Why This Works
As long as printing is anonymous and free, no one tracks its volume. As soon as tracking by employee and department appears, volume drops by 10-20% in the very first month — with no bans or limits.
What a Tracking System Gives You
- Who prints how much and what, broken down by department.
- The ratio of color to monochrome printing.
- The share of jobs that were never picked up.
- A basis for reallocating equipment between departments.
Tools
Mid-range devices already have built-in code-based tracking — just enable it in the web interface. For a fleet of several devices, a dedicated print server with reporting is set up.
What to Do With the Data
- Send departments their monthly figures — often that alone is enough.
- Set a limit on color printing, not on printing in general.
- Move high-volume printing to the device with the lowest cost per page.