Print Enablement in the Post Covid Office

By Matt Coad, Head of Solutions, FUJIFILM Upstream Solutions

The post covid office may be a very different place to the one we’ve known previously.

Reduced office space, hot desks and hybrid working will likely be the new norm.

As we look ahead and start to replan the return to the office, now is a good time to consider the changed landscape of print.

Over the last 12 months, many businesses have found ways to live without printing, through necessity, circumstance or by choice. In many instances, digital workflow of documents or processes is much more efficient, and accepted as a better alternative to paper.

Take contract management for example, the use of Electronic Signing platforms in place of wet signatures is now widely accepted, even in industries such as Legal and Compliance.

Traditionally, Print Management Solutions (the wholistic management of your print environment) were introduced to businesses as a way to simplify printing, enhance security and reduce waste.

‘Find me printing’ was a way to simplify print for end users by allowing them to simply print their job and release at any device using a swipe card or pin.

With users now conditioned to a non-print first mindset, the requirement to print at all may be an after thought. However, on the occasions they are required to print, they need specific output requirements such as the type of finishing, stapling etc.

This changes the landscape and means we need to consider how we help ‘enable print’ for all users to maximise the capabilities of their devices, without the complexity of deploying print queues.

This is where Print Enablement comes in.

A print enablement solution allows businesses to dynamically deploy and assign print queues to users based on location, network or device.

You can make printers available on mobile devices, non domain joined PC’s and even through the cloud,  while still maintaining policies, security and print release.

For complex or specific print requirements, ‘print enablement’ allows you to deploy specific device queues with native drivers to take advantage of device accessories. Alternatively you can use Global Print drivers for everyday print tasks.

Print queues can automatically be added or removed from user’s devices based on the network the user is connecting to.

To enable this, we use a Papercut Feature called Print Deploy.

The good news is, if you are a Papercut user you already have this feature! If not, feel free to reach out to discuss Papercut and how it can help future proof your print environment!