Control your data – don’t let it control you

Posted On January 20, 2011 By Kevin O'Brien

Multifunctional printer/ scanner/ fax devices are being used more and more in the everyday office. With that said, the number of options available on these devices (also known as MFPs or MFDs) also continues to grow thus requiring more detailed MFP configuration. The majority of new multifunctional devices are setup with simple scanning solutions such as scan to email and scan to folder. Configurations of these options can range from one destination to hundreds.

Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable if these MFP file destinations were backed up or you had control over where this information was stored? Service on a multifunctional device or hardware failure may cause scanning destinations to disappear and lead to disruption to business.

The fact is that MFP manufactures such as Ricoh/Savin have had publicly available options for many years that allow every day individuals to take control of their MFP data configurations. Using tools available from the manufacture to backup your existing data will make restoration a snap and no longer will you need to have the device reconfigured from scratch.

Ricoh/ Savin offers a tool called Smart Device for Admin which allows users to backup existing MFP file destination information. The tool goes above a beyond that as well by providing information regarding other networked printers and MFD’s. Once your information is backed up you can store the file in an easy to manage .CSV or proprietary .UDF Ricoh/Savin format. Any lost destinations can be restored in the same manner offering little downtime.

Many newer devices also offer and easier method to backup this information via the web interface. Regardless of the method, backing up your multifunctional device data and taking control is a really good idea.