If you’re not watching your printing costs, you’re printing yourself an image of squandered money, experts say.
According to a new survey by printer vendor
OKI Data Americas, while 90 percent of small and midsize businesses rely heavily on printing, relatively few have put printer management strategies in place. That means the lion’s share of companies aren’t really managing printing at all, instead relying on the age-old practice of leaving well enough alone.
The survey also found that nearly 80 percent of SMBs still prefer to review printed documents instead of reviewing documents online, and more small businesses use printers for nonwork-related purposes, increasing costs.
Many smaller businesses don’t have a good handle on printer management or costs, agreed Steve Reynolds, a senior analyst with digital imaging consultancy Lyra Research.
“In a lot of organizations, printing tends to fly under the radar,” Reynolds said. "The IT side of the business might make recommendations on what printers to buy and network them into corporate networks, but beyond that they aren’t usually particularly interested in them. They often think they have more important fish to fry.”
Because printing tends to be controlled locally, with individual departments buying printers and their consumables, it’s rare to have anyone looking at printing from a centralized perspective, Reynolds said.
But costs are rising and simply will not decrease until printing management changes, Reynolds said.
“As times get tighter, all companies are looking for ways to streamline their operations, and eventually someone will realize that printing costs can be reduced by up to 40 percent simply by getting a handle on them and using them more effectively,” he said.
One option is to extend the management techniques used to automatically optimize servers to the printing environment. It makes a lot of sense, Reynolds said, because printers cause an inordinate amount of help desk calls.
Modern technology also can lend a hand. Software from vendors such as FMAudit and PrintFleet provide print management and assessment tools designed to help companies determine where they can improve printer operations. Print vendors also often include monitoring software.
Monitoring printer use also should extend to limiting expensive color printing. That means making rules for when color printing is allowable and holding people accountable.
“You can make all the rules you want, but that won’t necessarily stop Fred from accounting from making a bunch of birthday invitations for his daughter if you don’t take precautions,” Reynolds said. Most vendors today offer software that restricts and controls access to color printing, he said.
Another idea is to turn print management over to a third party. Outsourcing print management, however, is probably better used by companies at the larger end of the midmarket, unless the company already uses managed services for other IT functions, in which case it’s easy enough to bundle print services in, Reynolds said.
The OKI Data survey also recommends eliminating wasteful printing by using Web printing software to automatically scale Web pages to fit standard paper sizes so they print right the first time. Reynolds adds that duplex—or double-sided—printing also can eliminate waste while saving money, as will incorporating MFPs (multifunction printers), which tend to be more efficient and feature-rich.
