A clear desk policy coupled with a reduced capacity for storage has resulted in a reluctance to print, as there is simply nowhere to store vast amounts of paper.
The new digital document management system has been rapidly adopted, and almost all employees say they have benefited from this change. Print volume has decreased from 900,000 to 336,000 pages p.a. - a dramatic annual reduction of 63%.
Waste has been reduced from 72 kg per annum to 12 kg per annum, due to the solid ink technology in the new Xerox ColorQubes, bringing the total annual reduction in waste to an anticipated 60 kg.
Substantial amounts of paper were wasted due to the fact that print jobs got lost amid piles of paper which was never collected from the printer.
Documents were often sent to print, after which further edits were made, rendering the initial printout useless. Paper left on the printer at the end of the day amounted to approximately 36,000 sheets per annum.
With SafeCom’s Follow Me printing, users walk to their machine of choice and ‘pull’ the print from their personal print queue. Superfluous print jobs can be deleted from the queue at the machine. This system has made printing faster, easier and more secure, as well as completely eliminating discarded prints.
The massive reductions in paper consumption, packaging and wasted print resulted in the success of the Environmental Impact Reduction Programme, helping Buro Four to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation.
The new Xerox ColorQubes charge multiple rates for colour prints, depending on the colour coverage on each page, replacing an expensive flat rate for colour. Simple colour highlighting is charged at the same rate as black and white, saving the company 5p per page.
This has reduced the average cost per page significantly. The new pricing system, combined with the reduction in print volume, has resulted in a massive reduction of monthly print costs from around £3,400 to around £1,000.
We can already identify a saving of around £10,000 and we expect, over a year, to save around £28,800 per annum, or 70% of Buro Four’s original print costs.
There have been significant increases in efficiency through the clear desk policy, and printer accessibility has increased, making prints easier to retrieve from the user’s preferred printer.