June 20, 2016
Employees at law firms are accustomed to asking hard questions, questions that might not be comfortable. In court, this often means the cross examination of a witness. In your firm, are you ready to answer tough questions about your printing environment? Can you talk confidently about its:
- Costs
- Reliability
- Transparency
- Efficiency
Managed Print Services (MPS) can help you answer questions about how the printers in your law firm are performing. It’s a partnership with a team of professionals who will take control of your printers, make sure they are working reliably, provide supplies for the printers and report on their performance. Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering if Managed Print Services is a good fit for your law firm...
1. Do You Have 5 or More Printers?
Small law firms with only one or two printers can probably assign a person to make sure printers are working and supplied. As your firm grows, however, and you are using ten, twenty or two hundred printers, you likely could use help. A managed print service provider is capable of managing and monitoring all of your printers, and providing automatic toner shipment and support desk troubleshooting.
If something goes wrong or questions arise, you have a team of experts ready to help. And often, this team of experts can determine if something is going awry and fix it before anyone in your organization even recognizes the issue.
2. Do You Typically Outsource Services?
Outsourcing is becoming much more prevalent in today's business world, and it’s particularly important to law firms that are concerned with billable hours. Every time one of your professionals - from partners, to associates, to paralegals - is wrestling with a printer, they aren’t generating revenue. And in law firms it’s not just a cliché to say “time is money.”
When you outsource support for your printers, you're relying on external experts to solve technical issues with equipment - equipment your employees can only guess at. That’s a smart business decision.
If your employees aren't accustomed to using outsourced support, they can rely on the experts who are just a phone call away. While the actual managed print services team may not be on-site, they will be proactively monitoring your network of printers - probably more closely than you can - and even preventing some problems before they occur.
3. Are You Happy With Your Current Managed Print Service?
Maybe you are already ahead of the game and have a managed print services provider for your print environment. Smart move. Are you happy with the service? Are they providing the level of service you expected? Are they delivering consistent, readable reports about your printer network?
If your current provider isn't delivering the quality of service you need (and expect), consider what that's costing your business in productivity.
4. Do You Need Secure Printing?
An effective managed print service includes secure printing software because in law firms, confidentiality is extremely important.
5. Do You Measure ROI?
Cost cutting is on everyone’s short list of important priorities. Managed print services can show you how to make an airtight case for the ROI. A well-managed print environment can also contribute to your firm’s revenue stream. Printed documents are part of the service you can bill to clients. Being able to track those documents accurately will also make your bills more accurate. For most organizations, making sure printers are always functioning reliably is important. In a law firm where those printers are part of the revenue picture, it’s vital.
Time for an Assessment?
Everyone in your law firm will tell you how important it is to ask the right questions. If these questions have you thinking, then Managed Print Services may be a good fit for your organization.
Have an expert look closer at your organization’s print needs and environment by requesting an assessment.
