Businesses of every size are always on the lookout for ways to cut costs and increase profit. The hidden costs of Printing is one that many organizations have a hard time measuring, making spending reductions for printing costs challenging. It is often the case that office workers take printers for granted when printing documents. The cost of printing and the sheer volume of printed documents can easily get out of control when there is no implemented printing policy in place to guide employees.

While the cost of physical materials like paper, equipment, and toner are easy to track, other costs like departments doing things their own way, regular printer maintenance, employees using printers for personal reasons, and even cybersecurity risks are often overlooked, costing the business more money than necessary.

Reducing office printing costs and improving the printing infrastructure is vital for every organization. Below are 4 smart ways to Reduce Printing Costs for your business.

1. Know what printing costs your business

Did you know that every year Americans throw away enough office paper to build a 12-foot-high wall that stretches from New York to San Francisco? Or, did you know that printing in color can be up to 5 times more expensive than printing in black and white? Understanding the costs of these wasteful practices is important if you truly want to understand exactly how much your organization is spending on printing costs.

2. Go Digital Whenever Possible

The role printing plays in a modern, cloud-enabled world has changed dramatically. Gone are the days when every internal document must be printed onto paper and stuffed into a filing cabinet. Most of the documents that previously required printing for clients are no longer necessary. Digital document signing platforms, such as DocuSign, help you cut down on printing costs. Today, most documents no longer even need to be printed. Documents are created, shared, and stored in the cloud. Shifting your organization away from strictly paper based business operations can help greatly reduce the overhead costs of printing. Opt instead to use digital forms whenever possible.

Printing in today’s modern work environment should be mindful and intentional, instead of the outdated mindset of clicking the print button without a second thought. Impulsive printing results in higher costs, prints that clog up the system, and damage to the environment as a result of waste.

3. Print in black and white as much as possible

Did you know that every time you print in color it costs as much as eight times the cost of printing in just black and white? Not only that, printing in color requires more power to print. There’s really no reason your team needs to print basic administrative documents in color when black and white sufficiently meets the print needs, so try and print in black and white as often as possible.

4. Adjust Default Settings

You should never assume that every employee will remember to manually adjust print settings every time they print. Adopting these standards that are set as defaults help reduce printing costs.

1. Adjust computer and copier setting to automatically print double sided and in black and white. You can find these settings in the computer’s print dialogue box.
2. Set narrower options for printing Word documents. This will result in more of the paper being used, meaning fewer pages will be needed over time.
3. Reducing the font size to 10 will require less paper

Conclusion

The tips above can go a long way in helping reduce the cost of printing within your organization, but it takes effort from your entire team to make the result of these changes successful. Some of these suggestions can be implemented right away, while others may need to be considered as part of a company-wide strategic initiative.

In addition to managing paper use and reducing waste, using Print Management Software can help you discover ways to manage your print environment in ways you may have never even thought of. Plus Technologies offers the OM Stats Manager (SM), a print monitoring statistics solution that enables businesses to analyze, understand, and monitor who is printing, what they are printing, and when they are printing it.

The print management software suite by Plus Technologies consists of multiple software products, each designed to solve a specific kind of output management problem. We manage and maintain a complex print environment with modern features you can use anytime, anywhere. This is because we take a vendor-neutral, cross-platform approach to technology to deliver print management solutions that just work. Contact us today to learn how we can help manage your print environment and reduce printing costs for your organization.

Twitter                          LinkedIn
Facebook                      YouTube

The post 4 Smart Ways to Reduce Printing Costs for Your Business appeared first on Plus Technologies.