Oddly enough, 90% of companies are unaware of the costs related to document output management printing tasks. Many of them allocate between 1 and 3% of their budget to produce documents for internal use only, and the latest studies reveal that optimizing printing processes may entail savings of up to 30%. This latter figure is critical for CIOs.
“Optimize”. That sounds very good, doesn’t it? But how can you do it? The entire process could be divided into six steps.
Steps to optimize document output management printing costs and processes
Step 1. Find a provider that renders comprehensive services and, apart from supplying document output management printing solutions, also makes it possible to improve printing processes and reduce paper and toner consumption (and consequently printing costs), and offers other services focused on achieving an end-to-end optimization. It is of utmost importance to count on an experienced provider that offers creative solutions going beyond the simple reduction in the number of printouts.
Step 2. Carry out an audit of the current systems and identify the main document output printing processes that should be improved. This is done through several interviews with key people in the company and adding the crucial input of the CIO. Thanks to this audit, the company’s needs and objectives are identified. For example, more and more employees hold positions that require them to travel or make trips frequently. Until now, keluaran hk getting a file printed through a secure connection from any mobile device was very problematic. However, now there are document output management solutions that reduce and compress the files that are sent to remote printers. Another process that can be clearly enhanced is the passive security of the documents that are printed. With the new smart printers, confidentiality problems get solved, i.e. employees have to authorize the printing using a personal card or code and, besides, have to be in front of the printer. And if they send a document to the printer by mistake, they can cancel it on the equipment itself, thus considerably reducing toner consumption.
Step 3. After identifying the changes that have to be undertaken to streamline the document output management and printing processes, it would be advisable to standardize the brand of the printers in order to obtain better prices and negotiate volume-based contracts through increased scale. Likewise, it is necessary to reduce the number of physical printers, but increasing their production capacity and the equipment’s ‘intelligence’. By ‘intelligence’ we mean the ability that nowadays some printers have to approve invoices, keep the information they contain secure and start critical processes, such as digitizing a document to upload it into the company’s intranet. The rest of changes and improvements will have to be prioritized according to the budget, but bear in mind that the end-result will be significant printing cost savings, hence don’t delay your printing process optimization project. But most importantly, the printer fleet should include the latest technological advances, which ultimately results in a higher respect for the environment.