The vast majority of European office workers have wireless access in the workplace but few use it to its full potential, according to research from Lexmark International.
Whilst seven out of ten staff have the technology in their office, half admit they still use traditional cables to link with their printers. Lack of technical knowledge and wireless security fears were cited as the main reasons behind the failure to use wireless printing at work.
The survey found that 29 percent of people think it is too difficult to set up their printers wirelessly and 19 per cent believe the connection may not be secure. Six percent of the respondents said they didn’t use wireless technology as they wouldn’t want to share their printer with any of their colleagues. For those who do use wireless networks to link with their printers, almost half (47 per cent) said they shared the equipment with five or more colleagues. ?
“Companies are missing out on the financial and environmental benefits that wireless printing can bring,” said Steve Purdy, Country General Manager at Lexmark UK. “By implementing such technology, many companies are able to financially rationalize the hardware they require by linking additional users to each printer more easily than before,” said Purdy.
Mr Purdy also stated that: “Lexmark’s inkjet products all support WEP/WPA/WPA2 wireless security standards, allowing users to print securely over their IT networks once a device has been added and secured with the user’s existing router password. And, they are designed for easy installation with little technical knowledge required.”??