When it comes to better budget management, most small and medium business (SMB) owners will turn their attention to employee wages, inventory, or other hard costs. Concerns about printing costs rarely open the conversation.
They should.
With their minds typically focused on big picture goals like revenue and growth objectives, it’s easy for perceived small budget items to fall by the wayside. What few SMB owners realize is that printing and document management represent approximately 15% of an SMB’s overall IT budget and accounts for at least 12% of IT resources1. That’s by no means a small portion, and it is one that could significantly impact the budget – for better or for worse.
Why Print Still Matters – Even in a Digital World
While initially it might seem like switching to 100% digital workflows is the fast track to efficiency and reduced spend, the reality is that 40% of business processes are still document-driven2, and likely to remain so.
Look around your office. Odds are paper plays a more important role than you may have realized. It’s also an opportunity you’d never imagined. Document Management is about more than just reduced cost printing. It’s about ensuring that information flows throughout your organization in a smooth, predictable, efficient way. It’s about making sure your team has what they need, when they need it, enabling a productive work environment, greater cost efficiency, and best of all, happy customers and employees.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Print Infrastructure
It may seem overwhelming, but the measure of your print environment can be broken down into three areas. To make sure you’re getting the most out of your print infrastructure, start by considering how information flows in your organization. Are there gaps that need to be filled? Or perhaps functional areas that could benefit from simple improvements? What are the returns that could make a difference? For most organizations, the questions should look like this:
- Return on Investment. Are you spending the right amount on print? If you’re not sure of the answer, then it’s probably no. The right Managed Print Services program can save you up to 30% by assessing your devices (everything from volume and make to who is using them and how) and giving you a detailed report and recommendation that will fundamentally change the way your team prints (while also getting those dusty old inkjets out of your store room)
- Return on end user productivity. Everyone wants an easier way to do their job, but no one wants to learn a complicated new system (or have work interrupted while it is integrated). An experienced MPS provider can connect your team to the right systems and processes in a friction-free way, saving time, energy and stress. They’ll also help you with challenges like integrating mobile and cloud.
- Return on IT effort. Did you know that 40-60% of helpdesk calls are print related? That means that your IT department is spending half their time troubleshooting (and dealing with unhappy people!) An effective Managed Print Services program can ensure that you have the right tools to minimize the time they’re spending on print issues, freeing them up for more important things.
With so much to think about, why not let us help you take at least one thing off your list? Download our e-book Anatomy of An Intelligent Print Environment and find out everything you need to know about managing your print infrastructure in a way that works for your organization. From the real costs of broken processes to finding the right MPS provider, this e-book is a deep dive into the three returns that matter most when it comes to your print environment. Download it today and take your first step to smoother, more predictable processes (and happier people).
1. Quocirca SMB MPS Study Europe USA High Level Exec Summary, January 2014↩
2. Poor document processes lead to significant business risk, IDC↩
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[…] approximately 15% of an SMB’s overall IT budget and accounts for at least 12% of IT resources1. That’s by no means a small portion, and it is one that could significantly impact the budget – […]
[…] approximately 15% of an SMB’s overall IT budget and accounts for at least 12% of IT resources1. That’s by no means a small portion, and it is one that could significantly impact the budget – […]