Reduce your printing costs

Managing and reducing business expenses is always on the mind of every business owner. One area where costs can be brought down is the amount spent on printers and related supplies — which usually add up to a significant amount. Ink and toner are expensive and so is the cost of support calls for papers jams, etc.

Here’s some tips on lowering your operating expenses in your printing environment:

1. An inexpensive printer may cost you more in the long-term

We’ve all heard the saying ‘You get what you pay for.” Purchasing a cheaper printer may end up increasing your expenses because of maintenance issues and high replacement costs for ink cartridges. Standardize your printing environment and centralize decision-making.

2. Using colour prints when black and white will do

Unless they’re being used to bring life to a presentation or important sales pitch, colour prints are usually unnecessary. Most documents can be printed in good old-fashioned black and white to keep your print costs In line. Create a printing policy and grant permissions so only those who need to print in colour, can.

3. Decentralized Printing Supplies

Having ink and toner in supply for you and your employees is critical. There’s nothing worse than getting ready for a meeting that you need to bring hard copies to, and running out of ink part way through a print job. The other end of the spectrum is when costs spiral because there’s no control over ordering and various departments are ordering supplies ad hoc — the wrong ink and toner are ordered, or more is ordered than required. To solve this issue, centralize and standardize supplies for inventory management and to reduce costs.

4. Overuse of IT Resources for Support and Maintenance Calls

IT Resources are valuable and print-related support calls are not a productive use of the department’s time. The cost of trouble-shooting adds up to hours that could be spent much more effectively elsewhere in your organization. Create a a system to explain print processes and solutions, update your printer fleet and standardize your equipment.

5. Managing Print Services internally

Managing your print environment yourself means a allocating a significant amount of resources that could be spent on more productive operating tasks. The time and effort could be significantly reduced by outsourcing your print management — IT resources can be utilized more effectively; all of your business printing requirements, supplies and vendors can be managed so you and your employees don’t need to worry about them any longer.

Hire a Managed Print Services provider to assess your print environment and create a plan that will work for your business now and in the future.

Contact PrinterWorks West for more information on how we can help!