Considering a printer network?
Today, most businesses with more than one computer have some type of network. You may have heard the term enterprise network, which serves multiple locations and thousands of users/computers with servers, mainframe systems, wide-area network (WAN) links and usually a team of network administrators.

And while a small business network may only include a dozen or so computers, a couple of printers and other peripherals, and a single IT guy or hired consultant, pooling computer resources in a small office can result in significant savings through sharing and exchanging information.

A local-area network (LAN) that connects your company’s computers makes it possible for employees to share files and printers, collaborate on projects, access the Internet, store files more efficiently and back up their computers on a more regular basis.

Networking also makes it possible for several employees to share a printer, rather than the more expensive practice of each employee having his or her own personal printer. Of course, sharing printers brings with it some inherent problems.

If you assign a single printer for a particular workgroup – a group of your employees who share similar tasks and printer needs – you’ll want to choose the right printer and network it into the system properly to be sure each person has equal access to the equipment. When you switch to networked printing or add a printer for a workgroup, you don’t want to cause problems. You want to make your office function more smoothly, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.

Therefore, you’ll need to look at the output of the workgroup (for example text and heavy graphics or large size balance sheets, etc.), the physical location of the members of the group in relation to the printer location, the number of print jobs that have to pass through the network, the need for color, the desired output speed, the security requirements involved, budget considerations and much more.

Then taking into account what printers the company currently is using and how they are networked, you’ll want to design a printing system and choose printers that will accommodate all your requirements in the most cost-effective manner.

That’s a tall order, especially for someone not completely familiar with the hardware. So for help, it’s a good idea to turn to an expert, someone who has extensive experience in setting up similar printing networks and who can assess the needs of the workgroup. An HPS Office Systems Document Imaging Consultant fits this description perfectly.

As a side note, other advantages to networking computers and printers are the ability to consolidate maintenance costs and the availability of software that will allow you to track your organization’s printing and even bill individual departments for printer usage.