Print management is a rising concept since companies and copy shops need to cut down on operational costs to increase profitability. It also serves as a line of defense to protect confidential business files from falling into the hands of bad actors. But finding the best print management software is a daunting task since it needs huge research. Continue reading to learn more about print management and the best applications you can use without wasting time on market research.
What Is Print Management?
Print management is the utilization of different practices like printing machine tracking, computing device tracking, print output monitoring, sensitive data security, printing cost optimization, and print analytics. The latest intelligent software developers combine all these functionalities in one place to develop a print management solution. Startups, small, and medium businesses at least use a basic tool to manage printing operations. On the contrary, enterprises deploy a full-featured print management solution on-site or on the cloud to administer global printing activities.
Benefits of Print Management
The followings are the reasons and benefits of deploying a standard print management solution:
#1. Reducing Printing Costs
Businesses pay huge annual bills for printing in the form of devices, toner replenishment, and papers. Researches show that an organization can save a lot if they use a print management system to restrict employees from unnecessary printing.
#2. Securing Confidential Documents
You can not let employees print out confidential business documents whenever they please. You need to document the printing of secret files to set proper responsibilities for shredding after the work is done. Print administrating software enables you to ensure data safety.
#3. Streamlining the Printing Operation
Managers and supervisors often witness that employees waste time standing in a queue to collect their printed copies. You can avoid such unproductive practices by rationalizing printing operations. Your employees will also thank you at the end of the day.
#4. Enabling Remote Printing
Employees working from home can send print commands through cloud-based print management solutions. You can collect the physical copy from the workplace. These printing solutions also ensure business data safety by encrypting in-transit data packets.
#5. Reducing Paper Wastage
Human produces paper by cutting down trees which in turn damages the environment. You can install a robust print management system that will efficiently control paper wastage and do your part to save nature. Let’s now look at the best print management software for your business.
PaperCut
If you talk about efficient print management tools for small to large businesses, PaperCut is undeniably one of the leading names. The tool and its cloud-based services help businesses of any size to minimize waste. At the same time, business owners can stop worrying about the data security of printing confidential reports. With PaperCut, your printing experiences become delightful. Your employees must be carrying various devices at work like smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, Laptops, etc. It could become challenging for IT system admins to ensure all drivers are in place for effortless printing when there are multiple devices. PaperCut effectively resolves this with its Easy printing services like sending a print command to one queue and getting the copy from any printer, a common MFD touchscreen for all the different printer models, etc. You can also deploy highly secure business printing by using its services. PaperCut employs a three-way printing protection:
It lets you secure the printing infrastructure before someone prints anything like what you can print, who can print, etc.During the printing process, you can utilize 2-Factor authentication and card-based secured print copy release.When the print is out and the copy is in the office space, you can deploy measures like watermarking, audit trails, digital signatures, and print archiving to safe keep confidential data.
You also get some free tools with PaperCut like a Google Cloud Print alternative tool PaperCut Mobility Print, QRdoc for stamping business documents, and PaperCut Views for print analytics.
Print Conductor
You can print more than 90 different document types without even opening the file if you try Print Conductor. It comes with a fast and reliable print engine along with a simple and easy-to-use interface for bulk printing. Furthermore, you can sort print documents, preview the print document, control batch print jobs, and make quick print settings adjustments, all from one application. The tool supports all sorts of modern printers in the local networks, wide area networks, or cloud networks. Additionally, apart from physical printers, you can use this tool to manage printing tasks on virtual printers like PDF printers and OneNote printers. Like its competitors, Print Conductor offers a print analytics module. It helps you estimate paper and ink requirements before large batch printing jobs. Estimations are available on the Detailed report and Report page.
Print Manager Plus 9.0
Print Manager Plus 9.0 adds a new dimension to print management by giving businesses unparalleled control, access, and print insight into their printing operations. The developers of this tool have perfected their program over decades of utilization in many companies. It is the cutting-edge print management software that represents the very best in end-user support and technology. By deploying this tool in your organization, you can reduce printing supply costs, cut down the paper wastage, and receive enhanced printing intelligence across departments. The followings are some of the remarkable features of this print management software:
IT admin can live audit printing tasks of an employee, workstation, printer, network, and cost.Release station with ID card or payment makes printing tasks streamlined for work or printing shops.Its quota and budget settings enable you to save money by limiting printing by persons, workstations, or printers.
Print Manager Plus 9.0 also follows an environment-friendly policy to make your office or print shop greener. It reduces wastage of ink, energy, and paper and thus reduces your company’s carbon footprint.
uniFLOW
Another tool to take control of workplace print infrastructure is uniFLOW. Large organizations and printing businesses that handle various advanced printing rigs like Canon, Xerox, Epson, Brother, Konica Minolta, etc., use this tool to handle printing, scanning, and document management tasks. It has both on-site and cloud-based applications for printing management. Both cloud and on-site tools function as an integrated portal for scanning, printing, and managing devices with ease and absolute security. uniFLOW’s Secure printing and Universal driver features are remarkable developments that you should know. The Secure printing technology enables you to assign individual accounts for each employee. Employees need to release the printed copy using their own ID card or PIN. Furthermore, the user must be present before the machine to collect the printing copy. The Universal driver ensures the application supports various devices and printing machines. Users can send print commands to any networked printer from all computing devices like mobile phones or laptops.
UniPrint InfinityCloud
UniPrint InfinityCloud is another popular tool for virtual desktop interface (VDI) and enterprise print management with a scalable solution. Since it is a vendor-agnostic tool, the application can communicate seamlessly with all modern printers and computing devices for printing purposes. UniPrint’s solution is perfect for any business size ranging from startups to multinational conglomerates. It also offers specialized on-site and cloud services for industries like Banking & Finance, Insurance, Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Cloud Service Providers, Government, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and Healthcare. Its salient print management solution includes standard features like a flexible consumption model and tool licensing, serverless printing, print analytics, print tracking, print from anywhere, and touchless printing.
PrinterAdmin
You can also give PrinterAdmin a try if you need a convenient print management solution for an educational institute or business. Its tool lets you monitor everything about printing like users, printing machines, workstations, and charge-backs. It also comes with a standard printing insight tool or analytics module that informs you about the printing volume, ink usage, and overall printing cost of your business. The PrinterAdmin tool brings advanced functionalities onboard. These are:
Print Job Manager for print settings, account creation, driver enablement, etc.Document release station reduces wastage and increases security by releasing print only when the user is available.Print Watermarking tool enables you to capture print details.
All the applications come with a 30-day free trial. You can avail of the trial offer and determine whether the tool is worthy for your business by using it for a while.
Print Tracker Pro
Print Tracker Pro comes with the one-click install feature to get you started with print management in minutes. Since the setup and operation of this tool are simple, your employees or customers experience the best service. It is a smart print management solution that can communicate with all kinds of modern printers and computing devices accurately, minimizing downtime for driver installation or non-support for devices. Its robust tracking system delivers all granular print-related insights like toner levels, meters, page counts, printer installations, and service alerts. Furthermore, you can configure the tool to send you reminders for ink replenishment or factoring printer meter reading to invoices easily.
Final Words
Find above a cherry-picked list of popular and business-ready print management software. You can utilize any of these apps for home office, workplace, shops, publication houses, or copy shops. Since you are here, you can also look at these best tools to convert web pages to PDF and save money by avoiding printing where you can.
