When tasked with reducing print costs or reducing the amount of paper the company uses, there are a number of places to start. Sometimes it means reviewing your current managed print service to see if the provider is doing everything they can, and other times, it’s identifying the high-volume departments to see which processes are using the most paper.
The Print Awareness Tool, developed by Xerox, comes in a step after identifying the issue.
The tool uses a simple graphical interface to show users their print history, key stats and how they compare with their peer group, their department and the entire organisation. It uses the principles of 'gamification' to appeal to someone’s competitive instinct and make desired behaviour something they actively want to do.
Effectively, it can help with the cultural change management when reducing print.
Breaking someone’s habit of printing in a process they’ve been doing for years isn’t as easy as just telling them to stop. The print awareness tool can be used to encourage the process and put the print reduction in the hands of the users, rather than a couple of people trying to drive all of the change.
Here’s an example of how the Print Awareness Tool has been used to reduce print:
A leading professional services organisation wanted to be more environmentally friendly.
Having already implemented energy efficient multifunctional devices and a card-based printing system, they were still looking for print reductions and more dramatic changes.
When looking closer at the company and their printing habits, it was revealed that employees still printed more than those in other similar companies. Further identification also showed that much of this printing was wasteful and easily avoidable.
Having identified some of issues, the Print Awareness Tool was installed on all laptops and PCs, and a prize was announced for the person and the team that printed the least, within each function of the company, every quarter.
Following the introduction of the tool, many users said that they hadn’t realised quite how much they were printing.
Over time, processes that were previously print-dependant were replaced by digital alternatives and with continued use of the Print Awareness Tool, employees continued to try and reduce print where possible.
Overall, this reduced print volume by a stunning 25%!