Many finance managers and directors, office managers, CIOs and IT managers need educating about opportunities for saving on printing, with 52 percent unaware of how it costs their business.
The figure rises to 66 percent for businesses “at the larger end of the SME spectrum”, while of those who do know what the costs are, 39 percent say their business is overspending because of unnecessary printing, according to the results of a survey by OKI.
44 percent of the SME respondents who were aware of printing overheads spend over £10,000 ($15,263/€13,362) a year on it, with 47 percent printing more than a standard box of paper per week.
There is also a tendency toward electronic workflows, with 85 percent using MFPs, while 65 percent use them to manage documents. Yet there are inefficiencies to be addressed here, with 30 percent of companies with between 500 and 1,000 employees saying their devices “actually hinder the workflow”.
A further 41 percent (rising to 61 percent for 100 to 249 employee-sized companies) outsource printing of business cards and/or other stationery. 39 percent said that they were able to print from mobile devices, with 44 percent of organisations in the 100 to 249 category and 47 percent in the 250 to 499 category able to print this way.
Larger organisations are capitalising even more on the new technology, with 86 percent from businesses with 500 to 1,000 staff suggesting mobile printing would impact their company.