Jan 6, 2022
When was the last time you thought about your print environment? Did you know that a sub-optimal print environment could be holding you and your employees from greater success? Find out how to assess your company’s print environment and how to optimize it for greater time management and ease of workflow.
In business, "time is money," meaning that time management and streamlining operations are key to ensuring that ineffective processes don't cost your businesses money and time. Do you find that your employees are frustrated with your printing fleet or that your IT team wastes hours resolving the same printer problems over and over? Are you overwhelmed by how many different printing devices you have to manage, along with their licenses and applications?
The solution to a smarter, more efficient print process can be found by considering your current process honestly. And it can even be a simple task if you pair up with a great partner who can give you a print environment assessment, advising you on all the ways that your printing environment can be simplified. Managed print service (MPS) providers can assess and audit your office's current print environment if you need assistance or are unsure about your office's space and workflow. This is called a “Print Environment Assessment” and can drastically improve how your business runs.
A well-managed office print environment can save you time, money, and headaches if properly set up. As devices age and software updates become out of date, it’s important for your bottom line, as well as the security of your data, that you update your business’ printing framework. You might need to reassess right now as your company’s printing needs continue to evolve as flex work and work-from-home persists. Taking a good look at your printing needs is vital to the health of your company for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the most common is that it can help you reduce costs. Additionally, examining your print environment can help you discover whether or not incorporating more scanning capabilities might create efficient workflow solutions for your employees. And, importantly, in a time of increased security needs, it is vital that your printers, scanners and copiers are up to date with the highest security protocols for your data and metadata.
The first step in examining your printing process is considering how each of your office’s printers are currently being used. Do you have one “workhorse” printer that most of the employees use? Is there a go-to printer that operates nearly all day, every day? Workhorse printers often waste you money in the long-run, wearing out quickly and decreasing your employees’ performance as they have to wait on others for their printed material or walk a non-optimal distance to reach the machine.
Perhaps your office has the opposite issue of too many printers experiencing low to moderate use? An office with too many printers is both a waste of space and an unnecessary expense.
The solution in both cases is to optimize your print environment by not only having the right number of machines for your needs, but also by making sure that you have the right printer for your print job requirements.
The next step in assessing your print environment is to think through your employee’s printing habits. Are there some employees that need to print a significant amount to fulfill their roles? Do all your employees need to print in color? How many print jobs can be done double-sided? Taking a look at who prints what and for what purpose can help business owners understand how simple changes can help reduce time waste and expensive printing costs.
In the same way that you must observe your employees' printing habits, you must also examine how your organization's printing practices are shaped. Take a minute to review your product supply and ordering process. Do you have shelves filled with unused toner and ink while your employees are constantly looking for reams of paper? Make sure that your supply orders fit the needs of your staff, eliminating frustration, bottlenecks and stress.
First and foremost, a print environment assessment, with accompanying changes to your printing fleet, can help you reduce costs. With the right printing fleet that includes the right number of multifunction devices (MFDs) in optimal areas, you will be able to track, in real-time, data about your business’ printing that will help you continue to shed costs and improve workflow. A print environment assessment can also help you understand the impact of your workflow on your customers as well as the environmental impact your company has on the environment.
Thinking through your company’s printing practices is a great first step towards saving your business time and money and alleviating frustration and impediments to a streamlined work day for your employees. Teaming up with a managed print partner like Milner can help you accurately identify where time, space and money are being wasted and can give you expert advice and strategies for saving these essential and necessary resources. Set up a meeting with Milner today to find out what professional print management can do for your business.
