Category Archives: Managed Print Services

Securing printing efficiencies

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Can any business save money on printing costs?

In our experience, the answer is simple – yes.  Even if you think you don’t print much, chances are your employees are printing more than you realise.  The opportunities to improve efficiencies are therefore often huge.
A good example of this is the work we’ve been doing with Australian integrated services specialist SECUREcorp.
The business has printers based in over 200 remote offices across Australia and was keen to get Upstream on board to identify how it could improve the efficiency of this set up.
Securecorp logo Securing printing efficiencies

Following a detailed audit of current printing operations and implementation of Upstream managed print services, SECUREcorp has seen a printing device productivity improvement rate of 165 per cent.  In real-terms that’s led to a 17 per cent reduction in printing costs.  And it doesn’t stop there.  Over the next five years the business expects to save $50,000 on printing as a direct result of implementing managed print services.
For a business that needs to be efficient to remain competitive and profitable such cost savings can have a huge positive impact.
The next time you’re considering how best to improve business efficiencies don’t forget to consider printing – the savings might be bigger than you think.

To find our more on how your business can save on printing too, please visit Upstream’s advantage index.

Tackling the print less challenge

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Getting you thinking about paper wastage and how to print less

If you stacked the millions of café loyalty cards distributed to Australians flat on top of each of other they’d extend about 2.5 times the height of Sydney Tower.  That’s a lot of cards – especially when you consider most of them will only be used once or end up lost.  It’s the same with office printing.  If you piled up all the documents your employees print each month it’s likely you’d be shocked by just how much is produced.paper Tackling the print less challenge

While the solution for the future of café loyalty may lie with smartphone apps rather
than physical cards, what about printing?  What steps can your business take to ensure employees print less?

The answer to that question is far from black and white.  Afterall, every business is
different.

Simple steps you can take to print less

1.       Audit what you print – If you’re going to have any
success in printing less a good place to start is by first assessing who is
printing what.  Does one department print a lot more than others?
What are they printing?  Is the printing in black and white or colour?
Are there individuals printing excessive amounts of documents?  Once you
know the answers to these questions, devising a print less strategy is much
easier.

2.       Set some policies – A lot of organisations talk the
talk when it comes to printing less but few formalise processes or educate
employees about what’s acceptable and not.  What policies look like will
depend on your business but typical policices include printing everything
double-sided and only using colour printers if absolutely critical.
Enforcing policies by regularly updating employees (especially new ones) is
crucial.

3.       Invest in tech – Sometimes educating employees
about why it’s important for environmental and economic reasons to print less
only gets you so far.  To have any real impact in reducing the amount
that’s printed organisations need to invest in solutions such as swipe and
release innovations that require employees to swipe an identification card
before a job is released from a printer.  Our experience shows
implementing such kit can help businesses shave around 20 per cent off their
annual printing bill.

What do you think?  Have you ever tried any of the steps outlined above to get your business to print less?

Managed Print Services in 2012

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Managed Print Services and New Year’s resolutions

Did you set some New Year’s resolutions for your business this year?  If you did, it’s likely improving efficiencies and reducing costs feature more than once.  Sensible stuff given the economic pressures Australian businesses currently face. But how do you actually stick to your resolutions?

new years resolution Managed Print Services in 2012

For resolutions we set in our personal lives success often hinges on determination and good habits. Business is no different.  If you don’t get into goodhabits from the outset, come July you’re unlikely to have achieved your goals.

And when it comes to reducing the amount you print and the associated costs, signing up to a managed print services contract can really help.

Managed print services good habits

Here’s an example of five habits our customers enjoy with
Upstream managed print services:

  1. Comprehensive audits of printing levels so businesses can act on opportunities to improve efficiencies.  On average we are able to
    save customers 30 per cent on printing costs.
  2. Real-time insight into how much is being printed across a business.  This gives organisations complete visibility
    into who is printing what so they can get a handle on printing levels.
  3. Automatic toner ordering so there’s no need for a business to worry about stocking
    up on vital supplies or order toner manually.
  4. Swipe and release printing solutions that require employees to swipe ID cards before a job is released.  The impact this has on reducing printing levels is often particularly significant.
  5. Ongoing customer account reviews that ensure we’re best addressing the needs and challenges a business faces

If you’re keen to cut costs and improving the efficiency of  your business by getting into good habits you could do a lot worse than getting into managed print services.

What should you consider when choosing a new printer?

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Choosing a new printer – easy or difficult?

choosing a new printer What should you consider when choosing a new printer? You’d probably think that choosing a printer is a simple task and not one worth spending a huge amount of time on. But when you think about how much a printer is used within your business and how reliant your employees are on printing documents, invoices, and so on, you might want to think twice before making a snap-decision.

Most people take the printer for granted, until it runs out of paper or toner, or stops working as a result of some obscure error. It’s at these times that you realise just how important the printer is.

Every year hundreds of new models flood the marketplace, with varying price tags and functionality, which makes choosing a new printer quite difficult. Deciding which one to pick based on pricing and spec is of course important but what’s often overlooked is the ongoing running cost. If a printer is not fit for purpose you can quickly find yourself wasting time and energy getting it fixed.

Now, we’d naturally suggest you follow the managed print services route if you’re unsure which printers to pick. This not only saves you time deciding which one to buy but also relieves you of the headaches associated with maintaining a fleet long-term.

Here’s some of the considerations we go through when working with customers to pick the most appropriate machine to meet their needs …

Printer volume
In businesses some teams need to print more than others so it’s important the office set up can meet their needs. For teams that print a lot on a regular basis it’s important to select a printer that can handle the loads put upon it – especially at peak times.

Privacy and security
While a communal, networked printer will be more cost effective than separate individual printers, there may be times where the privacy of documents necessitates a small amount of ‘private’ printers. For example, if you’re operating an open plan office it might make sense for the HR and Finance directors to have their own machines.

Document type
What your organisation prints is of course an important factor to keep in mind. If a lot of printing is done in black and white then black and white machines are naturally the preferred the option.

Processes for choosing a new printer
Businesses today often consider the information flow within their organisation at a software level without really thinking about how that information is printed.  Given invoices, delivery dockets and the like are crucial to business processes it’s worth considering how best to print these.  For example, it might be worth investing in a multi-function device that allows employees to quickly print forms directly at the machine.  This not only makes accessing forms easier but cuts down on unnecessary printing.

Choosing a new printer – Conclusion

I hope the information above helps in your decision-making. Have you had to go through this recently? I’d love to hear your thoughts on choosing a new printer, please post a Comment below – thanks in advance.

Think before you print

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With more organisations than ever looking at ways to improve the sustainability of operations it’s no wonder printing is under the spotlight.  The amount of documents printed unnecessarily within organisations is staggering.  Anything that can be done to reduce printing volumes can therefore have a significant impact both in terms of the environment and bottom line.

For those wanting to do more ask yourself the following questions.  If the answer to any of them is ‘no’ it’s probably time to consider managed print services.

  • Are you monitoring how much you print?  Almost all organisations are aware of the benefits of printing less but often don’t know where to start.  Without detailed insight into who is printing what it’s difficult to know where you can begin making improvements.
  • Do you always have good supplies of paper and tonner in stock?   Even when someone within a business has responsibility for managing a printer fleet it’s easy for paper and tonner orders to slip through the net, causing problems when jobs need to be urgently completed.
  • Do your employees pick up every document they print?  Uncollected documents is a big problem in terms of paper wastage for Australian businesses.  It’s also a security risk given there’s often a lot of sensitive information contained within documents.
  • Do you have tight budget control over your printing?  Without detailed insight into what you print it’s difficult to know how much to budget for printing, which means costs can fluctuate.
  • Are you aware of the environmental impact of your printing?  In the months ahead organisations will be under greater pressure to track the environmental impact of their operations so anything you can do to be on the front foot will be beneficial.
  • Are you using electronic forms?  Many businesses print the same forms on a regular basis.  A lot of the time these forms can easily be replaced with electronic forms – saving both paper and unnecessary admin.
  • Do you have a print policy in place?  Social media policies that outline acceptable employee use of social networking sites at work are now common place but organisations are often more lax when it comes to policies around printing.