Pierre Laurier
8 min read
When I started my career as a programmer, one of my project managers had a mantra. It went, “A good programmer is a lazy programmer, as he always try to have the machine do the task for him”. Hey, even Bill Gates also believed in something similar. He said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it”.
Maybe my project manager was onto something.
It’s safe to say that these mantras encapsulate the essence of the digital world we live in. The goal of technology and innovation is to have machines do repetitive tasks we find tedious and have them done repeatedly with high accuracy and high speed. It’s about simplifying, centralizing, and automating IT systems to make life easier for IT teams.
In the IT world, we install and maintain business applications constantly. Our partners and customers have several requirements before their enterprise software solutions are installed, set up, and running smoothly. The main requirement? Make systems easier and less time-consuming to work with. Our solution for that, is ‘No Print Management’.
No Print Management is a concept developed by Y Soft to tackle a new era of customer needs. The concept forces a change of mindset in the print industry to let IT teams free, by making print a commodity, simplifying its use, and converging solutions to drive bigger outcomes for the customer.
With traditional installations, you need to have the right operating system, the right server, network setup, and service packs, and have your databases running smoothly. Needless to say, maintaining an organization’s IT infrastructure is painstaking work.
Going back to my project manager’s mantra, IT productivity in this scenario equates to finding efficient machines that can do tedious, manual work efficiently. Running a print infrastructure is complex and time-consuming, that’s plain to see; It’s a common dilemma among IT teams. Question is, what can be done about it? Let’s look into it!
What Does it Mean to Let Go of Print Management?
For many years now, we’ve believed that Print Management is the solution to look for to simplify print tasks and troubleshooting print issues. It’s not as simple as that. The problem is, print management solutions are built on a presumed-value service that dictates that feature-heaviness is the solution to a heavy IT workload. How on earth that makes sense is beyond me–but we all went in that direction.
Of course, each of these features came with good intentions. And features are not the culprit. The issue is that every new feature, while they make good on a lot of valuable promises, still becomes yet another feature to manage. With all features combined, it’s time to realize that we’ve created complex solutions that become a pain to manage. They solve isolated user issues but doesn’t make managing print easier for the IT department.
A print management platform doesn’t tackle the core problem or holistic process.
That’s why we’re saying it’s time to let go of print management. It served us well through it’s time, but the era has ended. And dear print management – You will NOT be missed.
Letting go of print management means entering an era of modern customer needs; An era where agile outcomes, less work with more value, and time for strategic work reign supreme. No Print Management is about letting go of old perceptions and paving the road for IT departments to become business enables and, instead of a support function, now building the backbone of the digital enterprise. That’s the IT department we envision.
To let go of print management is to let go of the idea that print management is an offering to give to customers. Instead, at Y Soft, our offering is ‘No Print Management’. With No Print Management, the advanced features, durable infrastructure, and software capacities don’t go away–customers just don’t have to manage any of it anymore.
What makes ‘No Print Management’ possible?
- Cloud technology
- On-demand scalability
- Automation of IT work
- Converged infrastructure
- Consistent user experience
- Round-the-clock availability
- End-to-end security
6 Driving Forces to Embrace No Print Management
Employing cloud-based printing is one of the best ways for IT teams to manage their print environment. Or rather, let go of the management but keep the control. Cloud printing technology is a type of serverless printing. It allows organizations to eliminate the need for on-site print servers and data centers. It is a managed service that simplifies an organization’s print environment with the help of converged infrastructure, bigger outcomes, cost-efficiency, proactive security, automation, scalability, and low-touch infrastructure. Let’s dig deeper into each driving force.
1. Converged Infrastructure & Simplified Printing
A cloud-native converged infrastructure platform helps businesses achieve a centralized printing system that does away with the complexities, inadequacies, and incompatibilities of traditional print environments. What is centralized printing?
It places every printer in your fleet—no matter how many printers, vendors, or physical locations you might have—right at your fingertips with a powerful, intuitive interface. With SAFEQ Cloud’s centralized printing, we streamline all your printers and queues with one single full-featured single driver that is completely brand-agnostic, enabling you to...:
- … Pick the printer vendors you prefer
- … Consolidate a mixed fleet of printers
- … Simplify printing by allowing users to work with their preferred devices
- … Not worry about getting constrained now or in the future
- … Just print – no matter where to or from
Pretty sweet deal, right?
The centralized environment affords you a consolidated oversight of print activities, your printer fleet, and more, while giving your IT team and users a simplified printing experience. With SAFEQ Cloud, it also means that you can access your printing and scanning capabilities from the same interface, thanks to true cloud technology.
Speaking of cloud technology. SAFEQ Cloud also simplifies printing by leveraging the cloud to facilitate remote printing and make the print environment accessible to a distributed workforce. No device, colleague, or office gets left behind.
When we talk about converged infrastructure, what we actually deliver with a cloud print offering is Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). This environment uses intelligent distributed software to combine pools of resources into a 100% software-defined solution, in our case that’s SAFEQ Cloud. It replaces the components of legacy infrastructure, i.e., separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays, with one unified distributed system, creating a highly scalable solution.
2. Real Value & Agile Business Outcomes
No print management is about moving the industry from presumed-value to real-value services, giving customers what they want, when they want it. Real value services go beyond just churning out features, fixes, or isolated improvements; they encompass a range of added-value offerings that solve client problems, enhance efficiency, and contribute to overall business objectives.
When thinking of print industry customers, IT departments across the world, these are the problems they face:
- A heavy workload with lots of system maintenance, keeping up with helpdesk tickets, and manually keeping up with security standards and prerequisites.
- A growing expectation from the high ranks to actively participate in setting and keeping up with digital transformation strategies, growing the business, and building a digitally proficient enterprise.
- Decentralized IT systems, multiple expensive contracts, manual upgrades, and a complex IT infrastructure with both pesky hardware and scattered software.
With all these pain points forging a seemingly inescapable hamster wheel that IT teams have been burdened with for years, it’s time to dismantle the traditional practices and look for more effective and constructive ways to manage IT and the transformation happening in IT departments now. And no, it’s not about launching yet another feature.
In effectively turning online print management software into an automated powerhouse in the cloud, these are the real value offerings we’re dedicated to deliver to our customers:
- Remove all tasks related to IT managing printers
- Free up time for IT to become business enablers
- Converged print system (one brand-agnostic tool)
- Automated repetitive tasks and simple workflows
- Commercialization of print
- Minimized helpdesk activity
- Round-the-clock availability
- … and a lot more
→ A Turning Point: 8 Indicators that IT Transformation is in Full Swing
3. Cost-Efficiency
A cloud print solution allows organizations to cut back on print server maintenance. In fact, with pure cloud solutions, you can even remove legacy systems, which results in eliminated hardware costs too. If we take servers as an example, 66% of organizations with more than 1,000 employees maintain on average three servers. They spend over $4400 annually to provision and run each server. With three servers, that becomes $13,200 spent annually just to run print jobs on-premises.
Essentially, it becomes a win-win situation for customers. They cut back on both costs and time, all while getting a solution that is consistently improved to deliver ongoing real value.
Hardware is not the only cost-efficient part of the equation. Cloud print solutions like SAFEQ Cloud are delivered as a subscription service (SaaS), which means you don’t have to worry about upfront investment or paying for more than you need. SaaS means you only pay for the licenses you use–no more, no less.
4. Proactive Security Procedures
Managed print services are well-maintained and equipped to safeguard documents that may be sensitive or confidential. The risks of data breaches due to leaked documents and hacked printers are much lower.
In-house IT teams also don’t need to constantly take care of patches and updates. The print service provider takes care of that on their behalf. With a true software offering, the solution providers roll out monthly updates for your print solution.
With every monthly update, you can rest assured that security enhancements are included. Software providers work proactively with security to ensure your print environment is always in stellar condition. With service providers handling the security mechanisms of your print infrastructure, your IT team can effectively let go of that worry.
From cloud solution providers like Y Soft, you can expect:
- Ongoing vulnerability scanning
- Quarterly penetration testing
- Proactive threat and intrusion prevention
- Incident management procedures
- Monthly security enhancements
- Zero-trust security strategy
- Strict access management
5. LOW-Touch solutions
A lot of the helpdesk calls we usually receive are related to either printer drivers, print queue management, or printing software. A cloud-based print management software significantly reduces the instances of print-related helpdesk calls. Printing mishaps can be avoided thanks to a print infrastructure that’s efficient, powerful, and easy to use.
On-site teams also do not need to worry about regular maintenance of print servers. With a cloud solution, there’s no more need for print server maintenance.
"As a small IT department, the only way we could support the business’ growth trajectory was to streamline processes and automate as much as we can. Everything is so much simpler now. (…) When an agent visits any of our offices they only see the printers available to them at that location, which makes life much easier for them and doesn’t end up in a call to the helpdesk!" - John Schweighardt, CIO of Intracoastal Realty
Our aim is to make SAFEQ Cloud a truly low-touch solution for our customers. Referencing back to point 2 in this article, our focus on ‘No Print Management’ is driven by the ideal that our customers shouldn’t have to deal with the intricacies of their infrastructure when they are destined for greater things: Building the backbone of the digital enterprise.
6. Automation & On-Demand Scalability
The way to a future-proof, real-value print solution is through technology advancements in automation and scalability. With a solution like SAFEQ Cloud, we’ve automated a punch of workflows and IT tasks to make it easier for IT to keep track of everything they need, yet without having to delve into the mechanics of their infrastructure.
A No print management solution such as SAFEQ Cloud is built to scale up or down as needs change or growth takes effect. Not only do we alleviate the burden on IT departments in the here-and-now, but also for the company’s future. Cloud print solutions are made to ensure on-demand scalability, vast infrastructure flexibility, and more, so your company can build the right infrastructure for you–never to worry about being constrained in the future.
In the end, automation and flexibility tie back to where we started–we want to simplify printing so users can print with ease from any device to any printer, and IT departments can let go of the tedious work behind managing print.
FAQs on Simplified Printing
Q1) What Makes No Print Management Possible?
As a whole, no print management becomes possible with the combined forces of native cloud technology (serverless printing), a vendor-agnostic and full-featured single driver, automation, print infrastructure flexibility, and a solution approach that puts the customers’ real issues under the microscope to be solved. With cloud print technology, Y Soft has been able to simplify printing for our cloud customers and change the narrative of solving IT pains at their roots.
Final Points
Ready to let go of print management as we know it?
Y Soft’s SAFEQ Cloud is a print management solution that revolutionizes the way customers tackle their printing infrastructure. SAFEQ Cloud simplifies daily operations with its central administration from the cloud-based management console. No need for print servers, and no need for regular updates on your IT team’s end. It's completely out of your hands and your hair.
With SAFEQ Cloud, everything is controlled remotely and securely from the same web admin page. It doesn’t matter if you have a simple installation or a multi-tenant, multi-site installation to manage. The solution can fulfil any organization’s requirements concerning print security, flexibility, and scalability.
This cloud printing platform supports your business objectives. It does so by improving user experience, cutting costs, improving security, and modernizing your print environment. The solution also grows with you–at your pace, your way. And saving the best for last–it effectively allows your IT team to let go of the burden of managing your print environment.
Does that sound like something for you?
Let’s find out if your company is ready to jump on the cloud print bandwagon. To find out if you’re ready for a simplified print management solution that, well, removes print management from your shoulders, take our 4-minute Cloud Readiness Self-Assessment today.
