The “unpleasantness” for end users that often comes with adapting to managed print has been paralleled to the side effects of a drug taken to treat an illness.
Unmanaged print is similar to an illness as it “deprives a company from operating at its best” while “knowing about the side effects of the prescription – in this case managed print – ahead of time helps to alleviate the discomfort that may result from taking the medicine”, Ann Priede of the MPS Association (MPSA) wrote on the association’s website.
Priede said that changing to an MPS solution “is often a bitter pill to swallow” as people are naturally reluctant to change their habits, and so a “well-planned comprehensive change management campaign” helps employees at all levels to see how the change will happen and why it is beneficial.
Reducing costs and upping productivity and security are common reasons for change, while it may be implemented by supplementing existing equipment or a wholesale replacement of a fleet, with service and staffing also areas where change may take place. Benefits “must be relevant to employees”, such as cost savings for managers, better workflows and less waste for the environmentally conscious.
A change in management campaign may include posters, corporate newsletters and emails, or even the involvement of change advocates and specialists, with these strategies preventing users hiding personal printers to avoid walking to their output, workers envying what other coworkers have or insisting they have a similar model, as well as users purchasing printers outside of the MPS agreement.
Priede added: “Ongoing change management is essential to prevent users from relapsing into old habits and routines. With regular application and communication to end users, you can keep them pain-free so that they can enjoy their printing and imaging lives to the fullest.”
The MPSA recently made a change of its own, amending its definition of MPS to integrate all “business processes related to documents and information”.