Green Office Blog

Think twice before opting for bartered sponsorship deals for your school with Office Automation companies. 

These days there appears to be a trend with Office Automation companies offering sponsorship to schools in order to obtain their business, the question and concern this raises with me is “Who is actually paying for the sponsorship, the Office Automation Company or the School?”

I recently engaged with a school that was offered what seemed to be a great sponsorship deal in return for their business. However, upon investigation it turned out that the rates the school were paying had been highly inflated and were laden with high finance costs on their hardware rentals. This resulted in the school (unbeknownst to them) ending up paying for their sponsored incentive.

Written by James Tooley in collaboration with Zandalee Naude (Smarketing Leader)

Everyone knows pushing print is easy, many people don’t know that controlling and managing it is also easy and has many benefits!  Controlling cost and reducing waste are key objectives of any print strategy and there is a simple, effective way of achieving them.

Schools are trying to find ways of cutting down printing expenditure without having to compromise educational standards, so it is only natural that material resources are the first place to look when trying to save money.

Who hasn't wanted to take out their frustrations on the ever-failing office printer? From confusing error messages and always-empty ink cartridges to unfixable paper jams. Today's printers are a source of frustration and angst for most, and yet we can't go without them either.

Can we ever understand the true cost of downtime in an organisation? The only way to do this is to get a grip on what downtime really costs. The first step is to define what “downtime” means, which is “system unavailability”. Even if an application is “up and running”, it is still considered downtime if the application can’t be used.  

I have been in the office automation environment for 15 years and I still love what I do. From the early days of calling on customers to sell re-manufactured laser print cartridges, to our current focus on selling a win-win outcomes-based solution, I am amazed at how this industry has progressed and I am excited about the road ahead.

According to Gartner, by 2020, 80% of IT infrastructure modernisation projects will fall short of cost saving targets because of an inability to simplify and address unnecessary complexity.

To be able to address this complexity, and meet cost savings targets in today’s competitive commercial landscape, businesses need to adapt to best practice. In IT Infrastructure, this means that it is crucial that I&O (Infrastructure and Operations) leaders have clear strategies in place for current and future business’ operations.

Print assessments have become somewhat of a standard in the Office Automation industry. It’s not uncommon for copier salesman to compare current spend to a new solution and advise on the savings available, should you sign on the dotted line.

The problem here is that the print estate is not looked at in its entirety. Only then will you see the current state compared to where you could be.

Every year, tons of paper is used in workplaces all over the world, in both large and small offices. Many of these offices have actively taken up recycling, but even though it is an inexpensive and environmentally conscious option, a much more cost-effective strategy is to reduce daily paper consumption.