In recent years, the drive to digitise the workforce has been on every business owner’s agenda. The process has been accelerated as a result of Covid-19. A prime example is the urgent need to cut costs by printing less and reducing a business’s environmental impact.

The pandemic has seen an increase in staff working from home. Many have had to cope without printing documents.

A positive to come from this is many now realise they don’t need to print every e-mail or document displayed on their screen. That said, certain businesses, especially those operating within the compliance, legal or regulatory space, have to print important documents daily.

This is why the new Managed Print Services Connector — MPS Connector — from TCM is so effective.

Printing at home

Managed print services in the home environment have traditionally been unstable and unreliable. In an office setting one can leverage the network infrastructure a business has at its disposal, such as file servers, routers, switches and firewalls. This allows for a business’s print services to be easily monitored and managed. In the home environment, however, this infrastructure doesn’t exist. Employees also usually have different Internet service providers, router manufactures and so on, making print services incredibly challenging.

Adapting to the ‘new normal’

As soon as Covid-19 hit, we knew we had to rapidly evolve our print services for the “new normal” of working from home. As a result, we’re proud to bring the first MPS Connector to the South African market. The MPS Connector allows us to deliver the same print services employees are accustomed to at work to their homes.

Our technology means we can receive supply alerts from devices, obtain meter readings and monitor toner levels — services previously not available to work-from-home employees.

This technology will go a long way in assisting organisations in driving productivity and innovation initiatives regardless of the current stage of their digital transformation journey.

The MPS Connector is also aimed at small businesses that don’t have the technical infrastructure of a bigger company.

How the device works

The MPS Connector is unobtrusive and uses Wi-Fi to connect to the home network. It connects to the printer via the Ethernet port. The initial installation is done via a mobile phone app and, within minutes of being connected, our services are enabled. It is easy to install. However, we do recommend either a TCM representative or your printing service provider manage the installation.

TCM is offering the first 50 MPS Connector subscribers a free, two-month trial. This will be in combination with various supported print devices to meet the demands of employees who are working from home.

For more information on the MPS Connector, click here. Alternatively, e-mail [email protected]. If you are already engaged in a contract with a print service provider, you can contact TCM via [email protected].