Offshore Drilling Company Follows Best Practices When it Comes to Document Security
When you think about securing highly sensitive documents, cybersecurity probably comes to mind first. And while protecting your digital files is significantly important, you also need to address the most basic security issues – such as inadvertently leaving important documents lying around on or near a printer – that could have an adverse effect on your business.
That’s exactly what one offshore drilling company was faced with when they approached their local Sharp dealer to upgrade their equipment once their lease was up on their high-speed, color multifunction printers (MFPs). One day, their CFO found out that extremely sensitive financial documents were left unattended in one of their MFP’s output trays. This raised an immediate red flag. The company launched an inquiry via its IT security team to find the best and most cost-effective solutions, including print security technology, to prevent this from happening in the future.
After consulting with the dealer, the drilling company decided to completely refresh its MFPs and add advanced software tools for workflow productivity and IT security features. Ultimately, the company replaced their outdated fleet of 70 MFPs with 23 new Sharp MX-5071 color Advanced Series MFPs, complete with Secure Print Release and USB card readers, facilitating authorized walk-up users to authenticate to the machines and securely release their print jobs. The MFPs have the ability to integrate with Microsoft Active Directory, allowing for user authentication and dynamic single sign-on access to Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint.
The Active Directory also enables administrators to centrally manage the MFPs in the same manner as other trusted devices on their network, including select security and energy save settings. The devices also came with Sharp Remote Device Manager, which allows administrators to centrally view the status of all the MFPs and take quick action if the toner is low or there was a misfeed. SDRM is quickly becoming in invaluable tools for IT departments.
In addition to tighter security features, the company was also looking for advanced technology that could streamline their tasks. As an example, its passport division needed to regularly scan multiple pages in various passports as a single scan operation, which is a very manual process. To address this, they looked for MFPs that not only provided peace of mind regarding security, but also allowed employees to be productive and do their work quickly and efficiently.
The drilling company opted for MFPs configured with one-touch program keys that define specific settings and ease of use, thus streamlining efforts and removing manual processes. The devices are also able to create searchable PDFs and editable files, eliminating post-scan steps users previously had to perform at their desktops. What made the color Advanced Series even more applicable was their compact design, lighter weight and innovative features, which suits them perfectly for work on offshore rigs and ships where space is limited.
They were so thrilled with the results, that they decided to deploy a fleet of Sharp’s MX-B476W desktop monochrome documents systems for their locations worldwide to demonstrate the benefit of having compact models in tight spaces, with industry-leading security features for additional reassurance. If you’re looking to revamp and optimize your MFPs in a similar fashion, visit the Sharp MFP security page to learn more. You can also read the full case study here.