Europe has WiFi in the office, but cables in the head

A new survey by printer giants Lexmark finds that security worries and technology fears are holding back wireless printing in offices across Europe.

The vast majority of European office workers have wireless access in the workplace but few use it to its full effect according to research from Lexmark, the printing solutions provider. Whilst seven out of 10 staff has the technology in their office/home office, half admit they still use traditional cables to link with their printers.

Lack of technology knowledge and wireless security fears were cited as the main reasons behind the failure to use wireless printing at work. The survey found 29 per cent think it is too difficult to set up their printers wirelessly and 19 per cent believe the connection may not be secure. Six per cent of the respondents said they didn’t use wireless technology as they wouldn’t want to share their printer with any of their colleagues. For those who do use wireless networks to link with their printers, almost half (47 per cent) said they shared the equipment with five or more colleagues. ‚Companies are missing out on the financial and environmental benefits that wireless printing can bring,‚ said Mark Hiller, General Manager at Lexmark South Africa. ‚By implementing such technology, many companies are able to financially rationalise the hardware they require by linking additional users to each printer more easily than before,‚ said Hiller. ‚Not only does this help to reduce capital costs but it also brings employers more flexibility and mobility.‚ ‚Security concerns and technology fears are often unfounded,‚ Hiller added. ‚Lexmark’s inkjet products all support WEP/WPA/WPA2 wireless security standards allowing users to print securely over their IT networks once a device has been added and secured with the user’s existing router password. And, they are designed for easy installation with little technical knowledge required.‚ Survey background Lexmark surveyed 388 office/home office workers across eight European countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK. The research was completed in September 2010.