For lots of businesses, printing is just a fact of life. Employees print what they need to, when they need to. There may be a few recycling boxes scattered throughout the office to offset the amount of unnecessary printing that happens.
In some businesses, there may be a system in place to track printing and allocate costs to appropriate cost centres or clients.
But do you really know how much you’re spending on print?
Not just the cost of printers, paper, and toner or ink. But the true and comprehensive cost to your organisation?
There are four key elements that make up the cost of printing:
It costs money to buy or rent your equipment and then maintain it so it works reliably. These costs are usually relatively transparent or at least easy to calculate. However, many businesses have more printers than they need, or more capable printers than they need. For example, a business that tends to print mostly text-based documents is unlikely to need a fleet of printers capable of printing high-quality colour copies. Choosing the right equipment and the right number of devices can have a dramatic effect on costs.
Printers can eat up consumables at a rapid rate. Paper and ink or toner need to be replenished regularly. In many offices, this takes the form of the office manager buying reams of paper or replacement printer cartridges from the local office supply store. In some offices, this responsibility falls to whomever notices the paper or ink are running low. However, this approach leads to hidden costs whereby it’s extremely difficult to account for the amount spent on these consumables.
Furthermore, allowing employees free reign to use printers as they see fit can result in huge costs. Single-sided printing, colour printing, and indiscriminate printing can all result in significant extra costs.
Not all printers are created equal when it comes to energy use. Some are energy-intensive, especially older models. Newer models generally have environmentally-friendly features such as energy-saving modes and fast warm-up times, for example.
However, if you have more printers in your office than strictly needed, your energy costs could be higher than they should be.
In many companies, the IT department is also responsible for supporting the printers. But, as any office worker can attest, printers are the one piece of equipment most likely to require attention. From paper jams and low ink to difficulties connecting to the right printer, the IT team can often feel like they spend most of their time on printer-related issues and not much time on innovation. The cost of this time can add up quickly, both in terms of the wasted hours spent managing printers and the lost opportunities because IT staff don’t have time to pursue them.
Some organisations can save massive amounts of money just by making a few small changes, many of them at no cost to the organisation. Others, which may already be doing some of these best practices, may need to look more closely to find savings. The first step for those companies is to conduct a full audit of your printing costs. This lets you see clearly where you could be saving money.
Here are some places to start:
Konica Minolta offers managed print services that reduce the cost of printing by taking the burden of management out of your hands. This frees up your IT department and lets you:
To find out how Konica Minolta’s managed print services can help you reduce the cost of printing in your organisation, contact us today.
Contact us and find out how to cut your printing costs with Managed Print Services
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