4 Keys to a Successful Printer Upgrade

If you want the best, most cost-effective results, your printer upgrade should do more than simply replace the one you have with the latest model. Whether you’re upgrading one printer or an entire fleet, today’s technology offers amazing functionality that you may find helps you realize savings and a strong return on your investment (ROI).

How can you do this?

Well, you can:

• Take advantage of dynamic cloud integration to connect with your business applications.

• Automate document workflows.

• Use secured data and documents to speed retrieval, communication, and access management.

With printer technology today, you can do that and more as you drive productivity and support collaboration with your teams wherever they work.

Realizing these benefits and savings involves four key elements. Follow them and you’ll have a clear picture of –

• what your requirements are,

• how to ensure employee buy-in,

• the best implementation plan for your organization, and

• the one essential factor that ties your efforts together and positions you for success.

With a successful printer upgrade, you can build business agility and give yourself a competitive edge. All you need to do is follow these four key elements.

1.    Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

It can be tempting to see what technology can do and then build your goals for the upgrade around it. We recommend the opposite. Identify the areas of your business where automation would make the biggest impact and support growth.

Then, for each area you identify, build S.M.A.R.T. goals. (As a refresher, S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.) By establishing well-defined goals before you begin talking with potential vendors, you’ll control the conversation, increase the speed of the process by finding relevant solutions faster, and – perhaps most importantly – position yourself to find solutions that will deliver even bigger returns.

Here are some good areas to begin your evaluation and goal creation:

Remote access and productivity

Any obstacle that slows or stops the flow of information negatively impacts productivity. Remote access, for example, can be a big one. Remote workers, mobile employees, and travel can restrict access to documents and data. Workflows can also suffer when key movers are out of the office. If this issue sounds familiar, you’ll understand why a vendor who can help with automated workflows and even cloud document management will offer the best value.

Another productivity challenge can be printer access. Devices need to deliver functionality to meet every user’s needs and handle the print and scan volume. This can mean specific printer features such as booklet printing, scanning capabilities, mobile print support, secured print release, and more.  

Security and compliance requirements

Are you in an industry with strict compliance requirements like HIPAA, PCI, or any of the numerous financial or legal regulations? If yes, then compliance may be a top requirement that defines your upgrade needs.

Yet, even if you don’t have compliance regulations, data and document security are still likely a high priority – especially in today’s highly connected digital workplace with so many remote workers.

But for all the security you need, your data must remain accessible. Employees must be able to find, retrieve, and share appropriate data and documents with relative ease. Standardized authentication codes, access keys, and remote password protection provide some of the most flexible and secured access.

Defining your compliance, security, and access needs early will help you with your product evaluation.

Workflow automation

Perhaps one of the most difficult areas to set goals around is workflow automation. You may see manual, redundant tasks that, if eliminated, would free employees to engage in more productive, rewarding activities, but aren’t sure if solutions exist to help.

The best approach to address these potential areas for improvement is to prioritize tasks you’d like to automate. These questions can help you get started:

• Which manual operations eat up valuable time?

• Which document-based processes need streamlining?

• Which financial controls (usage, waste, estimating) need tightening?

• Which processes are exposing the greatest security risks?

Future goals and needs

The upgrade you do today needs to continue to meet your organization’s needs for years to come. It helps to know business plans and goals for the future. Here are some questions you might find can also help focus your goal setting on the subject:

• Approximately how many new employees will need access to printing, scanning, and related cloud applications?

• How are the needs for remote access likely to change over time?

• What role will digital transformation play in changing my future print requirements?

What will happen tomorrow may not be carved in stone, but by having an idea, you can identify how much scalability and flexibility you need in your technology to always stay current.

4.    Communicate

Frequent communication plays a central role in a successful printer upgrade. The more everyone communicates, the better you manage expectations, ensure transparency, and speed the adoption of new business processes.

We’ve found the following practices can help support the transition and speed implementation.

Communicate goals and plans early and often

When you communicate the goal and plan for the upgrade process, you help people prepare for change. Getting people involved, for example, through stakeholder meetings not only declares the upcoming change, but it also gets them involved in the process. Communication also builds anticipation and enthusiasm for the benefits and features that will come with the change.

Making key stakeholders responsible for communication can help keep your teams engaged and on the lookout for specific milestones.

Create and maintain documentation

Process changes require documentation. New applications require instructions to be shared with users to ensure proper use and adoption. Intelligent devices often have intuitive panels but guides on common, basic tasks help speed proper use of even the simplest, new devices.

By creating and maintaining documentation, you’ll share vital knowledge and keep everyone informed throughout the transition. Building documentation around frequently asked questions (FAQs) can also prove a big time saver. FAQs can prove a valuable reference for everyone as it empowers them with answers to their questions, reducing team lead or vendor outreach on basic issues.

Clearly communicate timelines

Sudden change disrupts productivity. By providing advanced notice and frequent reminders, you help everyone plan their work around the upcoming change. Urgent issues can be addressed, and less urgent items can be queued up for testing through your new processes.

The phased rollout mentioned earlier can be a good way to remind everyone in a very direct way that change has come. Email, posted notices, and team meetings offer other effective means to remind and reassure everyone regarding the what, when, and how of the printer upgrade.

Finally, remember to thank everyone

Thanking everyone for their input, patience, effort, and cooperation helps foster positive feelings and attitudes despite the challenges that come with change.