I sit at my desk the day after having my vaccines so that I can safely travel to the Cloud Expo Asia Event in Singapore in October, trying to take my mind away from the droning pain in my arms. Yes, I know I probably shouldn’t be able to type with the pain so bad, but that’s the point; yes, it hurts like hell, fortunately, I can just about type this blog… and then a simple analogy entered my mind…

It occurred to me that the ache in my arms since having the vaccines, is a lot like the ache of moving your traditional print management solution to the cloud – It’s doable but it hurts like hell!

As life-changing advancements in technology create drastic changes across enterprise environments, new technology has brought about new and innovative ways of getting work done, anywhere, and at anytime!

Initially, the advent of mobile phones and tablets provided users with great versatility and mobility in accomplishing their work-related tasks.

However, with significant recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other information capturing and analysis technologies, today, the modern workplace is equipped with tools to drive productivity to levels that have never been achieved prior!

The future of enterprise computing lies in the cloud!  Cloud computing offers enhanced flexibility and scalability, with the ability to adapt and expand as dictated by enterprise requirements, while allowing organizations to reduce the IT infrastructure that they deploy, leading to reduced IT support costs.

With cloud computing also streamlining file and document access from anywhere, it has enabled greater collaboration amongst employees within an organization and across various departments, leading to increased productivity.

However, with all of the positives that cloud computing brings along, printing from the cloud has been a lingering issue for many enterprises!

When Microsoft introduced Office 365, it took the corporate world by storm! The innovative software as a service (SaaS) solution offered users access to their favourite Microsoft Office productivity tools from one single platform.

Productivity levels soared for corporate users, with enterprises across the world purchasing the SaaS subscription for their organizations. With additional products catered specifically for business environments, such as Skype for Business and SharePoint, Office 365 has become a mainstay for most organizations.

As new, innovative SaaS solutions are introduced into the market, they also bring along their own challenges.

In today’s corporate world, decision makers are constantly looking for ways to improve their organizational efficiency through the effective adoption and implementation of the latest technologies.

With printing being an integral part of many enterprise workflows and processes, vendors in the managed print services industry introduced “pull printing”, a secure printing mechanism which only permits authorized users to obtain their hardcopy documents from printers.

Pull printing consists of users sending print jobs from their workstations to be stored on a virtual print queue within a print server.