Key Takeaways
- Print optimization can identify unnecessary devices, excessive printing, and avoidable service or supply costs.
- Document management reduces reliance on paper and makes business information easier to find.
- Cloud printing can reduce dependence on traditional print infrastructure and simplify administration.
- Workflow automation can reduce repetitive manual tasks and lengthy approval processes.
- Security investments can help protect businesses from the financial consequences of data exposure, disruption, and compliance problems.
- Reviewing technology before year-end can provide better information for next year’s budget.
Year-end may still be a few months away, but now is a good time to look at where your technology budget is going. Identifying unnecessary costs today gives your business time to make improvements and plan next year’s investments without the pressure of a last-minute year-end review.
That usually means looking ahead. But before planning next year’s investments, it’s worth examining where your business may be spending more than necessary today.
Older equipment, inefficient printing, manual processes, scattered documents, and security gaps can all create costs that add up over time. Taking a look at these areas before year-end can help you control spending and give you a stronger starting point for next year’s budget.
Here are five technology investments worth considering.
1. Print Optimization
Printing may not be the largest line item in your budget, but unmanaged print environments can make it difficult to know exactly what you are paying for.
Businesses often accumulate printers over time. Some are heavily used, while others sit idle. Older devices may require frequent repairs or expensive supplies. Employees may also be printing large color jobs on devices that cost more per page than other available options.
Print optimization starts with understanding your current environment.
A print assessment can examine your devices, usage, service history, supply needs, and printing habits. From there, you can determine whether equipment should be replaced, consolidated, relocated, or removed.
Managed Print Services can also provide ongoing oversight of devices, service, and supplies, making print costs easier to track and budget.
Before carrying this year’s print expenses into next year’s budget, find out what you are using. You may discover opportunities to reduce unnecessary spending without limiting employees’ ability to print when needed.
2. Document Management
Consider how often employees search for invoices, contracts, customer records, forms, or other business documents.
A few minutes spent searching for one file may not seem significant. Multiply that across employees, departments, and an entire year, and poor document organization can consume a considerable amount of time.
Document management provides a centralized way to store, organize, retrieve, and share information.
Instead of relying on filing cabinets, email attachments, local desktops, and inconsistent shared folders, employees can access documents through a more organized digital system.
That can reduce dependence on paper, physical storage, duplicate files, and unnecessary printing. More importantly, employees spend less time searching for information and more time using it.
Year-end is an especially useful time to evaluate document management. Businesses are often gathering financial records, reviewing contracts, preparing reports, and organizing information for the coming year.
If finding those documents is harder than it should be, your current system may be costing you more than you realize.
3. Cloud Printing
Traditional printing often relies on local print servers, drivers, and IT resources to connect users with devices.
For businesses with multiple offices, hybrid employees, or changing technology needs, that infrastructure can become increasingly difficult to manage.
Cloud printing moves much of that management into a cloud-based environment. Administrators can centrally manage users and printers while employees can securely access approved devices.
One potential cost benefit is reducing reliance on traditional print servers and the maintenance that comes with them. IT teams may also spend less time installing drivers, configuring individual workstations, and troubleshooting print-related problems.
Cloud printing can also make it easier to adapt as your business changes. Adding users, supporting different locations, or managing printers across offices does not necessarily require building additional local infrastructure.
4. Workflow Automation
Some business costs are easy to spot on an invoice. Others are buried in the time employees spend completing repetitive tasks.
Think about how an invoice moves through your organization.
Someone receives it, enters information into a system, sends it to another employee for approval, follows up if approval is delayed, saves the final document, and files it.
That is a lot of manual work for one document.
Workflow automation can handle many of these repetitive steps. Documents can be captured, routed, approved, stored, and tracked digitally based on predefined rules.
Accounts payable and accounts receivable are common examples, but automation can also support employee onboarding, purchase orders, forms, contracts, and other document-heavy processes.
The goal is not to replace employees. It is to reduce the amount of time they spend on administrative tasks that do not require their expertise.
Before the year ends, ask your employees which processes require the most manual entry, printing, scanning, emailing, and follow-up. Their answers may point directly to areas where automation could save time and money next year.
5. Security and Compliance
Security is sometimes treated purely as an IT expense. It can also be viewed as a form of cost protection.
Printers, multifunction devices, cloud platforms, and document systems can all store or transmit sensitive business information. Leaving these systems unsecured can expose an organization to data loss, unauthorized access, compliance problems, and costly disruptions.
Print security is a good example.
Documents containing financial, employee, customer, or patient information can easily be left sitting in an output tray. Secure print release can require employees to authenticate before a document is produced, reducing the chance that sensitive information is seen or collected by the wrong person.
Other measures can include encryption, user permissions, device authentication, firmware updates, and controls over who can access specific documents.
These protections become even more important for organizations operating under industry-specific privacy or compliance requirements.
A year-end technology review should therefore include security. Check whether devices are current, access permissions still make sense, security updates have been applied, and document processes reflect how employees actually work today.
Addressing vulnerabilities now may help prevent much larger costs later.
Planning Next Year’s Technology Budget
Year-end planning should not be about spending whatever remains in this year’s technology budget.
Instead, use this time to understand what is driving your costs.
Which printers are expensive to maintain? Which document processes take employees too long? Are you maintaining infrastructure you no longer need? Could automation eliminate repetitive work? Are aging devices creating security concerns?
Those questions can help you decide where next year’s technology dollars will have the greatest impact.
Rather than automatically renewing, replacing, or adding technology, start by assessing what you already have. The findings can help you prioritize investments based on actual business needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What technology investments can help businesses reduce costs?
Print optimization, document management, cloud printing, workflow automation, and security can all help control costs by addressing specific business problems. An assessment can help identify which investments make the most sense for your organization.
What business processes can be automated?
Invoice processing, accounts payable and receivable, approvals, employee onboarding, forms, document routing, and records management are common candidates. Processes involving frequent manual entry, scanning, emailing, or follow-up may be worth evaluating.
When should we start planning next year’s technology budget?
Starting before the current year ends gives your business time to review existing equipment, contracts, processes, security needs, and upcoming priorities. This helps you build next year’s budget around what your organization actually needs.
Make Your Technology Budget Work Harder with UBS
The end of the year is a good time to look beyond your business is spending and ask whether it is delivering enough value.
United Business Systems (UBS) can help you evaluate your print environment, document processes, cloud printing needs, workflow opportunities, and security to identify where improvements make sense.
Ready to start planning for the year ahead? Contact UBS today to discuss your technology needs and build a smarter plan for your business.
About United Business Systems
United Business Systems specializes in simplifying the complexity and management of office technology solutions for over 7,800 organizations nationwide. Services include Managed Print, Document Management and IT Services. Products include MFPs, Copiers, Printers, and Wide-Format Printers. UBS’s headquarters is in Fairfield, NJ, with branch offices in Moorestown, NJ, Manasquan, NJ and New York. For the latest industry trends and technology insights, visit UBS’ main Blog page.
