As a print management specialist, it’s nearly impossible to talk about reducing print costs without discussing PaperCut. After all, the biggest culprit behind unnecessarily high printing costs is product waste. PaperCut was perfectly designed to combat this all too common money waster—and then some.
In fact, with PaperCut, companies can expect to reduce their overall print volume by at least 20% in the first year! That’s because what really drives print costs isn’t necessarily the printers themselves. Instead, prices are mostly determined by the behaviors of the end-users.
By utilizing a software platform like PaperCut, users can fully grasp what’s truly happening within your print environment. Through analytics, data tracking, etc., it’s easier than ever to understand what’s actually being printed and how that translates to your final print costs.
It also offers users simple options and safeguards. These options help employees choose smarter, more affordable ways to print their documents without compromising quality or hindering their workflow.
What Does PaperCut Do?
PaperCut is a software solution that tracks what your company’s end users are printing in its simplest form. Thanks to rich, detailed reporting, it’s possible to observe and monitor print use all the way down to the user level.
So, why is it necessary to track print use in the first place?
Because unmonitored printing and copying gets pricey fast—and often for entirely preventable reasons. For example, though most emails don’t need to be printed at all, they definitely shouldn’t be printed in full color. Instead, users should either skip printing emails entirely or at least print them double-sided, which is also called duplexing.
With PaperCut, a managed print specialist can accurately see how often individual users choose to print emails using these cost-saving methods and how often they’re not. With this knowledge, companies can begin promoting smarter printing choices, many of which will almost instantly start saving your company money.
By partnering with a managed print specialist (MPS), your business also receives expert analysis and reporting, plus in-depth recommendations on creating a better, more affordable print environment.
In short, PaperCut offers valuable, detailed information about printing habits so any business has the ability to make smarter, well-informed, and cost-saving decisions.
What Can PaperCut Do to Control Print Costs?
PaperCut literally has hundreds—if not thousands—of ways to lower your print costs. One of the most popular methods includes the installation of a badge release system. After the system has been installed at every print device, this small upgrade will quickly make a massive difference at your company.
Security
First off, badge release systems increase your business’ print security. Today, many businesses use key fobs or badges to get into the office as a way to monitor who has access to the building. Why not use the same logic for print devices? After all, they too carry and print sensitive information.
PaperCut’s two-step authentication and badge system solves this problem fast! With a card, fob, or badge reader installed on the device, every print job is first sent and held within the cloud. Only once the user verifies their identity at the device, is the print job completed.
This ensures sensitive information doesn’t sit in the printer’s output tray for anyone besides the user to see (or even steal).
But how does security contribute to savings? Because data and security breaches are expensive! From the minor costs of time wasted while searching for important, lost documents to a catastrophic meltdown after your customer’s personal information was stolen from hackers, it’s easy to forget how pivotal printers are to security and to savings.
Reduces Waste
Let’s be honest—how often have you sent a page into the print queue only to realize there was an error or edit needed? But since you’ve already clicked “Print,” that paper and the ink are already wasted.
PaperCut’s two-step authentication and badge system solve this problem fast! Since users must physically be at the device to approve the job, you’ll also have the ability to cancel any print job. Just imagine the ink and paper you’ll save with that extra check.
PaperCut can also be set up to purge any documents sent into the queue but never canceled or approved to be printed. This can be programmed to occur daily, weekly, monthly—essentially within whatever time frame works best for your business.
Better yet, there’s no need to just imagine how much money these systems have saved your company. With a managed print service analyzing your costs and savings through PaperCut, you’ll actually see an exact number. This will include both your overall savings and a more detailed breakdown of savings through purges, canceled jobs, duplexing, etc.
Lastly, if your company doesn’t use access cards or key fobs but you’re interested in this system, worry not. PaperCut also offers a pin code version of this service.
PaperCut Promotes Smarter Print Habits
Most employees idealistically agree on promoting a smarter, more efficient print environment. However, most employees are also really busy—perhaps even too busy to change lifelong print habits.
PaperCut gets that. So, they’ve devised multiple ways to make instilling these new habits as easy as possible.
For example, the program includes hundreds of rules that an organization can pick from. A popular rule includes a pop-up box that notifies users if they’re setting up a print job larger than, say, 20 pages in size. The pop-up not only asks the user if they’d like to choose the duplex option but also states how much the company will save by doing so.
These rules are also fully customizable. They can be a suggestion as seen above or even a hard rule that forces large jobs to be duplexed.
Which Companies Should Consider PaperCut?
Any company running within a paper-intensive environment would likely benefit from PaperCut. However, every business and its workflow differs so there’s no cut-and-dry answer.
A law firm might only employ ten people, but they’re printing hundreds of pages daily. They’d almost certainly see significant savings with PaperCut. On the flip side, a massive digitally-based brand might print next to nothing which would make the investment unnecessary.
In order to determine if PaperCut’s right for a business, a managed print specialist will conduct a thorough print environment and page volume analysis. By considering the average 20% drop in print volume, they’ll calculate whether or not the savings are worth the cost of the new system.
Last but not least, one of our favorite benefits of PaperCut is that it’s a cost-savings software that often pays for itself.
How much you ask?? Use this handy PaperCut ROI Calculator and get an instant estimate of how much your company can expect to save.
Wonder if PaperCut is the right solution for your company? The expert print management team at imageOne would love to help you find out. Schedule a 15-minute, no-pressure call with us today!
