Quick question. Do you know how much your business spends on printing each year?
Not the cost of toner.
Not the cost of paper.
We mean everything.
Every page. Every color print. Every device. Every department. Every supply. Every service call. Every document that gets printed and immediately tossed into the recycling bin.
If your answer is, “Not exactly,” you’re in good company.
Printing is one of those business expenses that tends to fly under the radar. It happens all day, every day, so it can be easy to overlook just how much it adds up.
And that’s exactly why Print Management from Applied Innovation is worth a closer look.
Print Management gives you greater visibility and control over how your organization prints, helping you track usage, manage costs, reduce waste, and protect sensitive documents.
What Print Management Can Tell You About Your Business
Your printers know things.
They know which departments are printing hundreds of pages every week.
They know who loves the color printer.
They know which devices are constantly being used and which ones seem to be collecting dust.
They know when someone prints a 75-page document and only needs two pages.
The problem is that most businesses don’t have an easy way to see all of that information in one place.
Print Management changes that.
Applied Innovation helps you see what’s happening across your print environment—from devices and users to usage and costs—so you can make smarter decisions.
Instead of looking at printing as one giant expense, you can start breaking it down into information you can actually use.
And once you can see what’s happening, you can do something about it.
Find Hidden Printing Costs
Think about your monthly business expenses.
Rent.
Utilities.
Technology.
Supplies.
Payroll.
Now think about printing.
It’s probably somewhere in there, but do you know exactly where the money is going?
Print Management can help uncover those hidden costs.
Maybe one department is printing significantly more than expected.
Maybe several employees are sending jobs to a high-cost color device.
Maybe your organization has more devices than it actually needs.
Maybe you’re paying to maintain equipment that’s barely being used.
Those little inefficiencies can add up quickly.
With better reporting and visibility, Applied Innovation can help identify where those opportunities exist so your organization can make informed decisions about its print environment.
Sometimes the Best Print Job Is the One You Never Print
We’re not saying you should stop printing.
That would be a little strange coming from us.
But there’s a difference between necessary printing and printing simply because you can.
Print Management can help organizations create policies that encourage smarter printing habits.
For example, you can establish rules around:
Color printing
Double-sided printing
Print volume
User permissions
Department usage
Print quotas
The goal isn’t to put your employees in print jail.
It’s to make the default choice a smarter one.
When unnecessary printing decreases, your organization can potentially reduce paper use, toner consumption, and overall print costs at the same time.
Secure Print Release Solves the Printer Tray Problem
We’ve all seen it.
Someone prints a document.
They get distracted.
They forget about it.
The document sits there.
Then someone else walks by.
Now a potentially confidential document is sitting out in the open.
That’s not just annoying.
It can be a security concern.
Secure Print Release helps solve that problem by keeping a print job from being released until the authorized user is physically at the device and ready to retrieve it.
Instead of:
Send → Print → Hope Nobody Sees It
You get:
Send → Secure Queue → Authenticate → Print
It’s a simple change that can make a big difference when your employees are printing sensitive information.
Your Print Environment Should Work With Your Security Strategy
Businesses spend a lot of time thinking about cybersecurity.
Passwords.
Multifactor authentication.
Firewalls.
Data protection.
Employee access.
But physical documents are still part of the security conversation.
A secure digital file isn’t very secure if the printed copy is sitting unattended on a shared device.
Print Management can help organizations bring their physical document workflows into the bigger security picture through tools such as secure print release and user authentication.
For industries handling sensitive information, that extra layer of control can be especially important.
What Does That Look Like in the Real World?
Great Lakes Bay Health Centers needed to standardize printing across 28 locations while supporting patient privacy and HIPAA compliance.
Applied Innovation implemented badge-release Print Management, allowing print jobs to stay securely stored until employees were ready to retrieve them.
The result? Less printout pileup, stronger document security, and a more consistent print experience across locations.
It’s a good example of how a seemingly small change to the way people print can make a meaningful difference across an organization.
Build a Printer Fleet That Fits Your Business
Here’s another common print problem.
The printer fleet grows organically.
Someone needs a printer, so one gets added.
Another department moves offices, so another device appears.
A new employee starts, and suddenly there’s another desktop printer.
Years later, nobody is quite sure why there are 27 printers in the building.
Sound familiar?
Print Management can help organizations take a step back and look at the entire environment.
Which devices are being used?
Which ones are underused?
Where are employees walking too far to print?
Are there departments sharing devices efficiently?
Are certain machines doing far more work than others?
With this information, businesses can make smarter decisions about device placement and fleet size instead of simply adding another printer whenever a problem pops up.
Better Data. Smarter Print Decisions.
Instead of guessing, reporting gives you a clearer picture of usage by user, department, and device.
You can quickly see:
Who is printing the most
Where print costs are coming from
Which devices are working hardest
Where unnecessary printing can be reduced
Whether your current fleet still fits your needs
Better visibility makes it easier to set print policies, place devices where they make sense, and plan future technology investments.
It turns printing from a guessing game into something you can actually measure.
This Is Not Just About Cutting Costs
Saving money is great.
But Print Management can have a much bigger impact than the bottom line.
It can help organizations:
Improve visibility
Understand what’s happening across the print environment.
Reduce waste
Encourage smarter printing habits and reduce unnecessary output.
Improve security
Help protect sensitive documents through secure print workflows.
Increase accountability
Understand print activity by user, department, and device.
Make smarter technology decisions
Use real data to determine what equipment your organization actually needs.
Support sustainability goals
Reduce unnecessary paper and resource consumption.
That’s a pretty big list for something most people think of as “just printing.”
What Does Applied Innovation Bring to the Table?
This is where the Applied Innovation difference comes in.
You don’t need to become a print expert to get more control over your print environment.
Applied Innovation can help assess your current environment, identify opportunities, and develop a Print Management strategy that makes sense for your organization.
That means looking at more than just the machines.
We look at how your people actually use them.
Because the right solution for a 20-person office isn’t going to look the same as the right solution for a large organization with multiple locations and departments.
Your print environment should be built around how your business operates, not the other way around.
The Bottom Line
Printing isn’t going away anytime soon.
But printing without visibility?
That’s something you can change.
With Print Management, organizations can take a closer look at what’s being printed, who’s printing it, where it’s happening, and what it’s costing.
And once you have that information, you have something much more valuable than a stack of reports.
You have control.
So the next time someone asks, “How much are we spending on printing?”
You can finally have an answer.
That’s the power of Print Management.
Ready to See What Your Print Environment Is Really Doing?
You might be surprised by what you find.
Applied Innovation can help you take a closer look at your print environment, uncover opportunities, and build a smarter approach to managing your organization’s printing.
Because you can’t improve what you can’t see.
Ready to see what your printers have been trying to tell you? Let’s take a closer look at your print environment and explore a Print Management solution that fits your business.