Opinion

Sustainable CUSTOMER SERVICE

Officeworks is committed to making a tangible difference to people and the planet. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but on the grounds that it is important to our team, customers, partners, shareholders and locations in which we operate. It is simply good for business.

We know customers want to engage more in sustainability efforts. Our role is to make it easy for them to do so, without compromising the value of the products or services on offer. People also tell us that they recognise sustainability is a shared effort between our contribution as an organisation and the actions they take.

In 2015, Officeworks established its Positive Difference Plan. This outlined the goals with which we would support our employees, enhance our support for communities, source goods in sustainable and responsible ways, and reduce the company’s overall environmental impact.

This year, the approach has evolved considerably to include a further 18 pledges over the next five years to continue to make a positive difference in terms of sustainability.

DEEP COMMITMENT

The latest responsibilities include establishing a diverse team that possesses a keen sense of belonging and is genuinely connected to its local neighbourhoods. It also involves taking meaningful climate action by committing to use 100% renewable electricity from 2025 and contributing to the circular economy by becoming a zero-waste business.

Our two-for-one tree planting initiative, Restoring Australia, represents one way in which we make it effortless for customers to take further sustainable steps. Simply by buying paper products from Officeworks, they are helping rehabilitate landscapes across Australia.

Since launching the programme in 2017, clients have helped us restore over 1,500 hectares of land – the target is to plant two million trees by 2025.

Globally, e-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams (see also Feature, page 30), and increasingly, consumers want to dispose responsibly of their unwanted items. Our Bring it Back programme is available across the Officeworks store network and provides customers with a free, easy and secure way to recycle items including printers, laptops, mobile phones, and ink and toner cartridges.

We have also launched a national battery, pens and marker recycling programme – the mission is to repair, repurpose or recycle 17,000 tonnes of discarded items over the next five years. Sarah Hunter is Managing Director of Australian office supplies reseller Officeworks

Officeworks is committed to making a tangible difference to people and the planet. Not just because it is the right thing to do […] It is simply good for business

ESSENTIAL RULE

As a company, we are continuing to explore ways to support our clientele and respond to their ever-changing needs, including providing them with an augmented range of ‘greener choice’ products that are better for the environment.

We need to make it painless for buyers to discover these items wherever and whenever they shop – online or in store – and ensure they are affordable while being uncompromising on quality.

The excellent progress we have made so far on our sustainability journey wouldn’t have been possible without the support, commitment and passion of our workforce, customers and partners, who all play a crucial part in making such a valuable impact.

For more information on the progress of Officework’s Positive Difference Plan and 2025 goals, visit www.officeworks.com.au/pdp

SPECIAL GREEN THINKING

CLOSE the LOOP SPECIAL GREEN THINKING In this How to... guide, global business products reseller Lyreco elaborates on the various facets of its 2025 Circular Economy pledge

In 2020, Lyreco has taken a step forward on its continuous sustainability path by making the circular economy a priority in order to deliver even more sustainable products and solutions. In February, members of the group’s Executive Committee endorsed a Circular Economy pledge, a five-year project that aims to develop fully ‘circular’ solutions for the reseller’s customers.

“In line with our company vision, sustainability is a fundamental component of the ‘great working day’ that we strive to deliver to all our customers and employees,” says Group CEO Greg Liénard. “Sustainability is a pillar of Lyreco’s mission: deliver sustainably what any workplace needs so its people can focus on what matters most.”

The Circular Economy is now a key component of Lyreco’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy 2019-2025 and a strong lever of progress for its overall sustainability performance. As a distributor, Lyreco is the link between suppliers, manufacturers and customers. It’s in an ideal position to ‘close the loop; from manufacturing to recycling or reuse.

The reseller has defined five broad commitments to be achieved by 2025, three of which involve the products it distributes.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. Be the first company in our industry with a full range of recycle-ready items

Lyreco will propose a ‘recycle-ready’ alternative for all product categories. Recycle-ready items are products made from materials that can be re-inserted into the end-to-end value chain. Criteria for recyclability or recycled contents will be assessed according to ISO14021 standards.

Provide end-of-life collection and process used materials back into the manufacturing chain

Lyreco can offer a collection solution for all ‘recyclable’ products, ensuring their effective recycling.

Remove all non-circular packaging from products sold

Lyreco aims to reduce packaging use and move to 100% recyclable, reusable and compostable plastic packaging.

Ban single-use or non-circular plastics from all group offices

Lyreco will ban single-use and non-circular plastics from all its premises because “acting in an exemplary way is a prerequisite to engage our customers”.

Develop a circular economy standard for the workplace industry with European stakeholders

Lyreco will contribute with European authorities and circular economy key actors to define a standard for the workplace.

First steps on the way to closing the loop...

COFFEE CONSUMPTION THE SUSTAINABLE WAY

Since October 2019, single-use plastic and paper cups can no longer be found at Lyreco’s corporate headquarters in Marly, France. Previously, head office employees used more than 180,000 cups a year representing about one tonne of waste.

All 840 staff members have been given a porcelain mug and a reusable glass bottle. The site’s coffee machines have been replaced by devices with an integrated mug detector.

Visitors are provided with reusable cups that are made out of seaweed-based bioplastic. Upon leaving the premises, they drop the cups into a special container so they can be washed by Lyreco’s catering staff.

The reseller’s move to mugs and glass bottles was made after it conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) of various alternatives. Based on one coffee per day per employee, it found that carbon emission benefits relating to the raw materials, production, distribution, use, cleaning and end-of-life of the mugs were achieved after 6-10 months.

In addition to cutting out the waste, the change reduced CO2 emissions by an equivalent of 3.5 tons a year. Despite an increase in the use of water, cleaning products and hand towels, the LCA showed that the overall environmental impact of the reusable solution was considerably less than that of the disposable cups.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY PRINCIPLES IN PRINTING

Lyreco offers recycling services in more than ten product categories, including: laser and inkjet cartridges, batteries, light bulbs, electrics and electronics, paper, cardboard, cups, plastics bottles, aluminium cans and coffee capsules.

“With our customers striving for sustainable printing practices, ink cartridges play a key role in this field,” says Bruno Pluchart, Lyreco Group International Category Manager, Tech and Print. Every year, the company collects about one million empty cartridges, which represents just over 700 tons.

“We cannot continue to have a product lifecycle that involves using things just once,” he continues. “Therefore, a circular economy is truly the future; it is about making sure we can give products a second or third life.

“Empty cartridges are recycled to produce new ones. They are collected, reshaped, cleaned, have parts replaced and are refilled with toner so they can be used again. This means fewer raw materials are used to produce new cartridges. When it comes to non-reusable cartridges, they are dismantled to their raw materials such as plastic and steel. These materials are then used for the production of other items. It’s a zero waste process.” According to a 2017 report by Easy Recyclage, a single office employee in France generates an average of 130 kg of waste per year. With this in mind, a primary ambition of Lyreco is to help its customers make faster progress towards a drastic reduction of non-recyclable waste in the workplace in an effort to, ultimately, reduce their impact on the environment.

Idea Bank (Poland)

One of the company’s main challenges was to reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles by employees. To support this effort, Lyreco Poland suggested to Idea Bank to replace them with glass jugs with water filters in all its premises.

In 2019, this resulted in Lyreco reducing its orders for water in disposable plastic bottles by more than 60%.

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Netherlands)

Lyreco’s deliveries to Dutch national railway operator NS are already CO2 neutral. In 2020, Lyreco went further by taking the first steps to adopting a circular approach.

In addition to the selection of eco-friendly products, a greater emphasis on the circular characteristics of items is now also being considered. When collecting used office supplies, Lyreco ensures that as many products as possible are recycled and the raw materials returned to producers for new items.

Ramboll (Finland, Denmark, UK)

Each year, millions of pens are thrown away. In 2020, Lyreco embarked on a project to tackle one of the biggest concerns relating to the environmental impact of disposable pens.

This has led to Ramboll scaling down the number of ranges it makes available to employees from around 200 previously to 13 today. The customer decided to select a dedicated range of recycled and refilled pens from Pilot Corporation.

“It’s still early days, but employees understand the reason for the range being slimmed down in favour of more sustainable products,” says Helene Byskov Christiansen, Lead Consultant Global Procurement at Ramboll. “Besides, since we have chosen to cooperate with Pilot, which delivers high quality, it mostly means an improvement in the product itself.”

It’s safe and clean, There’s no doubt about the importance of cleanliness and safety at the moment, but is Many vendors outside the jan/san and safety realm – particularly those with existing sustainability credentials – have also been growing their portfolios with new products in these categories. BUT IS IT GREEN? SPECIAL GREEN THINKING enough attention being paid to One of them is Eco Guardian, a Canadian company founded 17 years ago that made it its green jan/san and PPE? OPI’s mission to reduce the use of single-use plastic. Heike Dieckmann has been Its core line for many years were compostable breakroom and foodservice products. finding out With the acute shortage of PPE in Canada in

When COVID-19 hit the world in early Anil Abrol: “We had the connections to get PPE into 2020, the need for PPE and all Canada – fast. We knew that our factories had the manner of cleaning solutions and material production expertise from the reusable materials was so urgent and so bags we make. We also had insight knowledge great that sustainability concerns – by and large – of Health Canada’s regulations from our inpatient went right to the bottom of the pile of priorities. The foodservice product line. health of the people on our planet had become far “From there, it was a case of getting all the more important than the planet itself. pieces in place. Eco Guardian now sells reusable

Billions of single-use disposable face masks, masks, Health Canada-approved face masks and aprons, gloves and wipes, small plastic bottles isolation gowns, children’s masks, thermometers of hand sanitiser, not to mention the ferocious and face shields.” amount of chemicals in canisters of disinfecting and cleaning products, have done nothing to The health of the people on our drive the green agenda.

This sector, which had been making great planet had become far more important strides in becoming environmentally responsible, seemingly put on the brakes in sustainability terms, than the planet itself largely as a result of the incredible and sudden mind, Eco Guardian sprang into action. Says CEO spike in demand for items. Availability – and Clover Imaging Group is another organisation credibility – was an issue, sustainability wasn’t. that has embraced PPE and cleaning solutions as an add-on to its offering. Not only did these THE WAY FORWARD products compensate for declines in the imaging But many months on, what is the situation now – is category, but Clover also benefitted from its there a better balance again? There are certainly already solid sustainability reputation. solutions out there as many manufacturers of As Executive Chairman Jim Cerkleski cleaning products and PPE are putting more comments: “In the early days of the pandemic, emphasis on ensuring that everything – from it was impossible to get hand sanitiser. Clover raw materials all the way to packaging – has a has been a distributor for Soul CBD for several minimal impact on the environment. Plant-based years and the company also manufactures hand disinfectant sprays, probiotic cleaning products sanitiser. We were able to leverage this relationship and responsibly-produced and recyclable PPE – to get a high-quality, US-made hand sanitiser all these items are out there and available. out to our dealer channel. That led to customers

Green PPE and sustainable cleaning solutions are now available in much greater quantities than at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but to what extent are customers actually asking for them? Quite a divisive question, judging by the answers that OPI received from the reseller community, not just between continents but also regionally.

Demand for sanitising products has gone through the roof, but while at the beginning all types of products were accepted, we now see more and more requests for ‘softer’, less aggressive alternatives.

– Isabelle Huguet, Cleaning Group Category Director, Lyreco

Naturally, we saw an increase in demand for jan/san and PPE products. As can be expected given the current climate, the focus for our customers has been on ensuring that products conform to the necessary standards. It’s fair to say their sustainability has been a secondary consideration.

– Raffael Reichhold, CEO, Office Depot Europe

Demand for masks and gloves has been very volatile, with considerable price fluctuations. Calls for more sustainable products in these categories have been rather muted. – Jens Melzer, Managing Director, LogServe (wholesale operation of German dealer group Soennecken), Germany

Our impression is that the majority of people adhere to the rules [of wearing masks, for example] because they’ve been told to do so by politicians and governments. They don’t necessarily believe in their validity and because of this, cheap and basic are the main criteria.

– Thomas Veit, Managing Director, soft-carrier, Germany

Even here in California, the biggest concern at the start of the pandemic from our customer base was to simply get their hands on whatever PPE was available. As the market is becoming more plentiful and we’re seeing options for environmentally-preferred PPE, many customers are choosing ‘green’ products, although price and availability is still the greatest concern. – Margee Witt, CEO, Blaisdells, California, US

Sustainability is important when you feel secure about the future of your company and life itself. When faced with COVID-19 as an existential threat, sustainability remains a value, but it takes a back seat to surviving. No one has asked us about the disposability of products or their long-term toxicity. All they were concerned about was today and tomorrow and about whether a product worked against COVID. – Bob Mairena, CEO,

Office Solutions, California, US

We have not had a single instance of a client seeking PPE products that are environmentally friendly. Most customers simply want products which help keep their employees, customers and communities safe. If PPE remains a fixture with our clients, I have no doubt that interest in green solutions will rise. With that said, most of our customers are reluctant to pay a premium for a commodity-type item solely on the basis that it is more environmentally friendly.

Companies manufacturing these products must find ways to enhance their value beyond the potential environmental impact if they want to accelerate their adoption. As an example, customers are willing to buy reusable masks because they believe they are ultimately cheaper, provide a marketing opportunity for logos, or are safer due to some antimicrobial properties. The fact that they are potentially less impactful on the environment doesn’t seem to be a factor in the decision-making process.

Finally, the Midwest lacks the infrastructure needed to truly embrace a green culture. Many of our cities are unable to find buyers for recyclable products and, as a result, items picked up for recycling often end up in landfill after all. We also lack a commercial composting facility in the state of Iowa so compostable items may also go to landfill unless the client has access to a private composting facility. – Lincoln Dix, VP Supplies

Division, Storey Kenworthy, Iowa, US

requesting other PPE products and through our partnerships across the globe, we were able to source a wide assortment of these items.

“Most recently, this led to discussions with a large, vertically-integrated manufacturer of disinfectant wipes. This company liked our green story and the PPE success we have had and was looking for a partner that could sell soft packs of wipes as an environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic canisters. We purchased the production capacity for the soft packs and are now able to offer our partners a secure source of US-made, N-Listed (lab-certified to kill COVID-19) disinfectant wipes. They keep plastic waste out of landfills, and these packs are also much more efficient to ship, cutting down on greenhouse gases.”

MIXED DEMAND

Feedback from resellers as to the uptake of and requirement for green jan/san and PPE is mixed, to say the least (see left ‘What customers want…’). It’s certainly helpful when the reseller itself has an ingrained sustainability proposition, drives the agenda and the environmentally-sound products and solutions of its manufacturer partners. The UK’s Commercial Group is one such operator.

As company co-founder and Managing Director Simone Hindmarch explains, the immediate response of its customers to COVID-19 was to ensure the health and well-being of staff. “Sourcing and providing accredited PPE options that would work was the first step. Cost was another focus, as revenues and profits were hit by the pandemic, so not only did clients want the right protection, they also wanted it affordably.

“But over the past few months, we’ve started to see a gradual shift towards more sustainable options. Requests for reusable face coverings instead of disposables or bio-hygienic jan/san products are examples of that. There’s been an evolution from ‘What can you get?’ to ‘I know what I want, can you get it?’”

After meeting the demands of the early scramble for available product, Commercial took the decision to step back and think about the issue in a more long-term holistic way. Says Hindmarch: “At board level, we talked about going a bit further than simply supplying PPE. We want to help deliver an overall solution. Ultimately, our aim is to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. By providing screens that allow for better distancing, clean air technology which kills airborne pathogens or smart thermometer access control, for instance, we can reduce the need for PPE.”

KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION

Unsurprisingly, education and training across the board is vital in an attempt to move from overzealous cleaning and safety procedures to a future where sustainability and employee protection work in tandem.

Steve Ashkin, President of The Ashkin Group, a leading advocate for sustainability and green cleaning in the professional cleaning industry, says: “Some people want to use the harshest, strongest products out there. They think it’s

somehow better or more effective. But you can’t kill a virus deader than dead.”

He adds: “Of course, protecting people’s health is our number one priority. But we need to train people how to clean. The science is quite clear that current disinfectants are highly effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. But that’s only the case if the disinfectant is used properly.” (See OPI’s interview with ISSA’s Dianna Steinbach in OPI September/ October 2020, page 34).

Ashkin also refers to the US Green Building Council which, in June, added a new pilot credit component to its LEED rating system in response to COVID-19. “Facilities and cleaning services managers are extremely busy right now and they need help,” he says.

“The new credit, called Safety First: Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Space, is intended to support managers of buildings and spaces as they work to respond to the coronavirus pandemic through sustainable, healthy cleaning and hygiene practices. It provides guidance on effectively cleaning and disinfecting buildings using best practices that also meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines relative to COVID-19.”

THE RIGHT BALANCE

While supply chains for all manner of PPE and cleaning solutions have gone back to something approaching normal, the COVID-19 situation overall clearly hasn’t, with infection spikes, new lockdowns and ever more economic strife hitting us on a daily basis. Striking the right balance to make sure the planet emerges from this pandemic as minimally damaged as its population is challenging, to say the least.

A GAME

Print and all that it entails has been an interesting category in an interesting year. It’s not going to disappear, that’s for sure, but it’s certainly become a whole lot more complex

– by Heike Dieckmann

Fact: print volumes in 2020 have seen sharp declines due to COVID-19 and the mass migration of large parts of the global workforce to the home as a place of work. And while printing has continued in the home office – and of course soared in some settings such as the healthcare sector – and also provided new opportunities, it’s not been a good year. According to research firm IDC, total page volumes are set to fall 13.7% in 2020, from 3.2 trillion pages in 2019 to 2.8 trillion this year. Myth: Managed print services (MPS) have lost their relevancy as a result of the home or – at best – hybrid working situation. This widely-held perception has not been substantiated by anybody OPI spoke to for the purpose of this article, nor by some of the most recent research reports available.

MPS OPTIMISM

Indeed, in its State of the Channel 2020 survey which investigated attitudes among 205 channel organisations selling MPS in the UK, France, Germany and the US, Quocirca revealed that despite sales declines in 2020, the majority display optimism for next year, with 66% predicting revenues will rise in 2021. 34% of respondents confirmed to the print industry insight and marketing intelligence firm that selling MPS has opened new opportunities to provide value-added services while 32% said it has helped them build longer-term customer relationships.

of two halves

Do those comments and figures tally with the fact that a considerable part of the workforce continues to be based at home? They certainly do, according to Tony Wills, Head of the Document Solutions Business Unit at Canon UK & Ireland. “If anything, MPS has increased in relevance as companies need to ensure they’re continuing to maintain the same level of support employees would receive in an office environment,” he says.

“For example, businesses will want to ensure sensitive information isn’t compromised, and with the whole family potentially using the same printing device, security features will be more important than ever. As a result, having an MPS which extends beyond the physical office is critical for businesses to manage costs, security and auditing.” (see also ‘Print security at home – uncharted territory’, page 46)

We assisted many customers with making adjustments to their print environment, with equipment moves to the home or within the office

Sarah Custer, VP of Services & Solutions at US-based Distribution Management, concurs and asserts that MPS – which the company offers through its mpsSELECT program – has never been more vital. “Of course, page volumes are down and we are observing this in nearly every vertical. But even with staff shifting to homeworking, we have significant ability to remotely support the environments that remain up and running, which has kept the overall decline somewhat in check.

“We offer local device management services to keep the at-home, non-networked machines replenished. For the networked ones, we’ve continued shipping supplies just in time, based on predictive analytics and usage – which has been even more critical as of late.

For a somewhat alternative view of the print industry, listen to OPI Talk and our interview with imaging channel commentator Ray Stasieczko. Visit opi.net/podcast

“We assisted many customers with making adjustments to their print environment, with equipment moves to the home or within the office. From a break-fix, remote triage standpoint, we increased our remote resolve rate over the same period last year, providing assistance for customers needing help.

“Another key development has been our integration with smart device services. This enables even more remote diagnostics and resolve capabilities and further enhances our ability to minimise downtime as workers have returned to the office with limited internal resources. By continuing to support customers, we’ve kept these environments operational with as little interruption as possible.”

Also paramount from a consumables perspective is the fact that MPS ties customers in contractually and that is crucial at a time when the Amazon threat is looming ever larger. OP resellers have certainly been losing out to discretionary spending – and this includes print hardware and consumables – which has gone to Amazon and other, non-OP, online players.

As David Sass, President of Source Office & Technology – a US-based dealer that counts tech solutions, which comprises its MPS offering, as its fastest-growing category – says: “MPS is more important than ever for OP dealers as having your transactional ink/toner under an MPS agreement protects this business from both online transactional competitors as well as from copier dealers.” .

AVAILABILITY ISSUES

As regards hardware, COVID-19 has resulted in a considerable uptick in printer sales, often partially subsidised by employers who need their staff to be just as productive and effective at home as they were in the office.

And while the whole print and imaging environment in educational settings has stood idle for a good part of the year, homeschooling has been a major driver for increased sales. Worksheets, background information, test papers, etc – educating children and students from home typically requires a lot of printing, despite their ever-growing digital astuteness.

All this has posed its own challenges in terms of product availability. According to John George, Managing Director of UK-based technology and consumables wholesaler JGBM, stock availability was a real issue due to factory shutdowns at the beginning of COVID. “We’ve seen high demand and the challenge has been meeting that demand. We were able to pre-order early and through sourcing too, our print hardware sales are up year on year. We’ve also focused on helping dealers sell work-from-home technology products by issuing regular stock updates while also concentrating on sourcing stock.

“Supply is still not back to normal levels due to how the pandemic has affected production, but demand remains high. In terms of margin, if anything, market prices went up because consumers are prepared to pay more.”

For more feedback on topics such as consolidation in the print sector, visit the Magazine section on opi.net

Referring to specific hardware, there’s been a steady decline in A3 machines for some time, exacerbated by the pandemic which has further accelerated the transition to lower-cost A4 devices. Inkjet products are also in much higher demand.

And while George refers to less price sensitivity due to high demand, this may be a relatively temporary occurrence as the supply chain recovers and also as companies – and entire industries like the hard-hit hospitality sector – return to work full time. Cost will be a crucial factor for those that have suffered the most over the course of 2020.

Remanufactured cartridges perfectly fit the bill in this context, says Clover Imaging Group’s CEO Eric Martin, as do the refurbished printers the company has been selling through its subsidiary Depot International.

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

To say it’s all change would be an exaggeration, but the print category is certainly evolving. Home and hybrid working bring both tremendous opportunities as well as challenges for all channels. Consolidation is a foregone conclusion. So where are we headed?

Dom Gryszan is Director of Marketing at Apogee, a UK-based company owned by HP Inc – which, incidentally, at the beginning of this year, was in the midst of a hostile takeover bid by Xerox, a bid that was dropped in the early stages of the pandemic in March. He concludes: “I don’t think we have yet seen the true impact of the outbreak on the businesses in our sector.

“Pre-COVID, this segment saw many acquisitions by the OEMs and private equity (PE), driven by high multiples and purchase prices. This set certain expectations in the minds of owners looking to sell their operations in the near future. These are unrealistic post-COVID, but it will take time to adopt a more realistic view of the value of their businesses. Until then, the value they put on their companies won’t be attractive to OEMs or PE.

“There have been few defaults on payments by clients so far, but every business has been affected. It will reduce their ability to pay and, ultimately, also their value. Once that hits the bottom line, we could see a surge in acquisitions of failing businesses, and more realistic prices for those looking to sell.”

The retreat to the home as a place of work has seen much-needed revenue opportunities for many operators in our industry, print certainly being a category which has benefitted from a hardware and consumables point of view.

But with employees now printing from their home devices – or those provided by their employers at short notice – comes an issue that is relatively new in this setting: print security.

Quocirca recently published a report – Printing in the Hybrid Workplace – which takes a look at UK and US IT decision-makers’ plans for a secure converged digital and print environment. According to this snapshot survey of over 300 IT experts, 83% of respondents state that their IT departments are either very or somewhat concerned about the security of information being printed on home machines.

The report found that the US is more likely to provide approved devices to employees (59% against 36% in the UK) and to have implemented digital rights management (55% against 41%) in a bid to secure home print devices.

LONG-TERM CONSIDERATIONS

Hybrid working will most likely stay with us for some time, if not forever, and businesses are having to reassess the way they look at print security in a domestic – or combined home/ office – environment.

Tony Wills, Head of the Document Solutions Business Unit at Canon UK & Ireland, says: “We’ve seen a rise in the sale of printers that are compatible with print security solutions. A high number of companies now want to buy these types of devices for employees working remotely to ensure they have the tools needed to work securely and productively. The responsibility of securing the homeworking setting is increasingly shifting to the employer and we will see this trend continue to rise.”

It’s not just about the end point technology and how safe this is, however. As Dom Gryszan, Director of Business Strategy at UK-based MPS firm Apogee, says: “There are other practicalities to consider. Is the employer comfortable that an employee can access, download and potentially print sensitive information in their own home, for example?

These are conversations we are having with many clients trying to find their way through the transition to homeworking. There are many solutions we can provide, but often it is not actually technology that is the issue, but rather the nuances of the way in which a business works and its perception of risk.”

Global print management software firm PaperCut urges all businesses to consider the implications of ‘unmanaged’ remote print. The company asserts that unmanaged print can result in considerable costs for companies. Printing to a desktop printer can cost up to five times more compared to an office-based A3 multifunction device, for example.

From top to bottom: Canon UK & Ireland’s Tony Wills, Apogee’s Dom Gryszan and PaperCut’s Steve Holmes

The second concern is security, as just mentioned. GDPR hasn’t gone away during the pandemic and now more than ever companies need to keep a watchful eye on what is being printed, where it is being printed and whether those prints are secure.

PaperCut’s advice is to follow a number of steps to keep remote print secure and print volumes down:

Review IT print policies: do you need to introduce new guidelines when it comes to printing to protect confidential documents while users are working remotely? GDPR awareness: kick off some refreshed employee training on the significance of GDPR compliance in this new environment and the importance of minimising waste to keep costs under control. The cloud: investigate cloud-based solutions to track home printing. According to Quocirca’s aforementioned report, 49% of IT decision-makers have already deployed cloud for print management, with a further 36% planning to do so. Flexibility: add secure and flexible printing solutions for employees who need to print securely over the internet and release their print jobs when they arrive at the office.

Steve Holmes, EMEA Regional Director of PaperCut, states: “The new normal means that returning to our place of work will often be punctuated by periods of having to be based at home again. While many businesses have done a terrific job of helping their staff work from home effectively, our concern is that the sort of print processes and disciplines displayed in the workplace may fall through the cracks when people work from home. This leaves companies vulnerable to security breaches as well as suddenly escalating costs as staff expense back their print costs.

“We’re advising companies to keep best print practice and intelligent print management solutions on the agenda even when their staff are working remotely. That way, they will enjoy better ways to keep their data secure, reduce their print costs and waste, and find more flexible and touch-free ways in which to operate in a post-pandemic world.”