Many businesses look for ways to trim overhead without sacrificing productivity. One area that often goes overlooked is printing. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, paper and paperboard make up more than 23 percent of total municipal solid waste, and the direct costs of office paper, ink, toner, and printer maintenance can quietly drain thousands of dollars from an annual budget. Phasing out wasteful printing practices and adopting a more streamlined paperless strategy is one of the smartest moves a business can make.
Today, we will go over some tips to help you start moving away from the cost and headache of the printer.
Use More than One Monitor
The first way to cut down on paper copies is by expanding your display space. Research consistently shows that dual-monitor setups improve worker productivity significantly, in large part by reducing the need to toggle between documents and windows on a single screen. That constant alt-tab shuffle is exactly what drives people to print reference material. By utilizing a dual-monitor setup, you can pull up multiple documents at once and work across all of them without ever touching the printer.
Use Application-Based Options
For nearly every business need, there is an application that can make the task easier and eliminate the paper entirely. Cloud platforms and modern workplace solutions give teams the ability to collaborate in real time, from any device, removing the need to circulate printed copies of projects or presentations. Tools included in Microsoft 365, such as OneDrive, SharePoint, and OneNote, allow staff to co-author documents, manage notes, and share files digitally, without printing a single page.
Put Print Policies in Place
With the right tools in place to reduce the need for paper, the next step is implementing strong printing policies that limit physical printer access across your organization. By requiring authorization between your network and your printers, you can substantially reduce printer and copier use and bring down paper, ink, and toner consumption at the same time.
You can also layer in practical strategies: printing on both sides of a sheet, adjusting fonts and margins to reduce page counts, and defaulting to draft-quality output. Simply put, you won’t see the full cost benefit if ink and toner consumption stays the same while paper use drops.
Digitize Your Backups
Not being able to find an important file is frustrating, which is why many businesses still rely on physical folders and printed hard copies. All those extra steps add up to extra expense. By digitizing your data and storing it securely in the cloud, you get access from virtually any device, from anywhere, and your files won’t be lost, misfiled, or destroyed. Your data will be where you put it, reliably and permanently.
Take the First Step Toward a Paperless Office
Going paperless does not require an overnight overhaul. Start with one more monitor, move your team collaboration into the cloud, and put a simple print authorization policy in place. Those three changes alone can produce meaningful savings on paper, toner, printer maintenance, and physical storage, and free up your team to focus on work that actually moves the business forward.
If you are ready to modernize your technology and reduce unnecessary overhead, the IT professionals at WheelHouse IT are here to help. Give us a call today: Florida: (954) 474-2204 | New York: (516) 536-5006
