Document Projects. Marketing & Customer Communications Management

Print Queue / Output Management – Why do I need it? October 24, 2008

Print Queue software will benefit organisations in helping to manage local print – i.e. printing for internal consumption in addition to helping manage high volume customer communications management print.

But for this post, lets start first with the use of print queue software within the enterprise.

One of the key things about print environments within organisations that don’t use print queue management software is that the printing will typically be managed within the native Windows framework. In smaller companies, this is not too much of a problem but, as companies get larger, the issues really start to manifest themselves.

Native print drivers provide relatively little control. There is a lack of measurement and this means that organisations have very little control over cost and accounting for print. The other factor that affects print is the lack of assurance that a print job has delivered.

Print queue management will provide this control meaning that organisations can begin to understand where their print costs are coming from. But it goes beyond control. Print queue management will also enable distributed printing e.g. printing larger jobs across more than one printer.

Pressure is mounting on organisations to reduce their carbon footprint. Printing is a big area where these targets can be met. Output Management / Print Queue solutions can be utilised to enforce policy. Therefore, it could enforce duplex printing, enforce the printing of routine jobs to the most cost effective printers and where implemented, enforce the printing of certain jobs into an electronic archive – which will save the company a fortune.

Output management also allows the management of print location well. So if colleagues in London and Australia need to share a printed document, the lady in London can print from her desk in London to a printer in Sydney – and get assurance that it has been printed.

It is said that you cannot manage what you don’t know. Output management will bring that knowledge about organisational print and will allow you to manage and direct policy to improve efficiencies and reliabilty. It will enable you to develop a strategy, may help you reduce your laser printer fleet and will give users a better service.