Do You Know How Much Paper Is Costing Your Business?
Take a minute and look around your office and/or work environment, what do you see? Stacks of paper in the recycling bin? Printers that are faulty or out of order? An A3 printer that everyone only uses to print A4? Printers that are always low on paper and ink? If any of these sounds familiar, you need to manage your printers more effectively.
To do this, follow the following three steps to design a print strategy for your business, which will help address problems and assess what your business needs are:
Step 1:
Evaluate what devices you have, what device functions you need, what your print volume is, what supplies are needed for the devices, and where the devices are located.
Step 2:
Find out if there is existing printing software installed on the devices, and who has/needs access to the devices.
Step 3:
Find out who is responsible for the maintenance and service of the devices. By identifying the person responsible for managing the devices, you’ll ensure that any issues or errors are reported and tended to immediately.
Why should I manage my printing in the first place?
An estimated 4 billion trees are harvested worldwide each year for paper manufacturing, and a staggering 16% of solid waste in landfills is paper. This is shocking to say the least, and we cannot continue along this path any longer.
Paper-based processes are quickly becoming a thing of the past and many companies have started to adopt a digital (paperless) system in their establishments as these systems are cheaper, quicker and safer. Digital forms and data collection software can lead to greater business growth, employee productivity and retention, as well as improving the company’s bottom line.
However not all business processes can be digitised and sometimes we still need the paper-based processes in place. However, this still poses threats such as misplaced, damaged and lost files and folders, which ultimately lead to wasted time and money associated with file recovery. Alarmingly, large organisations lose one document every 12 seconds, 20% of print jobs are never retrieved from the printer, and it takes a worker up to 30-40% of their time to search for missing or misplaced files.
A single sheet of paper is thin and light, but several pieces of paper become a stack. These turn into files which are stored in cabinets, cabinets become rooms, and before you know it, you have a floor filled with cabinets, which are full of files and folders, and lots of paper! (Paper that holds all your company and clients’ precious information, which can be easily destroyed in seconds if a fire breaks out, a pipe bursts or heaven forbid, a natural disaster occurs).
The importance of adopting a digital aided solution
Imagine for a second you need a client’s information and history but can’t find it because it’s been incorrectly filed away in one of many cabinets. Where do you even begin to start looking and how much time are you willing to waste trying to find this folder? Employees no longer have time to look for client information by searching through cabinets, they want and need the information at their fingertips. Thankfully, with today’s technology it’s extremely simple and efficient to adopt a digital aided solution.
Employees are already using their digital devices to make appointments on their calendars, to set reminders and create to-do lists, all of which are linked to their email accounts. Everyone uses mobile devices, so why would you not make it a part of your business environment and adopt an office-on-the-go concept? Not only is it beneficial for a company to remove paper from their business processes to increase productivity, moving to a digital solution also facilitates sharing and collaboration between teams and co-workers, while saving time and space.
What are the benefits of using mobile technology to minimise paper usage?
Mobile technology eliminates delays in completing necessary paperwork and makes sure that all paperwork is sent to the right person, making workflows and reporting faster. A cloud database and document management system can also provide a backup for paper records, if not replace them entirely. Any important documents floating around your office should be scanned and stored in the cloud. Storing paperwork and files in a cloud database lets you access them from anywhere, so even if you aren’t in the office, you can get the information you need.
A digital system reduces manual data entry errors and can also reduce the time it takes for collected data to reach core office databases, systems and stakeholders by getting documents signed digitally. By implementing mobile form solutions on phones, tablets or laptops, you eliminate the vulnerability of data that is printed or maintained on paper.
For employees, submitting forms with mobile device means no paper to work with, no files to juggle, and no boxes, containers or bags to secure. For added convenience, their office can fit into a pocket, backpack or bag. Other ways to make it easy for organisations to lessen or eliminate paperwork, improve data quality and increase efficiency are to use mobile forms for data collection and delivery, implement a Business Process Optimisation (BPO) strategy as well as a Managed Print Solutions (MPS) strategy within your print and work environment.
With pressure on businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, it is important for businesses to understand the environmental cost that office printing has on their organisation.
Reducing paper usage isn’t just good for business; it’s good for the planet too. Getting a MPS provider to manage these aspects for you is also simpler, cost effective and hassle free.
If you would like one of our Managed Print Service Experts to contact you and schedule a Print Assessment to evaluate what impact your printing has on the environment, please click the below button.Contact Us
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