To help balance the company's everyday data flow with that of the MFPs', CAP Venture's Bob Sistilio recommends installing a system-monitoring utility. Administrators must have good diagnostics so they can verify both the status of these devices and network traffic. In addition, Sistilio cautions that administrators establish productivity benchmarks. Without adequate monitoring or benchmarks, there is really no sure way for companies to measure the productivity and the hoped-for return on investment that they expect from MFPs. With this kind of real-time feedback, the originator does not have to walk to the device, wherever it is, perhaps only to find the machine has run out of paper or toner, or that someone else took their copies, or that it has jammed.
Network monitoring eliminates time-wasting surprises.
Other time-saving and productivity benefits that accrue from networking include remote administration of both the hardware and the output jobs via the Web or an intranet. Once it's set up, a user can just click on a bookmark in their Web browser to see the job's status.