and control printing
- Provides key insights into printing habits
- Allows you to set limits on printing to control costs and reduce waste
- Streamlines processes by integrating with existing systems
- Ensures employees can track and manage their printing habits, saving administrative time and increasing self-ownership
- Offers a range of support and customization options to meet the specific needs of your business
Avanti Systems is a leading provider of print management solutions, including the powerful Avanti Slingshot™ Print MIS. Our outcome-based solutions are designed to help businesses optimize their printing processes and reduce costs. With a focus on proven experience and an outcomes-based optimization model, Avanti Systems is a trusted choice for businesses looking for a reliable print management solution.
Of course, we don’t expect you to simply take our word for it. So let’s examine the factors that go into the decision-making process. By the end of this article, we’re confident you’ll agree that Avanti Slingshot is the ideal solution to your print MIS needs.
Just before we get into those factors, let’s take a moment to walk through the difficulties print shops experience when operating without a print MIS.
Without Print Management Software: Disrupted Operations, Manual Errors
The print industry is modernizing, with newer digital and connected systems replacing legacy printers, analog, manual machines, and endpoints. This evolution is bringing new capabilities to commercial printers, but it’s creating new complications at the same time.
Take the stories of two Avanti customers, the State of Oregon and commercial printer Blitzprint. Both encountered significant challenges as they began modernizing operations, which they ultimately solved with Avanti’s powerful and effective print management solution, Slingshot.
Here’s how we did it for these two clients.
Oregon: Disconnected Systems Disrupted Print Operations for State Government
When the State of Oregon upgraded from its outdated equipment to all-new hardware, its print team was surprised to find multiple challenges with breakpoints that caused errors, inefficiency, and unexpected costs.
It also needed help estimating accurately. Customers found their bills spiking unexpectedly.
While the State’s printing operations gained all sorts of new capabilities, the printing staff could not capitalize on them because systems weren’t talking to one another or working in a unified way.
Avanti’s Solution
For the State of Oregon, Avanti provided an integrative solution that minimized human touchpoints and gave consistency to a disjointed network of systems that previously weren’t talking to each other (at least not correctly). By pulling these systems together into a truly unified solution, we helped the State of Oregon to print materials for multiple departments to great satisfaction:
- With much lower stress
- With significantly higher throughput (job capacity)
- With fewer errors and reprints
Read the Oregon case study to see what Avanti can do for your in-plant print enterprise.
Blitzprint: Integration Errors Derail Web to Print Efforts
Blitzprint is a varied-market printer that struggled to integrate a complex operation with customer and vendor systems prior to working with Avanti.
Between traditional book printing and a new targeted marketing division, the Blitzprint team had its hands full already. The printer’s all-online ordering system meant they couldn’t afford integration errors. But they did.
Avanti’s Solution
Blitzprint needed help with its web-to-print system integrating properly, both internally and with customer and vendor systems. We used Avanti Slingshot to bring the printer fully online and bridge the gap between various third-party software systems. It smoothed out the hiccups and improved the company’s ability to win and please customers.
Get even more details in Blitzprint’s case study.
Avoid issues like these by choosing the best print MIS solution for your business.
Choosing the Best Print MIS for Your Business
While there are many factors to consider when choosing your print MIS, here are 5 things to keep top-of-mind when deciding which option is right for your business.
Real-time monitoring
- Allows you to see exactly what is being printed and by whom in real-time
- It can be beneficial for businesses that need to track printing for billing or cost-control purposes
Quota management
- Allows you to set limits on how much printing employees can do
- It helps control costs and reduce waste
- Some print management solutions will enable you to set up alerts and rules to help enforce quotas
Integration with existing systems
- Look for a solution that can integrate with your accounting software, HR systems, and other tools you use to manage your business
- Integrations can help streamline your processes and make it easier to manage your printing needs
Ease of use
- Allows employees to easily use and navigate processes and workflows without excessive onboarding and training
- Enables employees to track and control their printing habits without any hassle
Level of support and customization
- Look for a solution that provides a range of support options, such as online resources and technical support
- Customization options can also be helpful, allowing you to tailor the solution to the specific needs of your business
The Bottom Line
At Avanti, we prioritize your business’s full scope of printing needs and goals so that you can focus on the things that move the needle. Our unprecedented ease of use and powerful integrations help you to keep a finger on the pulse of real-time monitoring and quota management— all so you can deliver more jobs to more customers faster, with fewer errors.
But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself!
See the power of Avanti Slingshot and what it can do for your business. Please request a free online demo, and our experts will show you what’s possible with your organization’s data and print jobs in real time.
