VARs have major role to play in helping UK economy save £1bn a year

The channel should be advising businesses and public sector on print management, according to OKI

UK resellers could help to save the UK economy £1bn a year by advising customers on efficient business printing, vendor OKI Printing Solutions has claimed.

Research published today by economic research consultancy, cebr, and OKI has revealed that the UK spends around £5.3bn a year on outsourced printing and £11.4bn on printing materials in-house.

The report, Outsourced Printing – A Waste of Paper, identified the education sector as the largest potential benefactor with savings amounting to a possible £115m a year; an amount which could free up enough resources to fill existing teaching vacancies in the UK more than twice over, or buy 2.2 million primary school dinners, according to the report.

The public administration and defence sector could also save around £110m of the £510m it currently spends annually on printing, while banking and finance could save over £71m a year.

Chris Gill, managing director of OKI, said: “An obvious way for companies to reduce printing costs is to stop all unnecessary outsourced printing – of which over 20 per cent is never even used and then thrown out. However, making sure the basics are right is key."

"The channel has a job to do in creating better understanding among its clients of all the features and capabilities of printers. This includes ensuring they are correctly set up to minimise time and paper wastage; calling a halt to outsourced printing which should be done in-house; using ‘mono’ when documents don’t need to be in colour; and using ‘duplex’ for printing on both sides. All this could save an average business thousands of pounds a year in ink, toners, paper and their time, while delivering a better service," said Gill.