The COVID-19 pandemic has been an incredible challenge for small businesses to overcome. These businesses have faced potential decreases in activity, shutdowns, as well as increases to their budgets for additional cleaning costs, PPE purchases, and more. All of this is in addition to the usual budget challenges faced by small businesses across the country.
One way to potentially reduce the strain on the budget is to consider managed print services.
Many businesses operate their print budget like a bottomless pit into which they throw money. Employees print as they see fit, there may be no planning to the printing services in the office, and the hardware may be out of date. All of these small individual expenses add up to large monthly expenses. Managed print services bring all of these smaller costs into one cost-controlled budget that offers businesses the best value for their print budget.
Every managed print setup begins with an assessment of a small business' print needs. This includes how they are currently printing, the devices being used, and even the layout of these devices within the office. In addition, there may be suggestions about how to improve document management to potentially improve document storage and entirely eliminate some need for printing certain documents.
After the assessment, recommendations can be made. Monitoring software can also be installed on devices to see what documents are being frequently printed and who is doing the most printing. With this data, further changes and improvements can be made on the fly to help better manage printing within the office.
Trimming down bloated print budgets is the ultimate goal of managed print services. The main way this is done is by simply helping to cut down on the amount of printing being done. With improved document management, some printing can be eliminated entirely. Instead, documents can be stored digitally whenever possible.
By reducing printing, other costs can be reduced as well. Replacing ink or toner becomes less frequent, maintenance may not be required as much, and there may even be a need for fewer printers altogether.
Not all costs are as clear as a line item on print budgets. Some costs come in the form of lost efficiency in the workplace. Through a managed print assessment, workflows can be improved and digitized which may save time and expenses. Or, if a workflow cannot be digitized, there may be an opportunity to deploy a different print device to a certain area of the office to help manage this workflow. Instead of having everyone use one large printer, a smaller one could be installed for certain purposes to save on energy costs.
With COVID-19 sending many people to work remotely, these improved workflows can also come in handy while employees are out of the office. With digital workflows, print costs are reduced and employees can maintain or improve productivity no matter where they may be working from.
With the managed print assessment, some resource-heavy workflows can also be identified and improved. Perhaps there is a workflow that requires printing, signing, and scanning back to a network drive for future review. An assessment could identify if digital signing can be completed and automatically file the completed document in the correct location for collaboration or storage.
Managed print services are about more than just reducing printing and cutting down on costs. With a managed print assessment, small businesses can identify a number of areas to improve many different workflows within the business. The end result is lower costs, improved efficiency, and a resilient workplace that’s better prepared for whatever the future holds.
To book a managed print assessment and discover how much managed print services can help you save, contact the print experts at Doing Better Business today.