Secure Printing for our Accountancy Client

Recently, a large accountancy firm in London requested support from Espria on a number of issues they were facing with their printing and document environment.

The company’s issues : security and spiralling costs

Security was a huge concern for the firm. They needed to ensure all data and documents were completely secure as client confidentiality is key in their work both with private clients and corporate ones. Still, it was a regular occurrence that confidential financial statements were left at photocopiers.

The business acknowledged that their online network wasn’t secure enough and realised that their printing environment was posing a significant threat – it was vulnerable to hacking.

In addition, the cost of running the old legacy photocopying fleet equipment was “spiralling out of control”. The initial contract of the accountancy firm with their provider included a set amount of copies each month. However, the actual printing volumes of the business were significantly different, resulting in recurrent unexpected costs for excess printing.

On top of all the above, the business wasn’t informed about the exact volume of overall printing that was used day-to-day by teams. Our clients had access to a reporting software that tracked print activity but could not track photocopying. In other words, the directors were partially left in the dark : they were unable to fully monitor the printing activity and their provider couldn’t provide them with accurate invoices.

This lack of transparency was significantly hindering operational cost control and made preparation for future financial planning impossible.

Ultimately, a desire to have control of workflows, including secure scanning and archiving of documents, led the accountancy company to review their printing environment.

Our solution : Follow me printing

Our key priorities for this accountancy business was to support each user with full access to the equipment required, as well providing them with the security necessary to protect their sensitive data.

Espria immediately implemented Follow Me Printing to ring off the multiple concerns the firm had regarding their cyber security.

A major security benefit of Follow Me Printing is that the software encrypts data and demands secure release, meaning only those with authorised access are allowed to use the printing device to print specific documents.

With Follow Me Printing, the data is protected across the network at Government grade level. Users print securely totally independent of where they are geographically. If one device is out of service, Follow Me Printing allows users to walk to another device and release their print job, thus removing any effect on productivity. This level of security was the exact reassurance our client needed. 

Additionally, the new solution automates the scanning and storing processes. The bespoke software extracts the data, creates folders and stores named files automatically making this absolutely secure and compliant with accounting industry standards.

By resorting to Espria’s solutions, the firm keeps track of volumes on a monthly basis and has regained control of its costs.

Print and photocopying activity is now tracked using the bespoke Espria Managed Print Suite and, once collected, it goes straight into a report enabling accurate reconciliation of invoices.

The software also gives useful insight into which areas of the business are producing the printing volumes, so the information can be used to create policies that affect real change for the accountancy firm. 

Other key benefits of the Espria Managed Print Suite include:

• Minimising printed waste,
• Cost savings,
• An increase in user productivity,
• Guaranteed document confidentiality,
• Sustained productivity across departments even if staff are absent,
• Secure sharing of documentation without the contribution from IT,
• Confidential printing on all shared devices.