As much as the mighty office printer helps make the workplace run that much more efficiently and successfully, it can also cause a lot of headaches. From simple paper jams to the cost of printing, to more complex IT issues, the office printer can be frustrating to deal with. If your printer gives you more than a few weekly headaches, you’re not alone. Research from our Consumer Insights Survey 2016 shows that for 40.95% of office workers, IT related issues are one of the most frustrating things about their office. More specifically, 30.09% of office workers say that printing issues are the biggest IT frustration.
If we look a little deeper into the stats, we found that lost productivity, trying to troubleshoot printing errors (23.2%), cost of printing (22.7%) and having to replace toner frequently (21.5%) are the biggest annoyances when it comes to printing issues. The good news is that there are easy solutions to these frustrations and in this article, we are going to reveal how you can get back on good terms with your office printer.
How to boost office productivity through printing
There never seems to be enough hours in the day, so it is understandable that many small businesses are frustrated by lost productivity that comes with troubleshooting printing errors. The solution? Invest in a modern, multifunction device that not only streamlines operations and relieves costs, but also boosts office productivity. Technology is never going to work seamlessly without any issues whatsoever, but there are ways you can reduce the amount of office time you spend troubleshooting, and that is through investing in the latest printing technology available.
Advancements in technology have transformed the simple office printer into a powerful device, that once you invest in it, you’ll wonder how your office ever functioned without it. The Fuji Xerox Smart@Work series offers a multitude of benefits for SMEs, from improving office workflow to safeguarding your business against data corruption. For example, the Smart@Work Series allows you to transform a manual, paper-based work process into an automated, streamlined business workflow all at the touch of the button. It also backs up invaluable company information in real time, so you can rest easy knowing you will never lose or misplace an important document or fax again. These are just some of the productivity boosting benefits of our Smart Series.
Reducing the cost of printing
The cost of printing was revealed as the second most frustrating office printing issue, but there are many ways that your business can save costs when it comes to printing. One such way is through MPS or Managed Print Services. MPS is a new category of business outsourcing, particularly in the SME sector. It can save businesses a large amount of money, which is what makes it so popular. MPS focuses on outsourcing the maintenance, management and support of your printers to a professional third party for a set per-page price every month. The great thing about this is that you only pay for the pages you print. Apart from saving money on printing costs, there are other major benefits of MPS solutions, including:
- Reduce your carbon footprint. MPS solutions include implementing strategies to reduce your company’s carbon footprint by reducing the amount of paper your office uses.
- Free up IT resources. IT is often a company’s most expensive resource. So, instead of receiving endless calls from frustrated employees with printer issues, your IT team can focus on bigger company issues like security.
- Better office productivity. An effective MPS solution can boost productivity in many ways. For example, employees will have less down time from printers that are broken or out of toner.
An easy fix to making your toner last longer
If you’ve ever found that you burn through cartridges at lightning speed, that the colours are sometimes off and you need to have your printer serviced more often than usual, there is probably a simple explanation. It’s likely you are using non-genuine toners. Many small businesses try and source cheap consumables in order to save money, however, doing so actually costs your business more in the long run. From lower page yield to machine downtime and lasting damage to your printer, using non-genuine toners is exceedingly more expensive in the long run and not worth the ‘cheaper’ upfront cost. So how can you tell the difference between non-genuine and genuine toner?
Genuine Toner
Genuine toner cartridges – also known as OEM cartridges (Original Equipment Manufacturer) – are cartridges made specifically by the company that built your printer. OEM toner and cartridges are designed to work with your specific printer, whereas non-genuine or remanufactured cartridges are not.
Non-Genuine Toner
Non-genuine toner is manufactured by third party suppliers who say their toners are ‘compatible’ with certain printers, when in reality, they aren’t. Generally, non-genuine toners are recycled from used toner cartridges, with parts replaced by reduced quality alternatives.
One of the main reasons small businesses purchase non-genuine toners is because they think it’s saving them money. But in reality, non-genuine toner runs out faster meaning you’re spending more money in the long run, the print job will be of poor quality and will more than likely make your sales proposal, marketing flyer, product brochure, customer newsletter or business plan look inferior to your competition. The solution? Stick to genuine toner. Your printer and employees will thank you!
