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PrintOps: Empowering Businesses to Embrace a Future of Seamless, Secure, and User-Friendly Printing

The Silicon Review

In today’s fast-paced world, print management software plays a crucial role in enabling businesses to manage their printing devices and streamline their print workflows effectively. By optimizing printing processes, this software can significantly reduce costs through usage monitoring and resource management.

However, the print management category has been around for over 30 years and was established in a vastly different technological and employee landscape. Just consider the transformations that IT teams have undergone during this period. We have moved from relying on letters and fax machines to embracing email communication. Likewise, we have shifted from using standalone, single-function, and non-networked copiers and printers to adopting wireless connectivity. The evolution extends to our software infrastructure, transitioning from on-premise hardware and software to mobile and cloud-based applications and infrastructure.

When print management emerged, the public internet was not as we know it today, and mainframe computers were the norm. Now we have more computing power and capabilities in our pockets than anyone could have imagined. Organizations have embraced BYOD policies, allowing personal devices to connect to the corporate infrastructure, and in recent years, have experienced a migration from office-centric working to remote and hybrid employees.

Despite these significant changes, the most profound transformations lie ahead as AI becomes integrated into every aspect of our lives and the digital employee experience takes center stage. Yet, print management software remains outdated, focusing on devices over the people using them and relying on manual processes rather than dynamic or intelligent automation. This approach assumes a static office environment disconnected from the highly connected world and IT ecosystem that defines modern work.

Over the past three decades, how people print has also evolved. While print volumes may have declined, color printing has increased. When someone needs to print, it is typically a critical need for both in-office and remote workers, and it is not just a mere convenience.

The challenge is that with all this technology and environmental change, the complexity of running a print infrastructure still exists and acts as a barrier to modernization efforts within IT. The solution lies in a more modern approach to office printing that also takes into consideration managing the infrastructure and operations that support it—an approach that is user-centric, automated and dynamic, integrated, intelligent, and maximizes productivity, efficiency, and security.

Pharos: Leading the Future of Print Management with PrintOps

Pharos, a pioneering figure in print management, has been helping enterprises and higher education institutions manage their printing for over three decades. Pharos is on a mission to migrate print infrastructure to the cloud—reducing the burden on IT teams and increasing security, all while transforming the end-user printing experience. In addition, Pharos is also committed to minimizing the environmental impact of printing for its customers and shifting them to a connected, AI-driven future.

Introducing the PrintOps Category

There is an increasing urgency for IT teams to transition on-premise print infrastructure to the cloud, thus the term PrintOps was coined. Representing a pivotal shift, PrintOps denotes a category of cloud-native software tailored for infrastructure and operations teams. It transcends the limitations of print hardware, prioritizing security, seamless integration with existing IT platforms, and an unwavering focus on enhancing employee productivity and end-user experience. Rooted in the core objective of enhancing employee efficiency, PrintOps combines people, processes, and technology to ensure seamless printing experiences universally. Embracing agility and scalability, PrintOps swiftly adjusts to evolving business needs while seamlessly accommodating technological advancements, diverse print devices, policies, and locations—all without compromising security or uptime. Hardware agnostic and integrated, PrintOps fosters streamlined communication among systems, IT departments, and end-users.

By harnessing data and AI, emerging PrintOps platforms will not only offer valuable business insights optimizing print-related investments, but also revolutionize the digital employee journey by proactively addressing issues before they occur. Versatile by design, PrintOps platforms will cater to various printing environments ranging from traditional office setups and hybrid work models to educational campuses, retail spaces, and remote field offices.

Key benefits of PrintOps:

Drive IT Efficiency:

Minimize downtime and automate manual tasks like driver deployment based on user location and permissions.
Provide centralized control and insight across the organization’s print operations.
Dynamically optimize print processes and resolve issues faster, regardless of hardware manufacturer.

Maximize Digital Employee Experience (DEX):

Ensure printing ‘just works’ for an increasingly mobile, hybrid, and remote workforce.
Dynamically adjust to users with features like location awareness to automatically add print queues on workstations to enable printing to nearby devices as they move between office locations.

Secure Print Environment:

Leverage the latest security frameworks and standards.
Ensure authenticated, authorized access to print resources while protecting sensitive data.
Streamline compliance efforts to meet increasing data privacy requirements around the globe.

PrintOps vs. Print Management

As mentioned earlier, PrintOps empowers the management of print infrastructure and operations across various sectors, offering a cloud-native solution adaptable to diverse organizational needs. Its impact will especially benefit larger entities struggling with complex print ecosystems spanning various locations geographically. By facilitating enterprise-wide visibility and streamlined management, PrintOps will enhance operational efficiency and security while providing valuable insights for information and operations (I&O), end-user compute, and security teams.

Most organizations have relied on on-premise print infrastructure, struggling with the hassle of managing print servers, multiple printer drivers for their multi-vendor printer fleet, and high volumes of print-related Help Desk calls. With the increasingly hybrid and remote workforce, this fragmented approach led to user frustration, higher costs, limited visibility and insights into the print environment, and left them vulnerable to security threats. PrintOps represents a paradigm shift in print management, offering a holistic solution that addresses the multifaceted needs of modern organizations. By streamlining operations, enhancing security, and fostering adaptability, PrintOps emerges as a cornerstone in optimizing print infrastructure and operations across industries.

How PrintOps is Different from Print Management?

PrintOps embraces a modern, software-defined approach to print operations, contrasting with the traditional hardware-centric focus of print management. While print management has a historical emphasis on manual processes and hardware maintenance, PrintOps extends beyond hardware to prioritize IT efficiency, print security, and enhancing the digital employee experience (DEX) through automation and integration with wider IT ecosystems.

PrintOps’ Role in IT Operations Management

The multifaceted IT Operations Management (ITOM) function typically encompasses infrastructure management, help desk operations, and endpoint management. PrintOps plays a pivotal role in strengthening and improving productivity in each of these domains. Firstly, in infrastructure management, PrintOps streamlines operations by transitioning on-premise print infrastructure to cloud-based platforms, eliminating complexities associated with managing and updating print servers. Moreover, well-designed PrintOps will automatically discover new print devices on the network and automate print driver delivery to further enhance operational efficiency.

In help desk operations, PrintOps significantly reduces the volume of support tickets related to printing. By dynamically adding print queues of nearby printers on user workstations to eliminate the need for users to map to printers and alerting IT staff on printers with low toner and other service issues, PrintOps will help minimize disruption to end-users. Real-time alerts and proactive issue resolution utilizing data and AI capabilities will help further mitigate potential disruptions and reduce Help Desk calls.

In the context of end-user compute, PrintOps aligns with the evolving priorities of organizations focusing on Digital Employee Experience (DEX). Recognizing the enduring importance of office printing, PrintOps ensures seamless printing experiences that cater to modern workforce demands. PrintOps caters to evolving work dynamics, offering robust support for mobile printing and accommodating remote or hybrid work setups seamlessly. This flexibility enhances employee experience and productivity while mitigating the challenges associated with disparate print systems.

By prioritizing user-centric approaches and fostering mobile-friendly processes, PrintOps enhances user experience, productivity, and satisfaction within organizations.

PrintOps: The Future of Print Security

When considering corporate security, it’s crucial to recognize printing as a pivotal facet within any company’s broader security strategy. With a steadfast dedication to fortifying this often-overlooked domain, PrintOps emerges as a vanguard to enhance print security. PrintOps platforms help enhance print security by leveraging the latest encryption standards and security frameworks to safeguard data and ensure authenticated and authorized access to print devices. Compliance management also becomes more manageable, with PrintOps facilitating adherence to local regulatory requirements through a unified organizational account.

In the future, PrintOps platforms will play a pivotal role in securing print. For example, PrintOps platforms may be able to employ advanced behavioral analytics and anomaly detection to identify and mitigate potential threats before they occur or provide robust audit trails, furnishing tamper-proof records of print activities and document access to enhance accountability and streamline the compliance auditing processes.

Pharos and PrintOps

Pharos Cloud

Pharos Cloud is a highly scalable, secure PrintOps platform designed from the ground up for large enterprises. The cloud-native, printer-agnostic platform eliminates the need for print servers and provides visibility and control over multi-vendor printer fleets to streamline IT productivity. With Pharos Cloud you can incorporate printing seamlessly into your cloud migration strategy while enhancing security with an ISO 27001 certified platform supporting zero trust security principles and is leading the way in the PrintOps category.

Pharos Cloud Education Edition^™

Pharos Cloud Education Edition stands at the forefront of innovation in higher education printing. The secure, cloud-native solution liberates institutions from traditional on-premise printing infrastructure. Through a centralized, scalable platform, productivity soars with the elimination of print servers and streamlined management, and an intuitive and secure print experience—even from mobile devices. Education Edition also enables institutions to recover print costs by holding users accountable with print job accounting and quota management. Education Edition empowers students and faculty alike to print securely--anytime, anywhere, with ease across the multi-vendor print fleet.