If you search Google for the most common help desk questions, you often find the topic of printer problems hovering somewhere around item 6 or 7. Print issues typically rank right behind the “blue screen of death” (full-on crash), password problems, and Internet speed and connectivity. As most organizations still heavily rely on printing, this high ranking such lists indicate the vexing nature of output problems.
LRS is dedicated first and foremost to resolving our customers’ output-related concerns. Normally those conversations begin with a discussion of the issues the customer believes need to be addressed in their organization. We typically start by asking what print queries, if any, their help desk has been receiving. Here are the most common questions that organizations who became our customers have shared with us:
- Why are my documents not printing?
- How do I add (or delete) a printer?
- Why is my color document printed monochrome?
- How can I print from my phone?
- Why does my badge not release my print jobs?
- How do I fix a print spooler problem?
- Why is my printer offline?
- Why can’t I see my print jobs on the printer panel?
- How can I stop printing a document?
- Where can I change the printer preferences?
After organizations deploy LRS Output Management software, they typically see a 50% reduction in print-related help desk calls. One of the main reasons for this reduction is the End User Self-Service Printer Portal, an intuitive browser-based tool that helps end-users find and install printers by drilling down on pictures of office floor maps. This intuitive, visual approach makes it very easy to find a nearby printer with the specific capabilities the employee requires.
Printer mapping is considered one of the bigger challenges that the IT department faces. As such, it was both the first and second challenge we tackled in our Blog series about IT Challenges. By being able to search and select printers that match the printing requirement (color, stapling, binding, etc.), employees are less likely to have their documents print in an incorrect format.
The printer portal also provides end-user visibility, as employees can quickly check the status of their print jobs. They can pause or delete a job from the queue or choose to print to a different device if the chosen printer is offline. This gives users a higher level of autonomy than they had in a traditional setting where all such queries required help desk intervention. The aforementioned 50% help desk reduction figure is the result of an IDC study conducted amongst LRS customers. Anecdotally, we have heard percentages help desk figures in the range of 85-95%. Imagine how that could improve the productivity of your users and IT staff.
If you are looking to unburden your IT department and reduce the number of print-related help desk calls, we would be more than happy to demo the end-user self-service portal for you. It truly can help your employees print in a quicker and easier fashion. Because when users have to contact the help desk, it impacts more than IT resources. There is also a loss of productivity for the user originally submitting the ticket, who likely already spent time looking to resolve the situation. Making them self-sufficient benefits IT and end-users alike. That is precisely what LRS Output Management is about.