Cost Control Essentials for Printing: Strategies to Optimize Your Bottom Line

Every business lives or dies by their ability to effectively manage paperwork. It could be a simple agreement or a couple of invoices, but as the paperwork starts to pile up on your desk you realize that you need to do something with it. So, you buy a filing cabinet to keep track of all your documents. However, what may seem like a simple way to stay organized is actually a hidden cost that can drain your business of cash. Let’s take a look at some common paperwork problems and their potential solutions.

A Paperless Environment

Misplacing documents and spending time retrieving them can create significant labor costs. On average, each year, a worker uses almost 10,000 sheets of paper. The approximate cost of 10,000 sheets of paper is $120. Now multiply it by the number of employees you have in your office. You can only know the actual cost if you follow the paper trail, otherwise, it is almost impossible.

The good news is that there’s a far better solution. Imagine going to your customers and asking them if they’d like to save $1M on their operating expenses. Who wouldn’t say yes to that? In addition, you also may be overspending if you’re not aware of your printing expenses. Our software printing solutions team provides an accurate estimate of your costs, empowering you to lower your printing expenses and calculate your cost-per-page. By making the switch to an electronic system, you can lower your operating expenses, save time, and streamline your business operations. So, if you’re still using a filing cabinet, it’s time to consider the benefits of going digital. 

Additional Factors to Consider

You might initially assume that all print expenses are straightforward: tools, services, and materials. These costs only provide a partial picture. The soft expenses such as labor rates and equipment life cycles are also a part of your print costs. Let’s quickly review each of the factors that go into calculating your actual print costs:

• Service/Maintenance: recurring maintenance fees or monthly service contracts.
• Burden Rates: the time used by staff to order supplies, schedule maintenance, service broken equipment, etc.

Predictive Maintenance

We talked about how Industry 4.0 connected smart devices and completely changed the way maintenance work is done thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is constantly evolving in real-time analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and a variety of other technologies. As a result of being connected to the ever-evolving IoT, IoT-connected equipment is improving. In the area of maintenance, the equipment is gathering and analyzing data and uses machine learning and AI tools to predict when it requires service. For example, in the printing industry, devices equipped with predictive maintenance tools (sensor measurement and vibration detectors) notify users when maintenance is necessary. Additionally, real-time sensor measurements inform condition-based maintenance programs. The utilization of predictive maintenance has the potential to notably decrease the need for scheduling regular maintenance activities and work orders. By repairing equipment solely when needed, costs associated with maintenance are minimized and the need to store unnecessary spare parts is eliminated. As a result, customers benefit from improved equipment uptime, proactive maintenance services, and the confidence of having their equipment continuously functioning at peak performance, and always in excellent condition.

Migrating to the Cloud

The removal of print servers will be one noticeable difference after you migrate from on-premises systems to the cloud. With a conventional print server, you are in charge of paying for both the hardware and software costs as well as the resources required to operate and maintain them. In addition, servers have expenses and administrative issues, and updating and maintaining them can take a lot of time for IT. You can save the up-front expenditures and time required to maintain and upgrade these servers by switching to a cloud-based platform. Also, because cloud solutions don’t rely as heavily on on-premises infrastructure, deployment times are typically shorter.

Other benefits of migrating to the cloud include:

• Infrastructure cost savings through cloud cost-optimization levers and value-oriented business use cases typically exceed 30%.
• Effective cloud migration increases output, enhances customer satisfaction, and hastens the expansion of businesses.
• Migrating to the cloud enhances stability and lowers the expenses related to downtime. The downtime for apps is decreased by up to seven times with cloud migration by utilizing a more resilient design.
• Moving to the cloud increases operating-model agility by three times, speeds up use case implementation, and lowers R&D costs.
• To enhance printing operations, the cloud offers data collection and accelerates automation across all functions.

When it comes to enhancing printing operations, migrating to the cloud brings a host of advantages. Here are some key benefits that organizations can experience:

• Infrastructure cost savings: Cloud migration opens avenues for cost optimization and value-oriented business use cases. Typically, companies can achieve infrastructure cost savings exceeding 30%, leading to improved financial efficiency.
• Increased output and customer satisfaction: Effective cloud migration can significantly enhance output and productivity levels. This translates into faster turnaround times, improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately drives business expansion.
• Enhanced stability and reduced downtime: Cloud migration contributes to enhanced stability by utilizing a more resilient design. This, in turn, lowers expenses related to downtime. By leveraging the cloud, downtime for applications can be reduced by up to seven times, ensuring uninterrupted printing operations.
• Improved operating-model agility: Moving to the cloud enables organizations to achieve three times the operating-model agility. This agility facilitates faster implementation of use cases, streamlines workflows, and reduces research and development costs.
• Data collection and automation: The cloud offers robust capabilities for data collection, analysis, and automation across all aspects of printing operations. By leveraging cloud technologies, organizations can accelerate the collection of printing data, enabling better decision-making and driving automation initiatives.

The cloud acts as a catalyst for operational excellence, supporting data-driven decision-making and propelling the printing industry forward.

Allocate Printing Costs

You can use print monitoring software to assign printing costs to different departments or projects. This helps financial analytics understand how printing expenses are spread throughout the organization, which allows them to decide how to distribute resources more effectively. By analyzing the data collected by the print monitoring software, they make informed decisions on how to manage printing costs and allocate resources efficiently. This also gives them insight into the printing trends within the organization, allowing them to identify areas where cost-saving measures can be implemented.

Ratio of Employee Burden

The cost of paying your staff is effectively the employee burden rate. Printer maintenance can consume a significant amount of company time due to paper jams, connectivity issues, toner replacement, and other issues. Also, if one of your staff is occupied with a printer problem, it implies they can’t be used elsewhere.

Employee productivity might be significantly impacted by problems such as printing papers of poor quality and having a printer that loses network connectivity. These printing expenses can quickly mount up in small organizations in terms of productivity. Since there isn’t a designated IT/print specialist, a worker with some technological know-how is frequently given the additional role. Moreover, print-related issues might create missed deadlines and staff discontent. Even if these problems aren’t specifically listed in a budget, they still have an impact on your revenue.

Let’s Connect!

The potential for optimizing your printing costs is vast, and businesses have only just begun exploring its possibilities. If you’re interested in exploring this area but don’t know where to start, First Line Software’s team is here to assist you. We can guide you through the available printing software options, assess your business’s requirements, and help you select the best fit for your needs.