A Hybrid Workforce?

Around thirty percent of employees working remotely have admitted they will be extremely likely to search for a different job if their current company eliminates remote work. This is precisely why most businesses sounding the bell for a total return are also “attempting to be flexible with schedules.” And, seeing the overwhelming preference for splitting time between working at home and the office, many companies are choosing to offer hybrid work options.

A recent McKinsey study predicts that over twenty percent of the global workforce will work remotely three to five days per week moving forward. And a report from Gartner anticipates close to one-half of employees will work from home.

The decision to allow adaptive scheduling along with a mix of at-home and in-office work may enable businesses to keep more of their employees. But it can create pains for other parts of the company. IT is one of the departments most directly affected by the hybrid office. While human resources and management seek to juggle the communication and culture aspects of a newly created and dynamic business setting, IT is faced with the logistics of acquiring and managing the software, equipment, and services required to create a seamless work experience.

And printers continue to be a significant part of that workplace environment. Fifty percent of firms agree that, despite continued hype about paperless offices, printing will remain an essential aspect of their business. Over three-quarters of global organizations agree print is either fairly or very important to business operations.

Catering Print to a Changing Office

One of the most significant issues for IT departments in the post-pandemic office is properly equipping employees. This becomes particularly difficult when it comes to printer access as many of the traditional printers are not completely capable of supporting a highly mobile and dynamic workforce. Rather than general use copiers or assigned desktop printers, businesses must now consider options and features that cater to an office environment where desks are multi-use and employees are in-office for only a portion of the week.

There are many features now available in the printer market that can cater to the hybrid and remote workforce. Remote printing, for instance, can allow employees to provide printed documents for in-office coworkers or have items printed and ready for when they come into the main office themselves. For added security, it is a good idea to couple remote print with hold/release functionality which allows the printer to retain print jobs in the queue until they are physically at the printer to claim the document.

Employees who only work in-office a couple of days a week are also likely to use the printer more heavily during their time at headquarters. In addition, offices with older or slower equipment may find it challenging to keep up with the speed and volume generated by the intermittent but substantial uptick in print jobs. A larger capacity printer can eliminate this challenge, saving employees time and allowing work to continue at an efficient pace.

But replacing office printers with newer, upgraded models means dedicating IT time to researching options. It also means a potentially hefty ding to the equipment budget. While this tech-savvy group may know how to configure servers and handle any number of computer problems, they are usually not printing experts. Even with a great deal of research, they may have issues determining the exact print needs to accommodate the entire organization. And the wrong printing equipment can cost the business additional money in both capital expenses and employee time and energy.

How Print Services Can Help

Consulting with a print industry expert such as a managed print services, printer leasing, or printer maintenance provider can help address the issue of equipment costs. These printing businesses have a wealth of knowledge from working with various offices. And, as every company’s “return to work” has been different, they have usually seen a multitude of configurations already. They can use their experiences to help each of their business partners create comprehensive recommendations that fit employee needs and the available budget. In addition to consultation and equipment sales, many printer companies even offer a wide range of services that can help reduce the impact up-front costs could incur on the IT equipment bottom line.

The IT department might have a long list of equipment, services, and logistics to make the post-pandemic office work smoothly. But that doesn’t mean everything on the list has to take up a significant amount of time or budget. Instead, there are options, partners, and services available that can make printers the least troublesome of IT’s return-to-office concerns.

The slow move to remote work before 2020 was primarily due to concerns about security. Companies understood that securing virtual workspaces required additional investments in hardware and technology beyond the usual firewalls and processes they could implement directly on their internal servers. And at the time, there was no justification for investing the money in creating the infrastructure to facilitate remote work beyond the occasional salesperson’s laptop.

When the pandemic response of early 2020 took full effect, businesses scrambled to figure out ways to continue operating outside the main office. In many cases, thoughts of security were secondary to ensuring employees could continue working. Once the dust settled, IT began implementing the firewalls and secure point-to-point connections required to regain the standard protections for company information. But, as we continue the slow march out of pandemic response, one major business component is still seen as a security risk – printing.

The Problem With Home Printers

Most businesses (90%) don’t know how many printers they have in their central offices. But the real issue isn’t what machines are sitting at headquarters; the growing problem is the number of home printers used for company printing. When these printers are connected to company computers either directly into a USB or through the same wi-fi network, they pose a potential point of attack to the company’s virtual network.

The first and largest vulnerability is having an unsecured, internet-enabled machine connected to a company computer. Bad actors could hack into the local wi-fi and, using the shared connection, gain access to the printer. The link between the printer and the company computer provides a pathway to bypass any VPN or security. And, once in the employee’s computer, hackers can easily view emails, browse computer files, and even gain access to the business’s primary network.

The second vulnerability is the information stored on the hard drive of even the most inexpensive consumer printer. These hard drives store the images of queued documents for a varying degree of time. As a result, hackers who gain access to an employee’s wi-fi can potentially access any company information included on print jobs sent to that consumer-grade machine.

Why Banning Home Printers Doesn’t Work

The simplest solution to eliminating the risk of company information on personal printers is to lock down what equipment can be linked to the company computer. If the employee can’t directly or remotely connect their home printer, the business network is safe, and company information cannot be transmitted to the printer’s hard drive.

But employees need to be able to print. During the 2020 shutdown, over half of workers (59%) continued to print and copy the same amount or more while working from home. The drive to print certain documents can push employees to find workarounds even when locked out of using the home printer. One method is to send work documents to private email or cloud accounts. Those documents are then accessed from less secure personal computers and sent to consumer-grade printers.

Employees who work a portion of their time in the main office may have a better option, such as printing remotely to the printers at headquarters. However, if the main printer(s) immediately print everything in their queue, there is the risk of documents being picked up by the wrong employees. In addition, there is the risk of office visitors or other departments accidentally viewing information that does not apply to them or should not have been viewed.

Networked Printers Are A Good Compromise

So, remote and hybrid employees need to print. Companies need to maintain security. Unfortunately, the two requirements seem to be at complete odds. The risks consumer printers pose as an entry point for bad actors is dangerous enough. The possibility of criminals using a back door to view sensitive company information or, worse, gaining access to the company’s internal systems is undoubtedly a daunting prospect. But taking the capacity for safe printing away from employees can affect job performance or lead to other potentially risky behaviors.

The best solution is to select an appropriate compromise in networked printers. Small format office-grade printers such as A3 and A4 models can provide fast and efficient printing for the remote workforce. But, unlike consumer printers, they have additional security functionality which allows for document encryption, port security, and remote monitoring.

Cloud Applications And VPN

In addition to hardware-level measures, these small-footprint networkable machines can use cloud applications or VPN – the same as or similar to what is used to lock down other company hardware. Both options continue the point-to-point protection required to make remote printing a safe option for at-home and hybrid workers. And, just like the business’s laptop and desktop computers, fully supported office-grade networked printers have regular security software updates to counteract new digital attack strategies and detected vulnerabilities.

Employees continue to value printing as an essential aspect of their everyday tasks. Innovative businesses will find ways to facilitate the needs of their people. Small format, office-grade, networked printers can be a viable solution for the discerning company as the configuration and idea of the “traditional” office continues to reshape for the post-COVID future.

A Brief History of Printer Paper

Human ingenuity for storing written communication has always been high. What started on cave walls quickly became more portable as early people used clay, palm leaves, snake skins, tortoise shells, and other handy surfaces to store and share knowledge. However, the desire for a higher level of permanency beyond the cave wall eventually led from dried or fired clay to papyrus and paper.

The Development of Standard Paper

How they use to make paper

Anyone who has held handmade paper can immediately tell the difference from the now much more common store-bought notebook, school, or standard paper. The texture is slightly less even, and the surface is typically thicker and stiffer. The differences lie in the process.

Handmade paper is created by beating, or breaking apart, fibrous materials such as cotton, hemp, or old cloth into their individual strands. These strands are then saturated with water and filtered onto a screen. The wet sheet is then pressed to remove excess water and laid out or hung to dry. Once fully dry, the paper is pressed to flatten the sheet, then cut to the appropriate dimensions for use. In handmade papermaking, this size was usually determined by the widely used “Dutch” standard mold of 44” x 17”, which is cut down evenly to eight 8.5” x 11” pieces.

Today’s commercially available paper adds additional steps to the process, a transformation that began in the 1800s when soda and sulfite pulps were first manufactured from wood. A patent for sulfite pulp was issued in the United States in 1867 and, by 1875, paper production was industrialized.

These sizeable industrial production processes could efficiently pump out almost any paper size imaginable. However, in 1921 the Elimination of Waste in Industry program created by President Herbert Hoover launched the Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes. And, to not only eliminate waste but also help handmade paper companies in business, determined to require the standard Dutch sizing – and the official 8.5” x 11” letter was born.

Paper Becomes Smoother and Whiter

The whiter a piece of paper, the more easily the eye can view and distinguish the images and text inked on top of it. So, even before industrialization, whiter paper was a commodity. Before the invention of bleach, papermakers seeking to produce genuinely white paper made their sheets from fine white linen. If that was not available, a bluing agent was added to the water to correct muddiness. Today’s handmade papermakers use a variety of tactics, including newer options such as bleaching and vinegar.

Industrial papermakers benefit from using sulfite pulp rather than rags or other fibers containing additional color. This lack of color means that instead of adding an extra bleaching step to the process, they can add chalk to their mixture before grinding everything down to microfibers. In addition to whitening the resultant paper sheets, the chalk also fills in the gaps that make handmade paper feel courser.

But paper whiteness is not the only difference industrialization has brought to the paper industry. As the world has become more reliant on copying and printing, more efficient machinery has required paper to be smoother. In response, large-scale papermakers have added additional steps to their papermaking process.

Rather than delivering fibers directly from the beating vat to the screen, industrialized paper mills push fibers through a filtration system to clear out additional particles and ensure fibers are a standard size. This homogenous mixture is then forced to spray an even coating across the screens through a nozzle. The result is a smooth surface that can be dried and compressed to the smooth paper sheets required for print.

What do Paper Ratings Mean?

When searching for printing paper, it can often be confusing how many options are available. In addition to selecting the proper sizing (standard, legal, or tabloid), there are a variety of ratings, including brightness, opacity, and texture.

Paper brightness is a measurement of how well the surface reflects light. High brightness is usually a paper that appears whiter and provides heavier contrast between inked letters or images and the background. When making paper, the brightness can be adjusted using minerals and dyes during the pulping process. Printing paper usually comes with brightness ratings between 80 and 113, where the higher numbers are the brighter paper.

Printing Paper Texture

The texture of paper refers to how coarse the surface feels. The level of grain is fundamental when considering paper for laser or inkjet printing. Coarser printer paper is best for inkjet printing as the fibers can capture sprayed pigment and reduce bleeding. However, that same texture could interfere with the heating elements and toner bonding in a laser printer or copier. For laser printers, a smoother paper is more heat resistant and a better choice for more precise prints.

Opacity is a measurement of how well light penetrates the paper. For instance, a paper with a lower opacity would not be suitable for two-sided printing as light easily passes through and displays the ink from the opposite side. Standard 20# copy paper is lower opacity and not recommended for double-sided printing. Opacity is determined by a combination of the brightness and thickness of the paper. Higher brightness and pound ratings will provide lower opacity.

Without the industrialization and development of paper, the digital age would look very different. Fortunately, paper manufacturers have risen to the challenge, developing a wide range of paper options to meet the demands of every office printing purpose and machine. While times have changed, printing paper is still in very high demand.

The slow move to remote work before 2020 was primarily due to concerns about security. Companies understood that securing virtual workspaces required additional investments in hardware and technology beyond the usual firewalls and processes they could implement directly on their internal servers. And at the time, there was no justification for investing the money in creating the infrastructure to facilitate remote work beyond the occasional salesperson’s laptop.

When the pandemic response of early 2020 took full effect, businesses scrambled to figure out ways to continue operating outside the main office. In many cases, thoughts of security were secondary to ensuring employees could continue working. Once the dust settled, IT began implementing the firewalls and secure point-to-point connections required to regain the standard protections for company information. But, as we continue the slow march out of pandemic response, one major business component is still seen as a security risk – printing.

The Problem With Home Printers

Most businesses (90%) don’t know how many printers they have in their central offices. But the real issue isn’t what machines are sitting at headquarters; the growing problem is the number of home printers used for company printing. When these printers are connected to company computers either directly into a USB or through the same wi-fi network, they pose a potential point of attack to the company’s virtual network.

The first and largest vulnerability is having an unsecured, internet-enabled machine connected to a company computer. Bad actors could hack into the local wi-fi and, using the shared connection, gain access to the printer. The link between the printer and the company computer provides a pathway to bypass any VPN or security. And, once in the employee’s computer, hackers can easily view emails, browse computer files, and even gain access to the business’s primary network.

The second vulnerability is the information stored on the hard drive of even the most inexpensive consumer printer. These hard drives store the images of queued documents for a varying degree of time. As a result, hackers who gain access to an employee’s wi-fi can potentially access any company information included on print jobs sent to that consumer-grade machine.

Why Banning Home Printers Doesn’t Work

The simplest solution to eliminating the risk of company information on personal printers is to lock down what equipment can be linked to the company computer. If the employee can’t directly or remotely connect their home printer, the business network is safe, and company information cannot be transmitted to the printer’s hard drive.

But employees need to be able to print. During the 2020 shutdown, over half of workers (59%) continued to print and copy the same amount or more while working from home. The drive to print certain documents can push employees to find workarounds even when locked out of using the home printer. One method is to send work documents to private email or cloud accounts. Those documents are then accessed from less secure personal computers and sent to consumer-grade printers.

Employees who work a portion of their time in the main office may have a better option, such as printing remotely to the printers at headquarters. However, if the main printer(s) immediately print everything in their queue, there is the risk of documents being picked up by the wrong employees. In addition, there is the risk of office visitors or other departments accidentally viewing information that does not apply to them or should not have been viewed.

Networked Printers Are A Good Compromise

So, remote and hybrid employees need to print. Companies need to maintain security. Unfortunately, the two requirements seem to be at complete odds. The risks consumer printers pose as an entry point for bad actors is dangerous enough. The possibility of criminals using a back door to view sensitive company information or, worse, gaining access to the company’s internal systems is undoubtedly a daunting prospect. But taking the capacity for safe printing away from employees can affect job performance or lead to other potentially risky behaviors.

The best solution is to select an appropriate compromise in networked printers. Small format office-grade printers such as A3 and A4 models can provide fast and efficient printing for the remote workforce. But, unlike consumer printers, they have additional security functionality which allows for document encryption, port security, and remote monitoring.

Cloud Applications And VPN

In addition to hardware-level measures, these small-footprint networkable machines can use cloud applications or VPN – the same as or similar to what is used to lock down other company hardware. Both options continue the point-to-point protection required to make remote printing a safe option for at-home and hybrid workers. And, just like the business’s laptop and desktop computers, fully supported office-grade networked printers have regular security software updates to counteract new digital attack strategies and detected vulnerabilities.

Employees continue to value printing as an essential aspect of their everyday tasks. Innovative businesses will find ways to facilitate the needs of their people. Small format, office-grade, networked printers can be a viable solution for the discerning company as the configuration and idea of the “traditional” office continues to reshape for the post-COVID future.

Inkjet printers are a top choice for businesses that deal heavily in graphics, images, and sales. After all, pie graphs, charts, and advertisements don’t have the same impact without the vibrant colors and clear lines top-rated corporate-grade inkjet systems can provide. But, as with most innovative machinery, they come with their own challenges for upkeep and maintenance to keep them operating at peak performance. Here are four of the most common inkjet problems and some simple steps to resolve them.

White Lines On Your Print Job

Inkjet prints can be more vibrant and impactful. But most offices with inkjet machines have experienced the dreaded white lines. Any of these issues can completely ruin the print job. Often, they become ongoing issues if not dealt with promptly. Fortunately, the usual causes of poor print quality are easily solved with a little bit of care.

One of the most annoying printing problems is when the printer clearly received that data but only part of the document prints. Usually, this results in a series of white lines appearing intermittently throughout each page of a print job. In addition, if multiple pages are printed, the lines will likely line up across them in a similar pattern.

The most common cause of these lines is a blocked nozzle or dirty print head. Entering the printer’s settings and initiating a print head cleaning will usually resolve the issue. The print head cleaning process flushes the printer’s nozzles with forced air to remove dried pigment and clear obstructions. It is recommended to schedule a print head cleaning and a test page to be printed at the beginning of each week to keep the problem from recurring.

If the printer’s standard cleaning process does not immediately resolve the issue, excessive build-up, dust, oils, or other obstructions may be blocking the machine from properly delivering ink. In such cases, it is possible to use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to gently clean off the print heads. However, manual access to corporate-ready machinery may be limited. Therefore, it is typically best to check the printer’s warranty, maintenance, or service contract before attempting this type of more invasive procedure.

Over-Saturated Images

It is ridiculously frustrating to pick up a full-color print from the printer only to discover the image has bled or the slightest touch causes it to smear. In this case, the printer could be delivering too much ink. Fortunately, commercial-grade printers have settings to address this sort of problem. A recalibration of the ink colors and delivery can help rein in the amount of color being dispensed, creating vibrant prints without the excess bleed or smearing.

If adjusting the print settings doesn’t resolve the issue, the printer cartridges could be the problem. Some off-brand or refilled ink cartridges can have a higher ratio of water-to-pigment than recommended. Higher water content can oversaturate printer paper and result in images that bleed at the edges. Even if the ink is absorbed correctly, it may take the image longer than expected to dry, allowing more colors to smear.

Paper Warping

In addition to bleeding or smeared imager, excessive water in a printer’s ink can easily result in wavy paper. In extreme cases, the paper may be more prone to tearing until the ink is fully dry. In either instance, the result is very unprofessional. But what happens if the ink or the printer settings aren’t stopping the problem? It could be the paper.

The paper used in a laser printer has to be heat resistant because the system uses heat to melt the toner onto the page. Similarly, inkjet printers need paper with a higher level of absorbency. Papers designed for these styles of printers use special chemical coatings to decrease the time it takes for the ink to dry. The reduced drying time keeps the paper from warping and the pigment from blurring at the edges.

But not all paper coatings are created equal. Photo paper, for instance, has a special formulation to handle a much heavier amount of ink than standard paper. So, printing heavily colored designs or images on even regular inkjet-rated paper might be too much for the standard coating to handle.

Ink Streaks

Some printers develop an issue where lines of color inconsistently run across a page, almost like someone took a brush and painted on them. Of course, it doesn’t happen to every page, and it might be a different color in some cases than others. But each page it happens to has to be trashed.

Every printer uses a series of rollers to help move documents through the processes within the machine. As rollers wear down or collect dust, they can start to pick up pigment or grab hold of pages incorrectly. The result is smearing of wet ink across the page as it is pushed through the system. Cleaning or replacing these rollers should resolve the issue.

Like deep cleaning print heads, cleaning or changing out rollers often requires more invasive entry into sensitive office equipment. Therefore, it is highly recommended that users consult the printer’s warranty, maintenance, or service contract.

Contact A Service Partner

The most common inkjet printer problems can usually be avoided with regularly scheduled maintenance from a reliable managed print services or printer leasing partner. Whether it is thorough print head cleaning, checking the rollers, or providing quality inks and papers, these printer experts can help make it even easier for businesses to focus on more important things than bad prints.

The past few years’ events have turned the world of business from a digital-friendly environment into a digital-dependent one. Companies that previously housed their own servers and operated strict policies on equipment leaving the office are now contending with empirical evidence that their employees work just as diligently and securely at home.

But, despite communications becoming ever more digital, there is one-factor companies are finding to be even more surprising – employees’ continuing reliance on print. The typical employee still uses around 10,000 sheets of paper per year. That’s roughly 34 pages per day. Faced with the unanticipated demand for print, many businesses are looking to print solutions providers as a potential resource. Here are three things any company should consider before seeking out professional print solutions.

What are the business’s goals for print?

Every company has different intentions for making changes to their existing printing programs. And those business goals can directly influence the exact programs and types of printer service providers the company should pursue.

Some businesses, for instance, are looking to save money on their current printer configurations. Many print services providers offer programs that can achieve this goal. This may include providing better pricing or efficiency for printer ink or toner. It could also consolidate a multi-printer office by implementing a higher-function printer with larger print capacities. Or it could simply be eliminating the expense of IT time and efforts to keep printers up-to-date and operational.

But it’s not always about saving money. Printer service providers help offices become greener, track printer usage and assist in configuring programs to meet the needs of individual offices, departments, and employees. In addition, for businesses going hybrid, print services providers can offer monitoring, security, service, and supplies for multiple offices across the new company footprint.

What Are The Current Faults, Issues, And Risks?

Understanding the exact problems caused by a current print setup is essential information to have before seeking a print solutions provider. Knowledge of exactly what is wrong will help any business determine the best printer partner and help that partner more quickly determine the best equipment and program to offer.

One of the most prominent print problems most companies face is with the printers themselves. This is especially true after the last couple of years as print specifically was considered secondary to simply facilitating continued business as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that attitude now means quite a few companies are dealing with aging printers or machines that no longer fit current office needs.

A thorough evaluation of the machine(s) means noting how often they need to be loaded with paper, ink, or toner. How many times during a day does someone experience a paper jam? How long are print jobs spending in the printing queue? Perhaps most importantly, how much time does the equipment spend out-of-order or being serviced? All of these are significant problems to understand and address.

Security, especially in today’s political climate, is equally if not more concerning than general machine health. And, as with laptops and other connected equipment, printers that are not adequately secured with firewalls, white-listing, VPNs, and other security measures have proven to be a potential security risk. Therefore, evaluating the current security status and precautions is essential to understanding where printer security sits as an opportunity to improve.

Finally, how the company uses printing dramatically impacts the services that can improve business performance and control costs. Oversized machines for a small office that rarely prints are nearly as detrimental to a business as a company equipped with multiple printers, all of which cannot meet demand. Either situation is a risk of lost revenue. Unused machines will collect dust and debris that could impede proper functionality. On the other hand, smaller capacity machines in a print-heavy office may restrict production either through slower printing processes, excessive paper and toner changes, or additional breakdowns from wear and tear.

Research Options

Before reaching out immediately to a printer services provider, it may help to research and understand all the different office printer service options. Internally owned and operated printers, for instance, can still be a popular solution. This is especially appealing for businesses who are comfortable dedicating IT time and efforts to including printer operations.

Printer leasing is another viable option. This solution is especially appealing for companies that would prefer not to absorb the capital expense of one or more high-function printers. Even better, most printer leasing partners can bundle in service and maintenance agreements to help control the costs associated with ongoing cleaning and upkeep. These contracts are especially helpful as equipment ages since most printer leases include options to either purchase outright or upgrade to a newer machine once the lease runs out.

Businesses looking to go completely hand off managed print services (MPS) is the way to go. MPS partners flatten the expense, security, management, and maintenance of machines down to one manageable provider and monthly expenditure. They help pull all those printer-related help desk calls away from IT, too.

When it comes to finding an office printer solution, finding a reliable partner is a big step. Before jumping in with both feet, it is vital to research all the available options, understand the current issues and risks, and compare everything to the current business goals. Businesses that follow these three steps will be better prepared to make the best printer service decisions for their company’s future success.