When looking to cut operating spend, identifying processes that needlessly rely on paper is a great starting point.
The key to successfully implementing digital transformation strategies of this kind lies in solutions that are future-proofed.
Building a future proof printing system for your business isn’t easy, but by finding an MPS provider who can help you use analytics to improve visibility, you’ll have a much easier time reducing costs.
Considering the total cost of ownership
Countless businesses have made the mistake of defining the total cost of ownership (TCO) of printing by looking solely at the cost of printer hardware.
In reality, there are many more factors that contribute to the TCO. They include:
- consumable use: how many ink cartridges, toner cartridges and other disposable printer supplies do the team get through on a monthly basis?
- energy cost: modern printers might be more energy efficient, but they still draw power; how much do they add to your annual fuel bills?
- wastage: how much paper and consumables get thrown away needlessly? What about the devices themselves - have you invested in hardware that simply isn’t used?
One of the hardest elements of printing TCO to account for is labour. How many employee hours are spent every month processing print jobs and dealing with printer issues?
A good MPS provider will be able to identify innovative ways to reduce your physical printer fleet, but the best will also be able to find procedural solutions that help accurately measure and reduce costs on an ongoing basis.
Improving visibility
Innovate in print as a business, and the positive effects will be most noticeable on your balance sheet.
Clearly, that’s something you’ll want to continue enjoying at board meetings, and to do so, you’ll need access to analytics that reveal where your addressable inefficiencies lie.
Modern print devices have started offering this kind of insight with their own management tools, but that typically restricts you to individual manufacturers. As a result, you’d need to collate data between manufacturers, which takes a significant amount of time.
By instead using solutions like CompleteView User Analytics, you can give your IT manager full visibility of all printing behaviour across the entire network.
With real-time data like that in hand, your business can then implement policy adjustments immediately and start enjoying new savings.
Similarly, if you need to secure a new investment or encourage more far-reaching process changes throughout the organisation, an analytical view of your printing estate will provide actionable insight into its TCO.
By combining the support of a reputable MPS provider and systems that provide accurate metrics, the procurement arm of your business will be able to easily demonstrate value and savings to the board.