Prepress

Oce Business Services Shares Winning Document Management Strategies in an Economic Downturn

Monday 20. October 2008 - The current global economic downturn will create challenges for enterprises well into 2009. Successful companies will implement strategies that will enable them to weather the storm and achieve a strong competitive edge in the eventual recovery.

Some experts point to outsourcing as one such strategy, which is likely to increase in 2009. Oce Business Services is sharing insights on how specific document management processes, whether outsourced or managed internally, can help organizations lower costs and streamline operations during a downturn.

These processes include enterprise-wide print/copy management. According to Gartner, most enterprises do not manage their office printers well, having too much and often the wrong equipment and supplies for their needs. Actively managing office printing can reduce spending by 10 percent to 30 percent while reaping real environmental benefits (“Key Issues for Print Management, 2008,” Pete Basiliere, March 2008).

Oce offers the following guidelines to help organizations implement print/copy management practices that can drive down costs, enhance productivity, and benefit the environment:

Leverage Workgroup Machines

Replacing personal desktop printers with workgroup MFPs (multifunction peripherals that combine print/copy/scan/fax functionality in one machine) shared by departments can have a strong positive impact. One financial services company replaced 1,100 copiers and printers and 1,000 fax machines with 400 MFPs. The initiative eliminated 1,700 machines that no longer consume resources based on their manufacture, transportation, operation, maintenance, and eventual disposal.

Eliminate Printing Banner Pages

A banner page is the extra page that prints before an employee’s file prints with username and machine name information. Gartner’s research estimates that organizations can reduce their consumables cost by up to 20 percent by eliminating banner pages from office print jobs. Banner pages can represent up to a quarter of pages printed for some typical office print jobs. A 1,000 person organization could cut up to 1.6 million pages and save $33,500 per year by eliminating banner page printing (“Cost Cutting Initiatives for Office Printing,” Sharon McNee and Ken Weilerstein, Feb. 2008.)

Implement Document Scanning

Instead of copying and storing physical documents, organizations can scan and store electronically. Employees can retain digital copies that they can distribute electronically, and at the same time avoid accumulating files filled with paper. As a conservative estimate, scanning can reduce paper consumption by one to three percent. In a survey underwritten by Oce Business Services, senior executives involved in document management indicated that document scanning has a high impact across the greatest range of business goals that include reducing costs, increasing competitive advantage, enhancing regulatory compliance, and improving customer service.

Encourage Duplex Printing

Most multi-page documents don’t require the text to be printed on one side of the page. Newspapers, magazines and books use both sides (duplex printing). Organizations can potentially decrease paper use by up to 50 percent by making duplex printing the norm, a move that can also help the environment. “We implemented a green campaign as a joint effort between the Bremer Facilities Group and Oce Business Services to reduce paper usage,” notes Dolores Hoffman, supervisor of administrative services and facilities management for Bremer Facilities Department. “Through initiatives such as moving print production to copiers that can print on both sides of a page, we have significantly reduced paper consumption and realized thousands of dollars in cost savings.”

Implement User Authentication

With as many as one in 10 documents sent to the printer and uncollected or sent again before collection to correct user errors, enterprises could reduce ad hoc print costs by up to 10 percent by implementing a PIN authentication system.

Save on Paper and Toner

Buying paper and toner in bulk can reduce transportation, packaging, and storage resources. Buying in bulk also often results in cost savings.