Before you hit 'print': Efficient document strategies for business

Thanks to innovations like ever-faster and more affordable PCs, smart phones and cloud computing, a small or mid-sized business today can enjoy an advanced IT infrastructure unimaginable even five or 10 years ago. One “perk of the future” that has yet to be delivered, though, is the paperless office.

In fact, far from becoming paperless, many organizations today use way more paper than they ever have. In the US, for example, even with a recycling rate of nearly 63 percent for all paper used in 2010, a full 29 percent of the municipal solid waste stream – 71 million tons – was paper and paperboard products. And since 1980, the Economist reports, “global paper consumption has increased by half.”

The Economist blames at least part of that growing consumption on regulatory requirements. For example, Belgium — which is home to the headquarters of the European Union — comes in at a world-high average paper footprint of 8.51 40-foot trees consumed per person per year.

“(P)aper consumption is pushed up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, which must produce its documentation in an array of different languages,” the Economist notes. (Why most of those documents couldn’t simply be produced in electronic form is a question the publication doesn’t tackle.)

Whatever the reason, though, it’s clear most SMEs are using much more paper (and, consequently, spending more on paper supplies) than they could. In fact, one study found that “organizations probably spend a lot more money (and time) using paper than they do to buy the paper itself.” (In one business case, it was 31 times more.) This includes the expense of, for instance, mailing paper reports after they’re printed.

Fortunately, there are a number of IT strategies businesses can pursue to start scaling back on printing-related consumption and cost:

• Emailing documents rather than printing and mailing them;
• Storing documents electronically rather than as paper files;
• Using cloud-based document programs like Google Documents or Dropbox to share reports online;
• Duplexing (printing on both sides) for documents that absolutely must be printed;
• Using optimum margin settings (depending on the program you’re using — Word, Excel, etc. — do a quick Google search first for the most efficient approach);
• Optimizing settings for document features like font sizes and bullet lists to minimize wasted space.

Businesses can also cut their ink footprint and expense by using more efficient fonts for must-print documents. Tests by Printer.com, for example, found that using 10-point Century Gothic reduced printing costs by 31 percent when compared to Arial. Businesses can also choose from several “eco” font programs (Ecofont, Dimples) that incorporate tiny ink-free spaces into characters or use special ink-bleed strategies to reduce the amount of ink that goes into printing a variety of fonts.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.