Plan Carefully Before You Jump: Moving Your Print Infrastructure to the Cloud

By Ken Weilerstein – Ricoh: When IT departments use on-premises models for print management, pressure to increase headcount to keep up with the responsibilities is common. If you’re simultaneously seeking ways to free up staffing resources so you can focus on other, more strategic business initiatives, you find yourself in an even more challenging predicament.

Moving your print infrastructure to the cloud can be a cost-effective and productive answer to this dilemma, but before you make the move, there are some things to consider.

Look at the part printing plays in future growth

Where your company is headed should be your initial focus when considering a move to the cloud, and it will bring up many important questions to consider. For example, if you estimate an addition of 1,000 new employees over the next five years, you might see the need for a platform that automatically updates software to help your staff keep up with the new growth.

Each concern that arises will lead to a number of questions that can provide insight into what you need from a print-cloud service. The example above might also lead you to ask:

Approximately how many new employees will need mobile access to printing and scanning?
How do we ensure print jobs are authenticated with so many new employees being introduced to multiple locations?
What role will digital transformation play in changing my future print requirements?

Looking at projected business growth leads to many pertinent questions about scalability. If a cloud service you’re considering can’t scale up to meet this projected growth in a cost-effective way — quickly and with minimal disruption to workflow — cross it off your list.