5 Ways SMEs can Reduce Printing Costs

There is a money sucker lurking in your office. Its presence is so subtle that you often don’t realize the magnitude of its impact on your bottom line. High costs that add up over time are strongly attributed to your printers and photocopiers. In fact, research shows that these money suckers are “the third highest business operating expense behind rent and payroll.” Effectively managing business expenditure is crucial for your SME’s success. This article highlights 5 ways you can reduce printing costs and ultimately improve your bottom line.

#1 Utilize a Managed Print Services (MPS) Solution
MPS is a form of printing outsourcing that encompasses having an external contractor handle the maintenance, management and support of your printers. The contractor is paid a flat per page monthly fee. MPS solutions can reduce printing costs by up to 30 per cent.

MPS contractors work directly with your organization to analyze the volume of your print output. They then craft a plan to reduce this output without compromising productivity. This plan will help you see your real printing costs and the results may surprise you. Assessments by the MPS are ongoing and you get regular feedback.

A MPS solution also helps you:

• be eco-friendly by using less paper
• create a productive work environment since employees will no longer have to waste time on malfunctioning printers
• create a more focused IT department. Your IT employees will no longer have to respond to calls about malfunctioning printers.
• get increased document security

#2 Train Employees
A lot of your printing costs are due to the ignorance of your employees. Research shows that the average employee’s annual printing costs amount to approximately $725 which equates to about 10,000 pages. Your staff should be educated about printing costs and encouraged to do more virtual collaboration so that printing is reduced. Restrictions should also be placed on printing for each employee.

#3 Install Duplex Paper Feeds
Duplex printing essentially allows you to print on both sides of the paper. Therefore, your company will ultimately use less paper for printing. Less paper results in less spending.

#4 Make Economy Monochrome Mode Your Default
All of your printers should be set to economy monochrome mode. Therefore, your employees will only be able to choose color printing if they really need it. Colored printing is very costly and should be reduced as much as possible.

#5 Use a Cloud-Based Filing System
The value of hard copies can never be dismissed. However, a cloud-based filing system provides a paperless and secure means by which to store your files. There can be varying levels of access to these files so that more confidential files are only seen by the right people. However, the cloud-based filing system allows staff to access and upload files with ease. Effectively utilizing this strategy will drastically reduce your printing costs.

Printing is a major business expense. The strategies outlined in this article can help you effectively reduce printing costs and save your bottom-line. Exercising prudence with your organization’s finances is crucial to its survival.

In this article, we cover more tips for maintaining your office copier machine.

Btcopys provides not only copier machines, but we also do copier servicing and maintenance. If you are looking for copier machine for your offices or organization, feel free to contact us and discuss further.