Many business operators are already aware that managed print services have helped lots of companies since its advent in the business world. Because it is designed to streamline the operations of the printing infrastructure of business, government and civic organization, MPS has been proven to deliver these benefits:
- Provide consolidated office-wide printing
- It is an effective way to centralize control of documents – from creation to storage
- Provide effective means to manage document output
- Provide cost savings by converting printed documents into digital files
- Minimize excessive use or waste of paper, toner, and other printing consumables
- Facilitate easy monitoring of printing devices
- Eliminate equipment downtime
- Ensure security of data
An average office worker in the U.S. consumes an average of $1,000 annually on paper and printing consumables. Remember, it’s just the cost incurred by a single employee. If you multiply it with the number of office workers you have, the amount can come as a staggering revelation for you. For businesses that adopted managed print solutions, these costs have been cut by as much as 35%. By optimizing print infrastructure, companies are also able to cut 60% of carbon emissions associated with their printing, making them a bit more friendly to the environment.
If you are wondering how print management solutions works to cut costs for a business, here are a few of the benefits:
1. Reduce Paper Waste
According to thinkbeforeprinting.org, about 50% of printed office documents are never actually read. This is a waste of real resources like paper, wages of office staff, toner and energy. Managed print services work to reduce if not eliminate waste by introducing measures that include:
- Encouraging employees to print documents only when necessary
- Recommend or provide printers that support duplex or two-sided printing
2. Reduce the Number of Printers
Offices or departments that are equipped with individual printers contribute to higher capital expenditure, maintenance and energy costs. By centralizing print services, business organizations are able to eliminate a large part of these expenses.
3. Reduce Printer Supplies
Printer use is always associated with consumption of materials like toner or ink. With fewer printers, your organization can certainly garner substantial savings on consumables.
4. Optimize Employee Time
One of the most significant features of managed print services is to take the responsibility of all printing jobs and relieve your own employees from the time-consuming tasks of loading paper, printing documents and distributing them to their owners after printing. This gives your workers more time to focus on more important business concerns, improve their productivity and add more value to your business.
5. Provide Better Equipment
A good managed print services provider works to keep your print infrastructure updated on a regular basis. This allows you to produce documents from the latest printing and copying devices. This translates to quality output, speed and lost downtime.
6. Improve Equipment Maintenance
When you outsource your print services, your managed print services provider takes full responsibility of maintaining all of your printing devices. This frees up your IT department from a lot of tasks and gives your IT staff more time to focus on improving IT efficiency. This can also translate to a lot of savings.
7. Facilitate Efficient Document Distribution
Managed print solutions works to define documents that need printing and those that can be converted into digital files. Digitized documents are distributed by email or saved in a secure storage device and made ready for access by authorized personnel.
8. Enhance File and Document Security
Managed print solutions take the responsibility to protect and ensure the security of sensitive company information. It should be able to convert paper documents into digital files and have these archived without the need for additional resources. This saves your business a lot of money because breach or loss of sensitive data is an expensive thing.
9. Ensure Complete Backup and Recovery of Essential Files
By converting essential business documents into digital format, files can be stored in a secure location. These are the electronic backups of important paper documents which can be retrieved anytime.
10. Make All Files Traceable and Retrievable
As much as 10% of a company’s documents are either lost or misplaced. With that said, it is important for the management to create a system that makes all files traceable and available when needed.
A major aspect of print management services involves taking an inventory of a company’s output documents and files. After all files are accounted for, the MPS provider will create a centralized storage system for all digital files where these are sorted, meta tagged and catalogued for fast and easy retrieval. This eliminates the wasted time (and money) spent by employees searching for misplaced files.
Many companies have learned to appreciate the value managed print solutions can give to a business. Its ability to eliminate waste, streamline a company’s document management system, and maximize employee potential for productivity is a strength many companies are still dreaming about.
You too can strengthen your print environment and make your company cut as much as 35% of your annual budget on printing. Just be open to the idea of allowing managed print services providers to assess your printing infrastructure and setup. This should open your mind to the realization that MPS is after all not an added expense but a cost-saving and performance -enhancing investment that works to boost your business.