Practical Ways to Reduce Printing Costs
Printing is an essential element of a business process. In fact, the cost of printing for most businesses average between 1% and 3% of their annual revenue. This is quite a number considering the total revenues a company garners in a year. The irony is a majority of these businesses either underestimated their printing costs or were not interested in tracking their costs at all. That was the trend in the past. Many companies are now aware of their printing costs and are finding effective ways to cut these.
Here are some of the most excellent ways to keep your printing costs down to the minimum:
1. Print in draft quality.
Draft quality requires less ink and prints faster, saving you time and money.
2. Avoid printing in color.
Printing in colored text doesn't sound decent in a business. This means you have every reason to avoid printing in color except when it is really necessary. Color print cartridges are 40% more expensive than their black counterparts. Additionally, color printing requires more time and power and these will translate to cost.
3. Apply multi-page printing.
This means printing two or more pages on a single sheet of paper. Ways to make this happen include reducing the font size. You may apply this on files that are seldom accessed.
4. Maximize the use of your scanner.
With the present email system, you don't actually need to print or copy certain documents and distribute them to people concerned. Instead of copying, you may scan the document and send it as an attachment to people concerned.
5. Print on both sides of the page.
This is called duplex printing. Printing on both sides of the paper is the new technique for minimizing paper consumption.
6. Check the printer before pressing "Retry."
There are times when the printer doesn't print a document you instructed it to. When this happens, instead of clicking retry, check the printer queue first to verify its status.
7. Implement Managed Print Services
Managed print services are the new way of maximizing the efficiency of a company's printing devices. It manages, monitors, and controls your company's printing infrastructure in order to maximize efficiency and productivity. It can also garner a savings of up to 30% of your printing expenses and improve network security.
8. Eliminate personal printers
Personal printers are a thing of the past. When you buy a new printer, you should think of a large, multi-function printer that can be shared by multiple users. Aside from their being more efficient yet easy to maintain, they also allow you to specify the people you want to give access to sensitive information.
9. Minimize energy consumption
Minimizing energy means turning off computers, printers, faxes and copiers in the night when they are not used. When you purchase new printers, look for one that bears the logo of Energy Star. They are faster and consume lesser energy.
