If 2020 has taught us anything, it has taught us that we can't afford to waste a penny in business.
If your organization lacks an effective print strategy, it is likely you are losing between 3% and 5% of controllable expenses on wasted printing and unproductive devices. Let's look a some ways your business reduce the cost of printing.
#1 - Print Policies
A print policy is a set of guidelines that help employees determine when to print documents and in what form. An example of a guideline might be to not print any emails in color. Color prints are typically far more expensive that and black and white print. Many employees like to print out emails in order to organize their list of ToDo's. If your organization has a usage agreement, a single hyperlink or a tiny logo will cost an organization a color click. A message to employees outlining guidelines for printing can help employees make a good decision
#2 – Print Tracking
Another option for cost reduction is print tracking. Software solutions for print cost control provide a host of benefits. One of these benefits is print tracking. In all businesses, sometimes employees will use the office equipment for non-business related needs. Most customers we help with print tracking solutions notice an immediate reduction in print volume as soon as the system is rolled out.
#3 - Check your Equipment
If your environment has multiple devices, try printing on all the different devices in your office. If you have devices that are producing poor quality prints and are available on the network, it is likely many of the prints produced from a poor quality unit will be discarded. The user will then move to another device in the facility and reprint. Many employees will not take the extra step to notify IT or leadership of the issue, but simply move on with their day and the problem persists.
#4 - Contract Audit
Depending on the size of your organization and its purchasing patterns, your team may have more than one equipment and usage contract. Most office technology vendors will not consolidate contracts which can lead to a confusing mess of usage agreements and equipment payments. We have seen some organizations have upwards of 15 different contract covering all their equipment and maintenance. This can lead to billing problems, headaches for accounting, and paying for machines that are no longer even in the facility. This problem get worse when organizations have multiple locations.
#5 - Get a Business Technology Assessment
At UBEO, we provide a Business Technology Assessment (BTA) that includes a full overview of document related costs. Once the process is complete, we can recommend strategies and solutions to help you get complete control over this aspect of your business. The BTA provides other benefits beyond cost reduction not covered in this article. To learn more, visit our BTA overview page here.
Tag(s):
admin
Connect with the author