Retail Print Management Challenges

Retail organisations face unique challenges when it comes to print management. With stores scattered across regions or countries, IT professionals in the retail industry encounter issues that are often unconventional compared to other sectors. In this article, we will discuss the common print management challenges faced by retail IT teams and highlight a solution that can alleviate these issues: a serverless printing infrastructure.

Common Retail Print Management Challenges

• Print Server Expenses

Managing a single print server can be a significant financial commitment, incurring annual costs that span from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. These expenses encompass various aspects, including server maintenance, software updates, and licensing fees. Beyond the monetary investment, print servers also consume valuable IT resources, diverting the team’s attention and time from more essential responsibilities. Consequently, the total print cost and resource allocation associated with print servers makes them a costly and resource-intensive component of an organisation’s infrastructure.

• Managing Remote Locations

The retail sector’s widespread geographical footprint necessitates that IT teams cater to individual requirements and oversee a considerable user base across various sites. Conventional print server infrastructures exacerbate these challenges, compelling IT specialists to engage in labor-intensive activities such as manual printer setups, driver upgrades, and server reboots. This decentralised approach adds complexity and inefficiency, making it a demanding and time-consuming endeavor for IT professionals tasked with managing retail printing needs.

• Too Many Print-related Helpdesk Calls

Print-related helpdesk tickets present a significant challenge for IT teams, leading to a drain on valuable time and productivity. Remarkably, a striking 40% of helpdesk inquiries in retail businesses pertain to print-related problems, each carrying an average cost of $22 per ticket. These issues can be likened to the painful experience of stepping on rogue Legos in your kitchen – they are not only troublesome but also recurrent, highlighting the need for more efficient and cost-effective solutions to address these persistent printing issues in the retail industry.

• Low Visibility

Evolution Print and Design’s Admin Console presents a pivotal solution by offering a consolidated perspective on the entirety of your printing infrastructure, streamlining various print-related responsibilities. This centralised approach proves highly adaptable for retail enterprises, facilitating the seamless incorporation of new printers when expanding or acquiring new sites. This flexibility guarantees a unified, multi-site, and multi-state solution, ensuring efficient management and oversight of printing operations across the organisation. It simplifies administrative tasks and enhances scalability, making it an ideal choice for retail businesses with diverse printing needs and locations.

• Unreliable Deployments

Deploying printers through Group Policy Objects (GPOs) can be a cumbersome process fraught with issues like incorrect user assignments, driver problems, permission discrepancies, and disabled links. These challenges result in more time spent resolving print problems and an increased volume of helpdesk calls.

How Evolution Print & Design Simplifies Retail Print Management

Now, let’s explore how adopting a serverless printing infrastructure, like PrinterLogic, can address these common challenges and provide a streamlined solution for retail print management.

• Eliminating the Single Point of Failure

Evolution serverless printing platform removes the single point of failure in print environments. Instead of worrying about printer downtime due to driver conflicts or installation issues, IT teams benefit from built-in redundancy, ensuring uninterrupted performance and functionality. The elimination of print servers means faster print job processing and reduced WAN traffic. 

• Centralised Management

Evolution Print and Design’s Admin Console presents a pivotal solution by offering a consolidated perspective on the entirety of your printing infrastructure, streamlining various print-related responsibilities. This centralised approach proves highly adaptable for retail enterprises, facilitating the seamless incorporation of new printers when expanding or acquiring new sites. This flexibility guarantees a unified, multi-site, and multi-state solution, ensuring efficient management and oversight of printing operations across the organisation. It simplifies administrative tasks and enhances scalability, making it an ideal choice for retail businesses with diverse printing needs and locations.

• Eliminating Scripting and GPOs

Evolution eliminates the reliance on scripts and GPOs, streamlining the deployment process and enhancing reliability. Administrators gain granular control over printer assignments, integrating seamlessly with Active Directory (AD) and offering a range of deployment criteria. This simplification saves valuable time, as administrators can configure automatic deployments with just a few clicks, all from a single user-friendly interface.

• Reducing Helpdesk Calls

The benefits of eliminating the single point of failure, centralising management, and eradicating scripting and GPOs translate into a significant reduction in helpdesk calls, often by as much as 95%. Less maintenance and troubleshooting are needed, and administrators can efficiently manage printer installations and deployments. This streamlined approach leads to increased user satisfaction, reduced costs, and a swift return on investment (ROI).

• Tracking Costs at Multiple Levels

Evolution equips administrators with automated insights into print activity across the organisation, from user and device levels to organisational analysis. Comprehensive cost analysis reports allow administrators to monitor departmental and paper usage, enabling informed decision-making. Advanced reporting features help monitor printer status and service needs, contributing to sustainability initiatives and optimising print consumable usage.

Conclusion

In the retail industry, traditional print environments place a considerable strain on IT teams, consuming time, money, and resources. The first step toward reclaiming lost time and resources is to eliminate print servers. Evolution Print & Design Ltd. offers a centrally managed direct IP printing platform that simplifies print management, providing advanced insights into the entire printer fleet across remote locations. By eliminating scripting and GPOs and reducing print-related helpdesk calls, Evolution streamlines retail print management, allowing IT teams to focus on more critical tasks and delivering a seamless printing experience to users. Say goodbye to the challenges of retail print management and embrace a more efficient and cost-effective solution.