It’s easy to tell when your print environment is affecting productivity. Printers stall projects and employees become frustrated. Managed print is a service that will analyze your situation and create solutions to improve your printing fleet. Follow these five rules with the help of managed print for an efficient print environment.
1. Don’t Fall for Cheap
Shopping for office equipment such as printers or copiers can deliver a shock for the price. It makes sense then that going for the cheaper model is your plan of action. The problem with buying based solely on price is that these machines require further investment down the road. When you buy a new printer, remember that the more quality you invest in today, the less you will spend later on maintenance and consumption of consumables.
2. Limit Extra Printing
An efficient print environment knows that excessive printing equals unnecessary spending. A service like managed print will implement policies that limit printing. Examples of these procedures are using duplex settings when appropriate and only using color for specific projects.
3. Centralize Supply Purchases
If your office has several different teams working with various printers, their paper and ink supplies may be spread out. Differing storage areas can lead to over ordering of consumables. Managed print organizes your ordering schedule to prevent a lack of supplies as well avoiding a surplus.
4. Avoid Color Printing
Printing in color costs more and is not always needed. Text documents should be printed in black and white even if one line of text is in color. Marketing materials are the only prints that should have access to color.
5. Refocus IT Attention
If your IT team is spending a majority of their time fixing printer problems, their attention needs to be refocused. An efficient print environment will be based around machines that are not be continuously serviced. Instead of fixing printers, identify the problem and upgrade to new equipment if necessary.
If you found that your office is not following at least one of these rules, its time to make some changes. Managed print solutions will assess your environment and implement policies that reduce printing and costs while making your fleet more productive. To learn more about using managed print in your office, call us today!