Posted by Devin Anderson
Bring your own device printing (or BYOD printing for short) has transformed the workplace print environment. It’s thrown the doors of enterprise printing wide open to end users’ custom devices, making it more convenient for them to keep their device of choice without sacrificing functionality or productivity. In fact, allowing them to access BYOD mobile printing has the potential to make your end users more productive, because they no longer feel hamstrung by one-size-fits-all, company-issued devices.
Or that’s how it is in theory. The very same things that make bring your own device printing advantageous also make it incredibly challenging. Sure, device heterogeneity might be great for end-user convenience, but it also introduces more variables into a print environment in terms of operating systems, apps and hardware.
That variability ends up placing greater support demands on IT departments. The printing issues and incompatibilities that might arise also make it harder for BYOD mobile printing to live up to its promises of convenience and flexibility—and that in turn causes end-user dissatisfaction. In the end, common BYOD printing problems would seem to negate or even overshadow the benefits of bring your own device printing.
Some organizations try to remedy these BYOD printing problems through dedicated BYOD printing solutions. The catch is that these solutions are usually more bolt-on than integrated, so they can’t always guarantee a seamless BYOD mobile printing experience for your end users. After a lot of backend configuration, they might work reliably for certain end users on select printers. But not for every BYOD end user on every printer. So does that really count as a true bring your own device printing solution?
PrinterLogic’s Mobile Printing solution provides comprehensive and ubiquitous BYOD mobile printing to all your BYOD users and guests, on- or off-network, wherever they happen to be. Unlike stopgap BYOD printing solutions, with Mobile Printing there’s no client-side software to install, and it works with any mobile device and any printer—even legacy models. This means that any guest or end user with any BYOD device can print to any authorized printer without requiring admins to carry out the painstaking configurations or specialized deployments that cause so many BYOD printing problems.
Our Mobile Printing solution is able to do this because it leverages tried and tested email-to-print functionality. To print, all an end user has to do is send the desired documents or files to a printer’s dedicated email address. The print job immediately enters the queue like any other. This simple process avoids typical BYOD printing problems because it’s so straightforward. And that saves time and energy on the front- as well as the backend because end users don’t have to call the service desk with the usual litany of BYOD mobile printing questions.
But with that simplicity also comes security. Using Mobile Printing, admins can determine precisely which users are able to print to which network printers. They can set quotas on how much guests are able to print, specify what file types they’re allowed to print and restrict their printing options to, say, black and white only. This gives admins unprecedented control over your organization’s bring your own device printing environment without inconveniencing and frustrating end users.
Through Mobile Printing from PrinterLogic, you can eliminate your BYOD printing problems while providing BYOD mobile printing capabilities to everyone in your organization. That means you can experience the transformative benefits of bring your own device printing as it was meant to be—with none of the exceptions and caveats of other BYOD printing solutions.