Despite the move towards a more paperless work environment many business processes still remain centered around printed copies—many of which wind up in recycling bins and wastepaper baskets on a regular basis. When you consider that most small to medium-sized businesses spend an average of 15 percent of their IT budget on printing, the need for change becomes clear. Here are some steps you can take to reduce waste in your print environment while increasing efficiency.
Implement Print Rules
Place restrictions on the use of color printing, limiting it to departments where it is needed to make an impact such as marketing. Discourage the printing of emails while encouraging employees to print multiple pages per sheet and use both sides of the paper. Printer defaults can be set to double-sided print for ease of use.
Upgrade Your Printers
Replace old, inefficient, or single-use devices with feature-rich, energy-efficient, multifunction printers. In addition to the money you can save on energy usage, consolidating your equipment can help you spend less on the cost of consumables, maintenance and repairs.
Make Use of Your Toner
Set printer defaults to black and white only printing and choose draft or low-resolution print mode for documents that are for use within the office or that don’t need to be high quality. Use fonts such as Times New Roman and Calibri for further savings, which use less toner to print than Arial, the default font setting on most computer programs.
Preview Your Work
Print preview can help to detect document errors which may result in the need for reprinting, such as incorrect font size, or landscape vs. portrait setting. By taking a moment to review your documents you can help to prevent waste and ensure your printed items come out right the first time.
Embrace the Cloud
Converting paper documents to digital copies is a great way to save money on the cost of printing while enhancing document security, efficiency and productivity. The right multifunction printer will allow you to set up document workflows to scan items directly to the cloud or email, using data encryption to ensure they will not be intercepted along the way.
While recycling efforts may alleviate some paper usage, the steps relating to document creation, management, and storage may continue to eat into profits. Contact us today to learn more ways to maximize your print environment and reduce spending.
