How to Establish a True Enterprise Mobile Print Solution

Mobile devices are transforming the workplace and productivity. The workplace is not limited to the traditional office space and desktop computers, rather employees can access corporate information and services from their mobile devices such as smartphone, tablets, and laptops in different locations each day.

With the rise of the mobile workforce, organizations need to ensure that employees have access to the same information and services they would have from inside the office, all while still protecting data and maintaining security.

The diversity of mobile devices and platforms presents another challenge – printing. Printing remains a critical business function and the need for a secure mobile printing solution continues to increase.

Organizations have been slow to adopt mobile printing, and is a lower priority in their overall IT strategy, however this could have serious repercussions from a security standpoint.

Without an approved approach to mobile printing, employees are forced to use alternative printing apps which don’t offer enough protection and don’t include tracking and monitoring features for the organization.

Mobile Printing Scenarios

Mobile printing scenarios can be categorized

Guest Printing: Guests print from a public printing hot spot such as a business center, airport, or hotel. Guests can discover printers or send print jobs as an email attachment from their devices.

Printing Across a Corporate Network: Employees printing to any printer across a corporate network, either directly from a mobile device or app, via an email, or through a public or private cloud.

Wireless Printing: Wireless printing is possible via direct to printer wireless printing where a print job is transmitted by a direct wireless connection between a device and the printer, or via wi-fi network connection to any printer connected in the network.

Universal Printer driver: Provides a single driver for multiple devices, simplifying maintenance and deployment.

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Establish a True Mobile Print Solution

A true mobile printing solution should integrate with existing enterprise print management capabilities, such as:

Support for Multiple Mobile Platforms: Users should be able to submit print jobs through a variety of methods like email, web browser, or smartphone application.

Print Security: The mobile printing platform must have secure job release features that are in line with access control and authentication methods also used for desktop printing.

Limiting printer access to certain users is an important step in protecting sensitive or confidential information.

Authentication methods include passwords, smartcards, or two factor authentications.

Authentication can be implemented using an external authentication server, authentication features already included in the device or by installing third party software. Secure pull printing is a common form of access control.

Multi-Vendor Support: Most organizations operate a wide range of printers from different manufacturers, so third party solutions that address a mixed fleet environment should be considered. Organizations should also consider using a universal printer driver which allows print jobs to be printed on any printer.

Control and Monitoring: Look for capabilities that including restrictions and controls to prevent users from exceeding their printing quotas or printing to more expensive printers. Installing a print tracker helps oversee and monitor employee printing habits.

Cloud Print Services: Many organizations are moving to cloud computing environment such as Office 365 and Google Apps. This shift opens wider print opportunities as access to cloud enabled printing and printers grow.

The adoption of mobility and the growth of cloud computing in organizations has increased the need for convenient mobile printing.

Companies need to be able to provide their employees with a secure and simple mobile printing solution for mobile printing that fit into their overall IT strategy and capabilities of their current printer fleet.