Businesses seem to fall into two main camps; those to aim to go ‘paperless’ and those who depend on printing for their day to day admin. However, most offices could implement a few simple changes and significantly cut down on waste and excessive printing. 92% of people say that they print more than they need and then throw away up to a third of what they print. This waste costs Malaysia businesses millions every single year.
Print less is surprisingly easy – a lot can be achieved by simply putting a policy in place and communicating it properly. However, using the tools at your disposal can reinforce that policy and monitor print activity to find further efficiencies.
Set up Print Authorisation
Depending on your office printers and photocopiers, you may be able to set up print authorisation. This means that a job isn’t actually printed until somebody goes to the printer and authenticates it. This can completely eliminate unclaimed documents and unnecessary print jobs. It can also cut down on excess printing through user error, such as pushing a print job through more than once since only one copy will be authorised.
Reduce Paper Processes
A lot of businesses still have a huge number of paper processes that require documents to be printed for filing or other admin. Scanning these documents and emailing them to colleagues or filing them in cloud storage can streamline your processes, reduce the need for dozens of filing cabinets, and reduce your print spend.
Create Efficient Default Printer Settings
You can reduce the number of pages printed within your business by changing the default settings on your printer. This will ensure that your employees print double sided sheets automatically, or all printing jobs are set to black and white. This is a far simpler way of reinforcing a policy as everybody will print that way you require unless they purposefully change the settings
Monitor Your Print Data
Print Management Software helps you monitor print usage and identify areas where a particular person, department, or floor can improve. You can analyse data to reduce print output and keep improving your processes.