Office Process Automation

If your organization has more than one printer, you know things can get complicated pretty quickly. It can start with small things like one team printing differently than another, scanned documents being saved in different folders, and workflows relying on memory instead of process. And before you know it, you’ve lost track of time and your budget.

The challenge isn’t only about printing; it’s also about what happens to documents once they've been printed or scanned.

As a print vendor serving organizations across Texas and Southern Oklahoma, we’ve seen these patterns play out in offices, schools, healthcare networks, manufacturing facilities, and local government environments. The needs vary, but the root issue is often the same: the print environment isn’t functioning as a system. And when print and digital workflows don’t align, people work harder than they need to.

Year-end can be a chaotic enough time without worrying whether your printers can keep up. Between financial reports, HR packets, donor letters, student materials, tax documentation, and marketing projects, many organizations see their highest print volumes in the final six to eight weeks of the year. This is when even minor print issues can feel major.

Trust us, as print vendors, we’ve seen the challenges.

But you don’t have to be caught off-guard. With some preparation, you can avoid toner emergencies, surprise expenses, and last-minute equipment breakdowns.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through practical steps to help you stay ahead of your year-end printing surge. This will ensure your team remains productive and your printers continue to operate smoothly.

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It’s not always the number of files that slows teams down, but rather the chaos that comes with them. Maybe you’ve got invoices in one shared folder, HR docs in another, and half your team hoarding “final_v2” PDFs on their desktops. Sound familiar?

At some point, every growing business realizes that storing files and managing them are two different things.

If you’re comparing Xerox DocuShare vs Google Drive, you’re probably wondering: Do you just need a simple way to store and share documents, or do you need a full content management system that brings order, automation, and security to your workflows?

As a print vendor, we’ve specialized in print and document workflows for nearly 40 years. While we are proud Xerox partners and experts in DocuShare, our goal isn’t to sell you something. We want to help you find the right fit for your business, even if that’s not DocuShare.

So, let’s break it down.

Think about the last time you had a deadline and were waiting for a print job to arrive. Maybe it was a batch of event brochures, training manuals, or direct mail pieces. You had the designs ready, the order placed, and then you waited, hoping there wouldn’t be a shipping delay, a misprint, or an unexpected rush fee. For many organizations, this back-and-forth raises a bigger question: Would it be better to invest in a production printer and bring this work in-house, or should we keep outsourcing?

It’s a decision businesses wrestle with more often than you might think. At STPT, we work with organizations of all sizes, from schools and churches to enterprise print shops, who are weighing this exact choice. The truth is, both in-house production printing and outsourcing have strengths and weaknesses. The right option depends on your volume, budget, priorities, and long-term plans.

Did you know that the average employee spends nearly 20% of their workweek searching for documents? That’s a full day each week spent looking instead of doing. For businesses that still rely heavily on paper or patchwork digital systems, the cloud can feel like a promise of something better, faster, and more connected. But where do you even begin?