If it seems like the world turned upside down this year, likely it is because it was the case for most business owners in 2020. Around 88% of organizations encouraged their employees to work from home when COVID-19 broke out around the world in March. Now, as many employees are beginning to return to the office, as many as 74% of businesses are planning to shift some of their employees to work from home on a permanent basis.
The shift to increasing Work from Home (WFH) strategies presents new challenges for owners when it comes to employee expense reports, including the cost of print in the home office. While many employers are now saving considerably as they downsize overabundant office space and reduce overall in-office expenditures, managing the expenses of employees home print requires additional review.
Many employees are still expensing work-related supplies for their work from home staff and in many cases may be overpaying for low-yield inkjet office supplies. Some on color devices that run through ink supplies at a much higher rate than mono laser printers. The addition of a growth in personal color prints on these devices creates another dilemma when reconciling authentic business expenses. In many cases, black-and-white printers may be adequate in most business-related print requirements from home office. As a result, many business owners are now providing remote workers higher yield laser printers and supplies to provide more cost effective printing solutions for their remote workforce.
One solution some manufacturers and resellers have created to enhance the savings is providing bundled printer solutions that contain more than just one starter toner. Canon USA introduced the MF269DW Value Pack this summer for their black-and-white 30 page per minute print, scan, copy, fax multi-function device. Canon has included with the MFP two high-capacity OEM toners providing additional up front savings to the consumer. The entire bundle has retail price less than $350 and the high-yield toners will provide over 8,000 pages of prints before requiring the first purchase of a replacement toner.
Lexmark single-function and multi-function laser printers assure security built in to every device and their print solutions. Every printer meets industry and government security standards and provide business owners another trusted option keeping employees at home print solutions secure. The Lexmark B3442dw is a 42 page per minute wireless print solution with extra high-yield toners offering users up to 6,000 prints before needing new supply replenishment. Lexmark solutions such as the B3442dw are available for less than $350 retail.
Leveraging a managed print solution to monitor remote printer usage is also something more employers are beginning to utilize for remote employee print environments. Evaluating the use of mono versus color print and measuring the usage of remote devices is critical in controlling company cost by a growing number of business owners. ARLINGTON’s Ctrl-Prt (Control-Print) managed print solution provides monitoring solution for both in office or remote fleet of printers to provide a better perspective of printer use and forecast for supply renewals. The solution requires a simple, secure DCA installation on a local or network computer and then print usage is accessible on cloud-based portal by approved users of Ctrl-Prt within your organization. Private and secure to those that require access to this information and develop cost-efficient policy in supply replenishment to remote workers.
Many WFH employees still require the ability to print documents on sensitive media such as certified documents, statements, or payable checks. TROY Group secure printing solutions provide an array of locking printers providing security for those workers requiring access to sensitive forms from home office or mobile locations. The TROY Group Mobile 200 bundle is an example of mobile printing solution consisting of a mobile printer, MICR ink cartridge and check stock media is useful package for those required to process checks on the road. Many insurance companies and other businesses requiring this versatility utilizing the TROY Group array of security printers.
Be sure to find the solutions that work best for your clients and share the value in savings substantiated in laser print options for remote workforce.
