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sustainabletimes
01732759725
Don’t be one
of the 63%
Anew surveybyOki SystemsUK
shows that themajorityof small
businesses are spendingmore
than theyneedonprinting, simply
because theydon’t knowhow to
manage, control ormeasure their
day-to-dayprintingoverheads.When
asked if their organisationmeasured
overall printing costs,63% said that
theyhad ‘nounderstanding’of their
level of spending.Only15% said
that their printing costs couldbe
accuratelypredicted.
These survey results, gathered from
visitors to the recent Elite Business Show
for SMEs,wouldhave been surprising at
any time. But coming as they do after
a downturn,whenmost organisations
paredoverheads down to the bone, they
represent a realmissedopportunity.
Of course, savings are needed
during better times too – and the
flipside of this is that there are still
areas of a businesswhere economies
can bemade. Besides, as disruptive
technologies such as the cloud and
mobile continue to change thewaywe
communicate andwork, perhaps now is
just as good a time for small companies
to review their printing processes,
workflow and costs.
AndrewHall,marketingmanagingofOki SystemsUK, explains
whybusinesses that haven’t alreadydone so should review
their printingprocesses
OKI’s survey indicates that the
current ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD)
trend is having amajor impact on
printing efficiency.Almost half (49%)
of respondents said that they either
can’t print at all from their own
smartphone or tablet in the office, or
find the process unnecessarily difficult.
Businessworkflow
Sohow can a small business reduce its
costs,while still accommodating the
evolving needs of itsworkforce?The
first answer is to stop seeing printing
asmerely an add-on tomainstream
business processes, but rather as a task
that should be integrated into business
workflow.The second is to recognise
that although businesses should take
every step to reduce unnecessary
printing and paperwastage, the need
for printing is not going to disappear
overnight despite digitisation and calls
for the paperless office.
In a separateOKI survey of
2,000workers carriedout last year,
a decisive 92%of those polled said
that they carry out some kindof daily
printing.With this level of usage,wise
investment innew printer stock can
give fast returns and long-term savings.
That’smy general advice. In
addition, here are a fewmore specific
steps that can be taken:
n
Insteadof ignoring printing costs,
audit them.Or rather, recordwho is
printing,when andwhere. Do you
have disparatemodels from different
supplierswith different support
agreements, all with different terms
and timescales?Do staff need to
print frommobiles and tablets?
Before you take control youneed to
knowwhat you are dealingwith.
n
Small quickwins.There are numerous
small steps that can easily be taken
andwon’t impact anything other
than the bottom line. For example,
make double-sided printing the
default option; dittomono printing
– except, of course,when colour is
essential; andmake sure printers are
switchedoff at night.
n
Consider new buyingmodels.
Insteadof purchasing new printers
outright, consider amanaged
services option that enables you to
buy printers, supplies,maintenance
and support inone all-inclusive,
ongoing contract.The bestwill
also enable a business tooptimise
its printer fleet, standardising on
newmultifunction, energy-saving
devices, and provide advice on best
practice.These services are often
offeredon anongoing basiswith
continuousmonitoring and strategic
recommendations.
n
Working in thisway can lead tomore
sophisticated assessments of overall
documentworkflow and security.New
multifunction printers comewith an
open platform thatmakes it possible
to customise the user interface and
integrate all document-related tasks
into anorganisation’s document
workflow.Themove frommanual to
automatedworkflowsmakes it easier
to track and reduce printer usage.
n
Don’t ignore the issue ofmobile
printing for too long.Many affordable
printers are now cloud-connected,
whichmeans users canwirelessly
print documents from anymobile
phone, laptop, tablet, PCor other
web-connected device. Printers and
mobile devices findone another via
amobile app. For example,Google
Cloud Print integrateswithChrome,
Gmail formobile andGoogleDocs
formobile and can also print to third-
party nativemobile apps onAndroid
and iOS platforms. iPhone and iPad
users can take advantage ofApple’s
AirPrint, as this is embeddednatively
in these devices.
Almost half
(49%) of
respondents
said that they
can’t print at
all from their
smartphone
or tablet in the
office...
“
printing costs
