For many IT teams, the start of a new year brings a familiar challenge when it comes to the office print environment — how to reduce printer issues and services tickets, manage limited resources, modernize or improve infrastructure, make printing more secure, and support increasingly hybrid workstyles — all without increasing costs. Printer supply issues, help desk tickets, firmware patches, mismatched devices, and surprise repair bills continue to overwhelm IT departments across organizations of all sizes. It’s no surprise, then, that more organizations are starting the year by rethinking how they manage their print environments and turning to print management services to simplify operations, reduce costs, and improve security.
Why Printing is Still Creating Headaches for IT in 2026
Despite being a mature technology, printing remains surprisingly complex. IT teams are still constantly dealing with:
- A printer fleet made up of both old and new devices
- Device downtime and emergency repairs
- Manual toner ordering
- Security and firmware updates
- End-user print support tickets
- Lack of print usage visibility
- Budget unpredictability
- Compliance concerns
And while initiatives like cloud, cybersecurity, and device lifecycle management get prioritized, print often goes overlooked — until a printer goes down and everyone is scrambling for how to get that important document printed.
Why IT Teams are Choosing Print Management Services
Print Management Services (also often referred to as Managed Print Services or MPS) help IT teams shift workplace printing from a reactive burden to a predictable, optimized, and secure service. There are a number for reasons that more and more IT Teams are bringing in a Managed Print Services provider to support their print environments:
- Reduced Support Ticket Volume
The average IT department spends up to 20-30% of help desk time on print-related tickets, and that for some organizations up to 50% of the help desk calls are related to printers.
By utilizing print management services, IT Teams are able to offload support tickets related to toner and supply levels, paper jams, device errors, driver issues, and end-user print support, freeing them up to focus on other initiatives.
- Predictable, Consolidated Print Spend and Improved Visibility
Unmanaged print environments produce unpredictable and escalated costs due to issues like emergency break-fix repairs, overnight supplies orders, unrestricted color usage, and unmanaged device output. A print management services provider can help organizaitons set print policies for users and can consolidate all print-related supplies and service items into predicable monthly billing through a managed print service contract, typically reducing total print costs by 10–30% while improving uptime. Additionally, a print management services can provide detailed reporting on important areas such as total output, color vs. mono usage, department-level usage, and device utilization. This type of data not only helps IT teams to forecast and plan, but also helps to support organizational sustainability goals.
- Security & Compliance Improvements
Network printers are endpoints — and often unsecured ones. When engaged with a print management services provider, they help IT teams to secure printers through actions such as standardizing firmware updates, encrypting data, and aligning to compliance frameworks. Additionally, MPS providers can help IT and organizations to make the act of printing more secure through initiatives such as secure print release and setting department-level and user-level print policies and authorizations. And with hybrid work becoming more of the norm, securing documents and devices has never been more critical.
- Automated Supplies Fulfillment
One of the biggest sources of print frustration is when you go to print and the printer alerts you that you’re out of toner. And one of the biggest sources of drain on your print budget is when personnel over-order on printer toner that you couldn’t possibly use it all before it expires.
Print management services automate supply replenishment based on real usage data, so toner arrives in time for when you run out, and you don’t need an supply closet surplus.
- Optimized Fleet & Device Standardization
Many organizations have a mismatched fleet of printers, MFPs, and/or copiers that were purchased at different times, possibly from different vendors and/or manufacturers. This leads to having to manage different drivers, different toners, different security capabilities, and no standard support process. MPS partners consolidate and optimize printer fleets to help organizations standardize to a certain manufacturer and a few models to best fit their needs.
Can Your Organization Benefit from Print Management Services? Signs It’s Time for a Print Assessment
Before switching to print management services, the first step would be to begin with a print assessment to give your organization a data-driven analysis of devices, usage, security, and spending to help drive your decision making. Here are clear signs your organization may be due for a print assessment:
Sign #1: Rising Print Spend with No Clear Reason
If print-related expenses keep climbing but usage hasn’t significantly changed, that’s a major red flag. Costs may be tied to excessive supply purchases, underutilized devices, high-cost toner or supplies, or expensive break-fix repairs
Sign #2: Little to No Visibility into Print Usage
Most organizations can’t answer:
- How many pages they print per year
- How much color pages cost
- Which departments print the most
- What devices are underutilized or overloaded
Without policies like default duplex, print-to-PDF, or default mono, organizations often waste supplies and money. A print assessment will reveal behavior trends, policy gaps, optimization opportunities, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
Sign #3: Overstocking or Reactive Ordering of Print Supplies
Teams often “panic order” toner or hoard cartridges when no system exists to manage inventory. If toner orders are placed when devices run out — instead of proactively — supplies are costing more than necessary and creating unnecessary downtime. Additionally, if supplies are being ordered in a surplus for overstocking, this can lead to unnecessary waste.
Sign #4: Too Many Types of Print Devices or Vendors
A decentralized print environment with multiple brands, models, and supply types can lead to support challenges and higher service/supply costs. Consolidation opportunities are almost always uncovered during assessments.
Sign #5: Frequent Downtime and Service Calls
Constant jam fixes, poor print quality issues, or repeated service calls indicate aging hardware or poorly matched devices. These types of issues from older devices not only cause employee frustration but also security gaps, inconsistent firmware, and high failure rates.
Sign #6: Departments Rely on Lower-End Desktop Personal Printers
Personal desktop devices are convenient for users, but they are typically more expensive to operate (higher supplies costs and often more expensive to repair than replace), harder to secure, and harder to manage at scale. An print management services provider can determine where centralized MFPs make more sense.
Sign #7: You’re Not Sure if Your Print Environment Is Secure
Ask yourself:
- Are devices patched?
- Are print jobs encrypted?
- Do we have secure release?
- Who can access what devices?
- Are scanned files protected?
If the answer is “I’m not sure,” it’s assessment time.
#8 Your IT Help Desk Gets Frequent Print Tickets
If you help desk or IT team is constantly dealing with toner issues, printer issues, or end-user issues, it’s time to evaluate. High ticket volume is the #1 driver behind MPS adoption.
If your organization experiences three or more of the signs above, it’s almost guaranteed that you will benefit from a print assessment — both financially and operationally.
Starting the Year Strong: Make Print Predictable with Print Management Services
For organizations planning strategically as the new year kicks off, print is one of the easiest wins with fast ROI for overburdened IT teams. Switching to print management services is not just about cost savings — it’s about relieving IT teams, improving security, and creating predictable operational outcomes for the year ahead. If you’re planning initiatives for the year and want fewer print headaches — starting with a print assessment is the smartest first step.
A print assessment provides the baseline needed to:
- Right-size your device fleet
- Strengthen print security
- Create predictable budgets
- Reduce IT burden
- Proactively manage and automatically replenish supplies
- Consolidate support
- Improve visibility & reporting
If you’re ready to streamline, secure, and control your office printing, let us help you get started with a no-obligation print assessment!
