If your business office is like most, chances are you actually are spending and printing too much.
This is because more than 90% of offices do not have an actual formal print policy or any means to monitor usage and therefore costs. Because of this, office print-related expenditures tend to stay under the radar. In fact, many offices spend as much on business printing as they do on rent and utilities.
The fact that only about 10% of businesses actually have a formal print policy is indeed a fact to keep in mind.
It is the lack of accountability and visibility that make business printing an easy target to achieve immediate improvement, thus saving you time and money.
Start monitoring your usage
It is common knowledge within the printing business that office print volumes decrease by about 10% if employees believe the usage is being tracked and monitored. Studies show that roughly twenty per cent of what gets printed never will be used. With monitoring software, you can check who is printing what, where and at what device. It is called “print monitoring software” and it is really easy to add to any device.
Utilise colour wisely
A full-colour letter size document with only five per cent toner coverage costs about four times the cost of a black and white version document. So why are we actually using so much colour? Because it looks better and nobody checks if colour is actually necessary or not. People printing emails with signatures in colour as well as webpages are the 2 biggest culprits. You can easily put a dent in colour usage right now by setting printer defaults to black & white. Thus, employees will need to select colour only if they need it.
Print less and digitise more
The paperless businesses have already arrived, but we just don’t fully understand it yet. Paper intensive processes can be converted into digital files and online workflows at the touch of a button. This doesn’t mean paper will be going away immediately, but new sharing and scanning technology makes it easier, more affordable and even more secure than printing an old-fashioned paper document.
Proactive toner ordering
Did ever happen to you that the toner flashing light seems to always appear when you need your printer the most? We all have run out of toner at some point, dashed to a toner provider and then dashed back to our office. Nowadays most businesses have taken a proactive approach about this with printer monitoring software that tells you or directly your toner provider when there is less than 20% toner remaining, so that you can reorder and enjoy your replacement on site to avoid running out. Doing this will also prevent overstocking toner cartridges in your supply closet, which often happens right after someone runs out.
Pen down an office print policy
Your personnel probably has an understanding of what is appropriate when it comes to personal long-distance phone calls from the office, right? These “company office policy” examples will probably differ from a print policy but they all share the same objective. To set a common understanding among all workers about what is and what is not acceptable. A print policy is a set of rules that helps businesses and their staff print smarter and print for less.
Consider externalising to a printing provider
The above tips are all directed to optimising your in-house printing activity, but a very valid solution could very well be outsourcing all your printing work to a local provider. Your workload in-house will be reduced and since your order volume will be on the higher end, the printing provider will be able to give you a very good price per unit. Therefore considering an external printing provider might be the key to reducing costs as well as increasing print quality. If you are wondering, where can I find local printing services near me right now? The easiest way to immediately find a local provider is to ask to your contacts for a provider with whom they have positive experiences, or alternatively simply grab your smartphone and see what Google recommends in the area.
