How much paper gets wasted in your office every year? It’s a question that many office managers and business owners don’t ask themselves. And the answer may surprise you. The average office worker makes their way through about 48 sheets of paper every single day. About half of that paper is waste, such as memos that didn’t need to be printed out or documents that were printed with errors and thus need to be reprinted. Shockingly, as many as 30% of print jobs in some offices are never even picked up from the printer.
That’s a huge amount of waste that costs your business money and makes it less environmentally friendly. Managed Print Services help manage that waste, creating several benefits in the process. This article explains what Managed Print Services are and how they help companies save time and money.
What Are Managed Print Services?
Managed Print Services involve printing oversight and management designed to help companies cut down on paper waste. The services usually come from an external provider and incorporate several elements.
- Needs assessments that ensure companies have everything they need for printing
- Device management and maintenance
- Usage tracking that helps companies see how employees use printers
Often, these services leverage cloud-based computing technology that allows for easy device management and the ability to print from anywhere with an internet connection.
Think of Managed Print Services as a way for you to ensure your company’s entire printing infrastructure works as it should. With these services, you keep your printers in good condition and ensure that paper waste costs your company less than it would without oversight.
How MPS Helps Your Business
Now that you understand the basics of Managed Print Services, let’s look at the key benefits that come from engaging with this type of service.
Benefit No. 1 – Reduces Costs
The most obvious benefit of a managed service comes from the reduction of paper waste that affects every American office. Usage tracking allows officer leaders to see how much paper each worker goes through daily. If an employee seems to be printing more than they should, the statistics generated by the service highlight this fact. Employers can then speak to the employee to find out what they’re printing and potentially educate them on the issues related to paper wastage.
The assessments that come with Managed Print Services also help companies save money. They ensure that the office is equipped with the printing facilities it needs, avoiding issues related to buying equipment with functionalities that won’t get used.
Benefit No. 2 – Printing Security
Imagine that you have a three-floor office. The main company printer is on the third floor. An employee on the first floor prints something out and has to travel to the third floor to get their documents.
That leaves a lot of time for malicious employees to steal documents from the printer before the appropriate employee reaches them. Furthermore, a lack of oversight means it’s easy to claim the printer simply didn’t print the documents. The company may never know that printouts containing valuable information were stolen.
The point is that security is a key issue when printing. Managed Print Services offer several features that prevent internal data leakage and theft, such as using access codes to complete print jobs. Often, these services also incorporate network security elements, such as encryption, which prevent data sent to a printer from being accessed by external parties.
Benefit No. 3 – Improved Efficiency
As printing equipment ages, it becomes prone to failing. Any employee who’s ever had to waste valuable time dealing with paper jamming can attest to that. Add the time required to fix more serious issues, and the office ends up with an inefficient printing system that ultimately costs your business money.
Managed Print Services identify maintenance and device aging issues so you can confront them before they become major time-wasting problems. Managed services also track usage, which means you can quickly tell if your stock of consumables is running low. The data collected shows you when you need to buy new ink or toner, in addition to keeping you informed about maintenance and repair issues that need addressing. Many Managed Print Services programs automate restocking based on your office’s usage statistics, meaning you don’t have to worry about manually ordering consumables.
Benefit No. 4 – More Environmentally Friendly
Paper wastage doesn’t only affect your company on a monetary level. It also increases your carbon footprint by creating more waste that needs to be recycled or otherwise disposed of.
We live in a world that values sustainability more than ever. Global strategy company Simon-Kucher & Partners demonstrates this in its report The Global Sustainability Study 2021. It found that 85% of people shifted their purchasing behavior between 2016 and 2021 toward companies that take sustainability seriously. Furthermore, 61% of American consumers rate sustainability as an important purchase criterion.
This tells us that customers want to work with environmentally friendly companies. Managed Print Services leverage monitoring systems that allow employers to track printer usage. They can also see how much paper is being wasted in their organization. The result is that employers can put paper-saving measures in place that become part of their sustainability policies. Customers are more likely to buy from you because you’re taking the impact your business has on the planet seriously.
Managed Print Services for the Modern Business
It’s not enough to buy a few printers for the office in the modern business world. Improper management of printers leads to huge amounts of paper waste, which costs businesses money and customers. Beyond the direct cost of wasted paper, more money is lost if a company fails to maintain its printing fleet or uses outdated equipment. Finally, a lack of management leaves a printing network open to external hackers and malicious internal parties. The security risks this creates can lead to data leakage or theft that affects your business and its clients.
Elite Imaging Systems provides Managed Print Services that confront these modern business challenges. Serving clients in Detroit, Flint, and Troy, we provide several Managed Print Services that leverage major brands like Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark. If you’d like to learn more, our experts are always ready to speak to you about your company’s printing needs.