Strategies/tools for controlling spending in printing

We went through a similar deal and ended up with "social justice" if that's even a catchphrase.

We had no desire to deal with extensive logging/reporting or the time it would take to arrest and convict someone of printer abuse.

So...we ended up doing the following:

  • Put signs on all of the printers that stated "Think Green and control spending! Please use the printers and copiers for work purposes only. Print in black and white and double sided when you can. NOTE: all print jobs are logged and weekly reports are sent to management to maintain adherence to the printing policy."
  • Set everyone's default printing to black and white even on the color copier/printers.

All of a sudden our printing costs dropped dramatically, especially for color printing which is the most expensive.

Even though we aren't actually doing any logging/reporting, the little white lie that we are is enough to make most people not abuse the printers.

Tags:

Printing