Great Lakes Computer Corporation

Managed Service Provider

Archives for August 2015

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Signs (and Labels) That Print is Not Dead

Managed PrintThe global printing market is expected to top $980 Billion by the year 2018, according to a report by Smithers Group. This growth is despite the fact that many consider print to be dead, as we move towards an expanding paperless world. Consider, for example, the items and events in your life that are now paperless. Parents all around the world are required to fill out a multitude of forms before every school year, many containing pages upon pages of legal speak. Most districts across the US and beyond have moved to electronic forms for this annual ritual.

When was the last time you walked through airport security? Did you notice more and more passengers displaying their smartphone to TSA for scanning rather than presenting a paper ticket? Or how about at concerts and sporting events, where patrons are no longer presenting paper tickets, but using their iphones to carry their entrance pass. Not only does this cut back on printing costs for consumers, it has significantly reduced illegal scalping.

With all this reduction in paperwork, where is the increase in the printing market coming from? In short: labels. Food labels, clothing labels, and all sorts of other product labels. Thermal printers and thermal barcoding are the new heavy hitters. With global populations rising, and global demand for more goods growing, more labels are needed. Think also of the increase in laws that require product labels to contain more detailed information about the contents within.

With the increases in thermal printing required, especially in the manufacturing sector, it is no wonder that associated goods and services related to these thermal printers are expected to see growth. CNBC released a report earlier this year that the Managed Print Services market is expected to experience continued growth at a compound annual growth rate of 10.1% over the period of 2015-2019.

Managed print services is a professional service usually provided by a third-party service provider. It helps organizations manage their print environment with a cost-effective solution. Providing a well-managed imaging and printing environment for manufacturers and others who use print significantly is paramount to the company to deliver their goods and services efficiently and effectively. MPS involves monitoring a company’s print environment, as well as regulate and improve their print network.

While Managed Print Services requires a monthly fee, companies find significant cost savings in their annual printing spend. Performing a free print cost assessment is a great first step. With MPS, companies are no longer forced to pay for maintenance on machines and costly repairs, as well as extreme savings on toner and ink cartridges. The downtime component of a broken printer is nearly eliminated with Managed Print Services, as Service Level Agreements are put in place to repair in a timely manner.

The argument for Managed Print Services becomes even more compelling coupled with these statistics. 80% of the Total Cost of Ownership of a printer is from costs incurred after the purchase. Gartner Group found that most companies are spending around 3% of their total annual costs on their printing system, and that the mismanagement of output fleets (copiers, printers,fax machines) can cost an enterprise somewhere between 1 and 3 percent of revenue annually. Further, managed print services operation can save businesses in the region of 28% on their printing budget.

Get on Our Schedule for Our Free Print Cost Assessment

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The Most Innovative Developments In Cloud Computing

cloud computingManagers across a diverse array of sectors are increasingly turning to the cloud to manage their IT infrastructure. Thanks to exponential leaps in technology such as bandwidth speed and data compression, cloud technology is now more accessible than ever and can provide tangible benefits for almost any company. Business leaders now realize that the days of investing in space-wasting, expensive, and compartmentalized hardware and software solutions that need to be constantly updated are a thing of the past. By choosing an all-in-one cloud computing solution, you’ll inject your business with the flexibility it needs to compete in today’s increasingly digital world. See how a cloud computing system can drive innovation, reduce costs, and revolutionize your company’s data management efforts.

1) Automated Integration

Piecemeal software solutions have long been the bane of many managers’ existence. Many of these solutions are notorious for not integrating with other areas of the business, resulting in delays in the customer-service, accounting, and production chains. It’s especially been a problem for small and growing companies, as they often don’t have the economies-of-scale to link systems in a way that makes sense for every department. Cloud-based platforms are able to easily integrate data and transactions across all areas of the business, making information from one sector instantly available for all and increasing productivity.

2) Mobile Access

The world isn’t driven by a nine-to-five office schedule any longer, and companies can’t survive if success is dependent upon managers being tied to their desks. Workers are altering the business landscape by telecommuting in record numbers, and getting work completed on their own time thanks to mobile devices. The cloud makes this even simpler, as all operations are quickly and easily available for employees no matter where they are, and without the need for costly and outdated hardware.

3) Driving Innovation

IT Professionals were once hampered in their development efforts by inflexible hardware requirements and interminable testing times. Cloud solutions allow them to build and test code quickly and easily, not tying them to a physical server. This means that more betas can be developed and tested, resulting in enhanced solutions for your company’s particular needs. Also, the lack of hardware infrastructure required for implementing a cloud-based system frees up cash flows for you to invest in capital upgrades to enhance productivity and further reduce costs.

4) Enhanced Security

It may sound counterintuitive to outsource your IT security, but frankly you would have to invest an untenable level of resources into the process in order to do it as effectively as a cloud-based software company that specializes in data security. Cloud-based solutions offer an unprecedented level of customization for your security needs, allowing you to allocate protections and redundancies to the sectors where you need them the most. Migrating to the cloud also gives you access to a dedicated support team specializing in security issues, as well as enhanced disaster recovery capabilities thanks to robust, secure backups that are automatically run and tested for efficacy in the cloud. 

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Don’t Make These Easily-Avoidable Mistakes With Your Disaster Recovery Plan

data management and cloud computingYou may think your organization has implemented a foolproof and robust data backup plan, but it’s not until disaster strikes that the mettle of your efforts will truly be tested. Data recovery technology, like every other sector in the IT services field, continues to change at an intense pace, and as even legacy companies begin storing more and more information digitally, data management has taken on an ever-increasing importance. Decades of relying solely on physical data backups left companies vulnerable to any number of disaster recovery nightmares, from failing hardware to strict time and space constraints. Thanks to the abundance of current options for migrating your data backups to the cloud, many of these dangers can easily be mitigated and your company can be on the way to having secure, reliable data backups years into the future. Review your disaster recovery plan today to ensure that you won’t fall into one of these unnecessary mistakes.

Having Only a Single Physical Backup

Backup hardware has traditionally been expensive, and for growing companies with uncertain cash flows and future revenues, additional expenses that only pay dividends in the event of an emergency can seem excessive. It has been all too easy for IT managers to feel content having a single copy of their backup data in place, knowing that disaster is unlikely and that they have a plan in place even if it does occur. But multiple layers of redundancy can be incredibly important when it comes to data management, as it’s often impossible to tell how a system is going to react under vague circumstances. Combining physical backups with the power of the cloud will protect you even in the event of multiple hardware failures or thefts.

Only Remembering to Backup Old Data

With the limited space often available using physical backups, it’s tempting to focus securing older data first, knowing that in the event of a situation it’s typically easier to locate hard copies of more recent transactions and records. Prior to the digital and mobile revolutions, this was often the case, but as more and more businesses transition to a paperless configuration it’s more crucial than ever to have all data backed up as quickly and securely as possible. As cloud computing offers the ability to instantly create a virtual copy of your entire server, including POS transactions and accounting data, you’ll be confident knowing that not a single important data point will be lost in the event of a catastrophe.

Forgetting to Test Your Backups

We generally put a great deal of faith in our systems; we enter important sensitive information into them many times a day and they usually hold up to the task. Because of this, it’s far too easy to assume that your data backups are being transferred properly, only to find out that one error was preventing everything from being stored when it’s too late. The power of the cloud allows you to quickly and easily examine the efficacy of your backed-up data, without having to search through storage for additional hardware or mislabeled disks.

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