An article estimated that SMBs in London spend over £14,000 ($17,161/€16,307) per year.
B Daily reported that those offices using traditional methods of printing, storing document and filing can cost as much as £14,616 ($17,916/€17,024) a year, according to software developers Reckon’s research, and noted that the average office employee in the UK prints “6,000 sides of A4 each year”, totalling one ream per person a month.
The report also said that maintenance and running costs of printers averaged £148 ($181/€172) a month per employee, and that added to the cost of paper and printing as well as maintenance and safe storage of filing in cabinets, the total averages out as £698 ($855/€813) per cabinet. Research by Reckon, who developed Virtual Cabinet and Reckon One, said that a “typical filing cabinet takes up more than five square feet of commercial space including the space needed to open and operate the drawers”.
It added that this is “a significant cost when the average commercial rent of £115 ($140/€133) per square foot in London and £60 ($73/€69) per square foot in the wider UK is taken into account”, and this could cost £360 ($441/€419) a year, although the cost would be higher in major cities. As commercial rates continue to rise, rent is set to increase by 25 percent, which could mean that businesses in London pay as much as £863 ($1,057/€1,005) per cabinet per year.
Other research shows that there is an increase in “office-based employment”, so with continued growth the requirement for “office space and storage” will increase, and therefore the need for efficiency of the use of space will become more paramount.
Mark Wooley, Commercial Director at Reckon, commented: “The figures we’ve compiled highlight the high cost of printing and storing documents, especially for those in the accounting, legal, insolvency and property sectors. While these figures make for expensive reading, they don’t even begin to include other documentation expenses, such as postage, retrieval of documents onsite and/or off site at storage facilities along with the cost of time taken to manage filing cabinets.
“When every square foot matters in terms of cost and efficiency, it’s important to make the best possible use of an office space. Document storage can take up room which forces business owners to maintain a larger than necessary space and can stop a business from using its floor-space for more productive uses, such as meeting space or even a workstation for a new team member. Likewise a printer and its associated products can be a bulky addition to a tight office space.:
He also stated: “As we continue to move towards more digital ways of working, it’s surprising to see how many businesses still rely on paper documents. The savings made by digitalisation mean that much needed new colleagues can be hired or that the business can even downsize to more appropriate premises that will save serious money on rent.“