Printing and document flows
Nobody puts printing on a roadmap. It gets attention twice: when a migration breaks scan to email, and when an auditor asks who can read the documents stored on the machine in the hallway.
A modern multifunctional is a networked computer with a hard disk, an address book and a web interface, and it is usually the least maintained device in the building. It belongs on its own segment with an administrator password that is not the factory default.
Scan to email is the thing that breaks during a mail migration, because it authenticates with settings hardcoded years ago by someone who has left. Inventory those devices before the migration rather than discovering them after.
Secure release printing, where a job only prints once the person is at the machine, removes the confidentiality problem and cuts volume by ten to twenty per cent because unclaimed jobs are never printed.
A multifunctional is a computer
It has an operating system, a hard disk that stores what passes through it, an address book with everyone in the organisation, a web interface, and frequently a factory administrator password that nobody changed. It sits in a hallway, is physically accessible to anyone who walks in, and is almost never included in the patch cycle.
Listed like that it is obviously a risk, and yet it is the device most often left off the inventory. The fix is not exotic: its own network segment, a changed administrator password, disk encryption enabled, and the firmware included in the maintenance rhythm.
Scan to email is the migration landmine
Every mail migration we have run has produced at least one device that stopped scanning. The settings were entered when the machine was installed, they use a mailbox nobody remembers creating, and the password is written on a sticker inside the front cover if you are lucky.
Inventory those devices before the migration, not after. Which machines send mail, from which account, and using which method. It takes an hour and it prevents a week of complaints from the department that scans invoices.
The full inventory list is in the migration playbook.
Secure release printing pays for itself twice
The pattern is familiar: a print job sits in the tray for an hour, sometimes containing something confidential, and sometimes nobody collects it at all.
Secure release holds the job until the person is at the machine and identifies themselves with a badge or a code. That solves the confidentiality problem, and it also removes the jobs nobody collects, which in most organisations is ten to twenty per cent of the volume. The saving is real and it appears in the first quarter.
What printing actually costs
| Component | Note |
|---|---|
| Consumables | The largest ongoing cost, and where per-page contracts either help or hurt |
| Hardware | Often leased; check what happens at the end of the term |
| Support and call-outs | Reduced substantially by having fewer, better devices |
| Wasted output | Uncollected jobs, ten to twenty per cent without secure release |
| Paper and energy | Small individually, visible over a year |
The most common inefficiency is too many small devices. Three well-placed multifunctionals cost less to run than eleven desktop printers, and they generate a fraction of the support calls.
Scanning is where the value is
For most organisations the interesting half is not printing but the direction of travel back in: invoices, delivery notes, signed documents and post arriving on paper and needing to become searchable records.
Dedicated document scanners such as the Fujitsu fi-series handle that far better than a multifunctional does, and where the volume is real they pay back quickly. Epson covers both scanning and projection, and Zebra handles the label side where documents have to be produced rather than captured.
Documents have a retention question
Once documents are digital, they fall under the same retention rules as anything else, and they end up in the backup. That has two consequences: keeping everything forever is a cost, and it is also a liability if a request arrives asking what you hold.
Agree how long each category is kept, apply it in the system rather than in a policy document nobody enforces, and make sure the backup retention matches. Where that fits into the wider design is in data and business continuity.
Questions we get about this
What comes up when print lands on the agenda.
Is a multifunctional a security risk?
It can be, and it is usually the least maintained device in the building. It stores what passes through it, holds an address book, has a web interface and often a factory administrator password. Its own segment, a changed password, disk encryption and firmware in the patch cycle deal with most of it.
Why did scanning stop after our mail migration?
Because the device authenticates with settings entered years ago against the old mail environment. It is the most common casualty of a migration and it is entirely avoidable by inventorying which devices send mail before the migration starts.
Does secure release printing save money?
Yes, usually ten to twenty per cent of volume, because jobs nobody collects are never printed. The confidentiality benefit is the reason organisations buy it; the volume reduction is why it pays for itself.
How many printers should an office have?
Fewer than most have. Three well-placed multifunctionals typically cost less to run and generate fewer support calls than a dozen desktop printers, and they are easier to keep patched and secured.
Where this lands in our work
Where this sits.
Want this looked at for your own sites?
Half an hour on a call is usually enough to tell you whether we are the right party for it, and we will say so if we are not.