Forecasts made by analysts several years ago concerning a decline in office paper consumption have not been true in practice. Gartner Institute research shows that paper usage in offices is growing by 21 percent a year, primarily due to computerization and the general availability of e-mail. People print more and more documents on demand. Even files sent by e-mail are printed, and not read on the computer screen. People have a deeply rooted need for paper documents, which explains the failure of electronic paper, or flexible sheets made of special material on which data transferred from the computer could be displayed.

More e-mails means more paper
According to the authors of The Myth of the Paperless Office, the introduction of e-mail has increased paper usage at offices by an average of 40 percent. In recent years, the trend was reinforced, due to the greater availability of color printers resulting in more opportunities offered by in-house printing. From the point of view of an organization, increased paper usage is a cost linked with operations. At a time of cost cutting, more attention is devoted to finding savings in printing costs. According to Gartner Institute analysts, company interest in tools for printing control and optimization is at the level of 20-25 percent. IT departments look for software solutions allowing for printing cost optimization and for monitoring user activity in the network. Many companies use printing management systems offered by Oki Printing Solutions.

How to save paper
Planning effective paper usage in the office starts with making decision what equipment to purchase. "Before we begin cooperating with a client, our experts audit the client's equipment and the most frequently created documents. In our experience, clients are not interested in the initial costs of equipment purchase, but in the final result-the cost of a single printout," said Jacek Tarkiewicz, marketing manger of the Polish branch of Oki Printing Solutions. "This cost can be easily calculated if you use one of the applications of our system, which calculates the price of a printout depending, on, for example, color saturation."

Possible savings resulting from rationalization of printing systems reach an average 20-30 percent of the costs. In companies dealing with professional printing, such as graphic studios, savings may reach up to 70 percent, according to Tarkiewicz. Ideally, every company should analyze the needs of its departments before buying printing equipment. Each department-accountancy, marketing or sales-has different printing needs. For accountants, for example, tools guaranteeing printout safety are more important than color options. On the other hand, a marketing or sales department needs a high-quality color printer for preparing offers and presentations in color.

Another important feature involves optimum printout costs. Tools supplied by Oki Printing Solutions faciliate economical paper management. These programs provide more control over printed documents and more precise cost calculations. They can also establish printout limits for the office or individual users.

Managing printout costs
Print control software is supplied for free with practically all Oki Printing Solutions printer models. Its basic goal is to facilitate effective management of printout costs. This tool enables thorough monitoring of a given printing system. The network administrator receives information on the number of pages printed, the user and printing time, and even name of the file printed. If an analysis shows that the printer is improperly used, for example, for printing color photos from the Internet, the program applies the appropriate quantity or quality limits.

Print Control can limit the number of users authorized to make color printouts, for example, to include only company management and the marketing department. The administrator can also set color and black-and-white printout quotas for certain printer users. The software's additional advantage is that it controls not only Oki Printing Solutions, but also network printers from other manufacturers. If a given user is not authorized to print, they will be unable to connect to the printer, even through an USB or Centronics port.

Printing management solutions are effective tools in companies that want to effectively use resources and control printout costs. Even in a small network including under 20 users, it is impossible to guarantee optimal printer usage. That is why it is necessary to have equipment that monitors the quantity and cost of printouts for individual users, printers and printout types. This is particularly important with color printouts that are more expensive than black-and-white ones.

Oki adopts a global approach to printing costs management. "We not only deliver software for printing cost management," said Tarkiewicz. "We have developed a modern product, Oki Service Management. The main goal of our new approach is to shorten the document circulation time and reduce printing costs by up to 30 percent, according to Gartner Institute studies.


Jacek Tarkiewicz, marketing manager of the Polish subsidiary of Oki Printing Solutions:
According to Gartner Institute studies, paper usage at offices is increasing by 21 percent annually. Our response is a modern product, Oki Service Management. It reduces printing costs by up to 30 percent.