How Smart Copy Machines Boost Productivity and Reduce Waste

Today’s businesses have reached an interesting junction: As the business world continues to push for more and more productivity, employees have begun to push for better work-life balance and less demanding work environments. This leaves business owners with the difficulty of deciding how to balance their fast-paced industry with the needs and well-being of their employees. Often, this means relying more on technology and automation for menial tasks, placing less strain on workers while keeping productivity high. You may be surprised to learn that something as simple as a copy machine in Fairbanks, AK, can go a long way towards helping you strike that balance in the workplace. Keep reading to learn how a smart copy machine can boost productivity and reduce waste in the office.

Productivity Boosts from Smart Copy Machines

If you believe that a copy machine is for nothing more than making copies, then you’ve missed the dramatic evolution that these machines have undergone over the last decade. Year by year, they have transformed into multifunctional workhorses that are capable of printing, scanning, faxing, routing, binding, and integrating with digital workflows. This evolution means that instead of being a machine used for a single purpose, it’s now a central hub for document processing. As a result, the potential for productivity gains in your office are significant. Here are just a few of the evolutions that copy machines have undergone in recent years that can be a big boost to your productivity:

1. Streamline Workflows with Multifunction Capabilities: One of the primary productivity benefits we’ve seen over the years comes from combining multiple functions—copying, printing, scanning, etc.—into one smart device. This eliminates the need for separate machines and many manual tasks. For example, you can scan a document on the machine once, and have it emailed to the client and filed away in your digital document workflow at the same time. This saves time and effort, requires less manual routing, and has fewer delays in the process.

2. High-Speed Output and Finishing: Smart copy machines now often include high print speeds, with some models putting out over 75 pages a minute. Many can also be outfitted with advanced finishing options like stapling, hole-punching, booklet creation, sorting, and more. These features reduce the bottleneck of waiting for large jobs to print, and they enable employees to simply pick up a fully finished document set without additional manual tasks to put the individual documents together. In high-volume print environments, this directly leads to faster turnaround and less employee frustration.

3. Customizable Interfaces and Touchscreens: Modern devices have intuitive touchscreens and customizable shortcuts for frequent tasks like scanning a stack of invoices directly to a designated folder, or sending a set of reports to multiple departments with a single tap. By cutting down on the time it takes to perform these tasks, these features improve speed and reduce errors like misrouting your documents.

4. Mobile and Cloud Integration: A key trend in modern offices is digital document management, and in more recent years, employees have begun scanning and printing from mobile devices with greater frequency than ever before. Mobile and cloud integration allows employees to initiate a print or scan remotely, then release it at the machine when they’re in the office. This is especially useful in hybrid work environments, and keeps workflows moving with fewer delays.

5. Security and Controlled Access: Smart copy machines also enhance productivity by reducing downtime for security incidents. Features like user authentication, secure print release, and audit trails mean fewer accidental prints and instances of unauthorized access. The fewer of these disruptions you have, the smoother your workflow will be.

Reduced Waste with Smart Copier Features

But what about reducing waste in the office? How can a machine that is inherently designed to use consumables actually reduce your office’s waste? While it’s true that you’ll inevitably use paper, ink, toner, and other consumables, a smart copier has features that can reduce your overall office waste, especially when compared to older models. Here are a few examples:

1. Secure Print Release: Mentioned briefly above, secure print release requires an employee to physically authenticate the printing of a document. This means that jobs that were sent to the printer but never picked up are simply not printed. If you’ve ever found somebody’s unclaimed print job sitting on a printer’s output tray, you know how common these instances are, and a smart machine with secure print release can eliminate this issue.

2. Digital Routing and Scan to Cloud: Smart machines often include the ability to scan to email, scan to folder, or scan direct to cloud storage. By digitizing a document and routing it electronically instead of making physical copies, you can reduce paper waste and streamline document management. This also helps you avoid over-printing copies of documents, as everyone who needs to view it can access the digital copy.

3. Energy Efficiency and Reduced Consumables: Modern copers have features like sleep mode, low-power standby, instant-on fusers, and automated toner/ink tracking. These features reduce power usage and cut down on the waste associated with unused toner and supplies. With fewer wasted consumables and lower energy usage, a smart machine can contribute to a more cost-efficient work space.
   

Finding a Modern Copy Machine

Modern offices simply can’t rely on outdated technology if they want to stay competitive without driving their employees into the ground. It’s important to implement innovative solutions that can boost your productivity while simultaneously cutting down on your employees’ workloads. A smart copy printer in Fairbanks, AK, can help you do exactly that, with modern features that save time, reduce waste, and keep things running smoothly. Call Arctic Office Products today or stop by our showroom to learn more about some of the smart, modern machines we have in stock. We’ll help you find the right copy machine to meet your business’s document management needs.