An article discusses the need for printers by workers in paperless offices.
CMS Wire reported that digital workplaces are “creating new challenges”, and that the evolution has generated “new questions about optimising employee productivity”, noting that offices have gone from being “rigid and fixed to remote”, and are more flexible due to digital technology, but that this does not mean tradition should be totally ignored.
The mobile workforce is more productive when they can take their “tools” with them, the article said, and studies show that there is still a desire to print. IDC asked workers of all ages in a survey how often they printed, and 65 percent said “very frequently”, equal to three to four times weekly. The same study found that millennials are “twice as likely to print jobs that run from six to 15 pages, compared with respondents 36 and older”.
Paperless offices are still far from reality, the report noted, and said that the “solution is mobile printing”, which allows workers to be more productive and gives them “new ways to accomplish tasks”. According to InfoTrends’ “studies in the US and Europe in 2014 and 2015, respectively, most business users want the ability to print from their mobile devices”.
However this potential was not reached due to a lack of knowledge of where accessible printers were situated, and “technical connectivity problems to the printer”.
Printed documents are more accessible than those stored in the cloud and easier to pick up and go, and they can “also be easier to read than a document on a small screen”, but if an employee does not use a PC connected to a network printer, printing can be a burden.
Printing from mobile devices has made the Bring Your Own Device (BOYD) culture more productive in that with connectivity employees can print from anywhere, and if PCs were to become obsolete everyone would need “mobile print capabilities” across all devices.
In conclusion the article noted that the digital world was meant to “solve problems, create efficiencies, and foster communication and productivity”, and that mobile workers can be challenged by not having the same capabilities as those of an office PC and printer. However, this could be standardised by everyone having mobile printing connected to all the devices in the workplace, as even if it is an unconventional set-up they could still have the same capabilities that are expected in an office at work.