Once upon a time, the only way to print hard copies on an office printer was to call the receptionist, secretary, or your personal assistant to request a hard copy be printed. While you may be wondering how often you would need to do this with all the advances in technology, there are really plenty of reasons why a hard copy of a document needs to be printed in the moment. Let’s look at a few of those now and then talk briefly about how easy it is to do.
Signature Needed for Closing a Deal
Sometimes a sales rep is out on the road pitching high number sales. They are within moments of closing a deal when the customer/client wants to know if that rep has the authority to authorise such a deal at that amount of savings, for example. No matter how that rep tries, the client wants to see a manager sign off on it first.
The rep has two choices at this point. He can print the doc remotely on a connected business printer and then when signed by the appropriate manager, it can be scanned and immediately emailed back. The second option could put the deal in jeopardy. The rep could always return to the office to get that signature, but that breaks one of the cardinal rules of sales!
One of the first rules of sales is to never give a client on the fence too long to think about things. Waiting for that signature gives them too much time to overthink things. Isn’t it much more expedient to have the printed doc signed, scanned, and sent back? It takes all of a few minutes and the deal is closed.
Timely Submission of a Work Order
There are some industries that still use hardcopy printing for production. While a work order is saved and accessible to every concerned department or individual, you will often see a line foreman with the ever-present clipboard overseeing a project. Sometimes a rep is out on the road and there is this one last minute order that needs to go into production yesterday, if not sooner!
The only option that rep has to beat the clock would be to send the file over the internet to a connected network printer. Believe it or not, those very same industries that still use hardcopies and clipboards for production may not have Cloud storage simply because they don’t trust it yet. If there is inventory in stock, the order will go into production, if not, the client can be advised while the rep is still there.
A Word on Setting Up Remote Access
There are several ways to set up access to an office printer from a remote location. It just depends on what kind of business printer you have and if it has a Smart app for your mobile devices. That is the easiest way to connect from a remote location but there are other ways that are a bit more of a challenge. You can find information on setting up a network printer on either the Windows or Apple websites, but there are several steps to be followed and the instructions are much more difficult than downloading the proprietary app and setting a few user-friendly parameters. If you will be printing on the office printer from a remote location often, check out the apps for your printer. It’s the best advice you’ll get.
