How much does it cost to print a document? Not too much usually – a few pence per sheet, for most organisations. But how many people are spending that much every few seconds throughout the day, every day? Those few pence can stack up, resulting in a huge document printing cost for businesses – an outgoing that really isn’t necessary in today’s increasingly digital world.
From printing emails to keeping paper records of files that could be managed digitally, the price for printing documents is only going to continue rising unless organisations start to make changes. Read on to discover how much document printing costs, and how going paperless can power your business’ digital transformation.
How Much Does Document Printing Cost?
While the price for printing documents is typically just a few pence a time, this quickly adds up, especially in large organisations where everyone is printing out several files, several times a day. The figures soon mount up, which means that each team member’s individual document printing cost can be significant. Statistics show:
- £700 is the average spend per employee per year on document printing
- The average employee prints around 8,000-10,000 sheets per year
- 3 out of 4 office workers print documents directly from the internet
- The average cost of printing for a company with £10 million in revenue is between £100,000 and £300,000, according to Gartner[1]
- Document printing costs are often the third highest operational expense for businesses after rent and payroll
- Employees each print 6 wasted pages a day on average – that’s 1,410 wasted pages per person per year
- 4 prints are typically made for every photocopied page
- It costs £74 in average to search for every lost document
- 90% of businesses do not know what their total document printing cost is and significantly underestimate it, Gartner found
Are We All Paying the Price for Printing Documents?
The price for printing documents isn’t just financial – it’s environmental too. Did you know that one tree produces around 8,000 sheets of paper? That means the average office worker is printing out the equivalent of one tree every year. There’s a huge environmental impact associated with document printing – something that’s becoming more and more unnecessary in our increasingly digital world.
There’s also a time element to an organisation’s total document printing cost. Time is money, and the time spent connecting to the printer, actually printing the document, dealing with any printer errors, and safely destroying the paper document can add up too. Digitising files via a digital document management system removes this risk, and can help to save money too. Reducing the volume of documents being printed really can impact your bottom line.
What’s more, the price of printing documents can potentially even extend to significant fines for failure to comply with legislation such as GDPR. Leaving sensitive documents lying around or failing to destroy them properly can be a serious GDPR breach, which can reach millions of pounds.
Go Digital, Save Money, Support the Environment
The risks associated with the price of printing documents can be eliminated by going digital. Our document scanning services can help you to digitise paper documents, removing the risk of data breaches, while encouraging all team members to adopt a paperless, digital-first mindset.
In addition, using an electronic document management system allows businesses to manage files digitally, meaning there’s no need to print documents, saving money and resources, while supporting the environment too.
Further reduce the document printing cost for your organisation by moving to a digital mailroom, which will scan all of your paper-based post for you, so you only receive it in a digital format.
Start your journey to a digital future today.
Get in touch with the Restore Digital team to find out how we can support you.
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