What Is Device Management and Why Do You Need It in Your Business?

A modern office relies on many connected devices and pieces of equipment working together to keep operations efficient. As infrastructure and physical asset expenditures rarely increase, working with legacy systems becomes unavoidable. This reduces operational control, leads to wasteful printing and copying, as well as opens up company to data and security risks.

Device Management is a set of systems and controls implemented to prevent the misuse or exploitation of company devices and equipment. With so many new risks appearing every day, ensuring all devices and printers are secured is a modern business necessity. Controlling devices at the source ensures businesses regain oversight and reduce costs, as well as improve data security and have the ability to conduct audits on staff’s activities.

What is Device Management and How is It Different From Document Management?

Device management extends the principles and disciplines from document management to the hardware that renders the physical or digital information. While document management provides access and disclosure controls on digital records, device management ensures businesses also secure the points of release.

Devices can include interactive displays, printers and multifunction devices, mobile devices, as well as integrated POS (Point Of Sale) equipment. Software solutions enable businesses to establish complete control with advanced workflows that prevent the unauthorized dissemination of all designated information.

With device management software solutions, modern businesses can:

• Establish complete control and oversight over disparately located printers and MFDs.
• Report and audit the use of equipment throughout the entire organization.
• Secure information from unauthorized release and disclosure.
• Enable mobile authentication for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environments.
• Leverage cloud repositories as part of the overall digital architecture of the company.
• Centralize control and authentication to secure the entire print fleet.
• Eliminate security risks with pull-to-print authorization, reducing the exposure to breaches from uncollected print jobs.

As the devices deployed in any environment are unique, device management solutions need specific configurations to adapt to the business requirements. By leveraging the powerful integrations that the software offers, a completely customized solution that suits a company is achievable.

The Similarities between Device Management and Document Management

Document management solutions provide workflows that control the information flow between human resources. Device Management extends the workflow capabilities to the physical devices by establishing authorization and access control at the source. Modern printers come with Active Directory (AD) integration and enhanced network security features such as data encryption.

Documents receive disclosure designations that prevent access to the records from unauthorized users. These documents can be living (i.e. revision controlled) or static (i.e. records) and may be subject to retention and dissemination controls as stipulated by legislative regulations.

Traditionally, once a document was printed it was considered uncontrolled. With device management, businesses can track and control every print with logs based on user, department, or device. Any information security policy currently implemented is enforceable at the ground level.

What Software makes Device Management Easier?

Depending on what the infrastructure landscape looks like, different solutions provide different features, and a combination of these will make up the total device management system. Software such as PaperCut and ACDI integrates with existing applications to support any kind of business environment.

PaperCut

PaperCut is a print management solution that works with any type of printer or MFD and supports all major Operating Systems (OS) including Mac, Novell, Windows, and Linux. The software supports digital archiving, improved administration, easy AD integration, quotas and usage limits, mobile and BYOD features, and even assists with changing user behavior.

With PaperCut, businesses have centralized control of their entire print fleet and a complete auditable history of each print job from every user in the company. PaperCut also comes with a customizable web interface that provides usage dashboards as well as Find-Me Printing to improve office efficiency.

PaperCut and ACDI Products

Using ACDI, businesses can extend the device management system to other types of equipment such as card readers and POS units. It also provides advanced document capture solutions that include OCR / ICR data extraction abilities with the PSIcapture tool.

PSIsafe is a complete document and process automation management solution. It supports eSignature capturing, centralizes all documents into a single repository, and securely encrypts documents and records across all platforms and applications.

Businesses can deploy these applications according to their needs with cloud, data center, and hybrid environments supported. Additional mobile apps extend the features to any handheld device, providing both enhanced security while improving flexibility.

Device Management Solution Provider Edwards Business Systems

In order to help customers regain control over the print footprint and secure all company information, Edward Business Systems collaborates with the leading software developers and business solution providers. With a history that spans over half a century, Edward Business Systems assists companies to reduce expenditure, increase productivity, ensure regulatory compliance, and deliver on environmental commitments.

For a custom device management solution, contact one of Edwards Business System’s friendly consultants today to get started on your journey.