No matter when your fiscal year begins, periodic budget reviews are a key part of ensuring your government agency stays on track financially. Around the halfway point of your budget cycle, it's important to assess how well funds are holding up—and whether key operational processes like printing are contributing to unnecessary costs.
This period presents a smart opportunity to evaluate and optimize your print infrastructure. Here are two strategies that can help government offices increase efficiency and reduce print-related spending:Strategy #1: Minimize Downtime Using Predictive Maintenance
Printers and copiers are essential equipment in any government agency. Printing crucial paperwork like government reports, tax forms, applications for permits, and other documents is vital for operations, but what if printers suddenly went offline mid-operation because of empty toner cartridges? Naturally, there would be delays, and since delays lead to inefficiency, higher costs.
To reduce the chances of this happening, we recommend availing of Managed Print Services (MPS). MPS focuses on optimizing printing tools to ensure they are not only efficient but also continuously working well. MPS automatically assesses toner content in copiers and evaluates printer performance to identify any components that require replacement.
With this solution, your agency can schedule printer maintenance ahead of the busiest seasons, resulting in a more efficient workflow and lower costs overall.
Strategy #2: Simplify the Documentation Process
Proper documentation is critical for every government agency. You need to manage the life cycle of your documents and their safe storage before the time they need to be shredded (if at all).
Unfortunately, documentation comes with some inefficiencies that need to be dealt with. For one, there are still government agencies that use traditional storage systems such as filing cabinets. Secondly, documents usually need to be printed for inter-department collaboration.
Current workflow systems could benefit from a simplified process, including a digital storage system that organizes the flow of documents. Fortunately, this is addressed by the Document Management System (DMS), a print solution designed to centralize documents in a single repository while providing opportunities for collaboration. With the DMS, document handling is more streamlined. It also equates to lower costs because it reduces the need to print with larger volumes of paper.
Making These Strategies Real With Help
If your government agency would like to benefit from managed print services and/or a document management system, you’ll need a trusted print solutions provider like SumnerOne.
Leveraging our more than seven decades of experience in helping thousands of organizations—including government agencies—in the Midwest, SumnerOne offers tailored business technology solutions that can optimize your government agency’s print processes and more.
If you’d like to discuss what solutions would be most useful for your agency’s needs, reach out to our team!