Do You Really Know the True Cost of Your Printing?
In today’s world, printing remains an essential activity for many organisations. Parallel’s years of experience in the print industry show that many businesses need to pay more attention to the actual costs of printing. It’s not just the price of toner and ink; several hidden costs can significantly impact your bottom line and operational efficiency. From productivity costs to environmental impact – let’s look at the true costs of printing and see how understanding these costs can lead to more informed and sustainable decisions.
When thinking about printing, most businesses consider the direct costs: paper, consumables, and the cost of the actual hardware itself. However, if we dig a little deeper, we will see that this needs to include several important cost components.
One of these is the cost of maintenance and repairs – these costs can quickly add up and take up valuable time that internal departments could be spending elsewhere.
Remember, when a printer goes down, you’re not just paying for the parts and labour but also dealing with the disruption to your workflow. When printers are out of service, work can stop—waiting for repairs or troubleshooting can lead to hours of lost productivity, especially if you rely heavily on printed materials.
Another factor to think about is who is managing your current printer fleet. In most businesses, this falls under the remit of the IT department. These are often well-paid members of staff who can waste valuable time dealing with driver issues, connectivity problems, and user errors. Time spent managing printers is spent on something other than more strategic IT initiatives, which could drive your business forward.
One common theme we often encounter with our clients is that they have a massively underutilised fleet – they have usually purchased more printers than they need. We frequently find that we can significantly reduce the number of machines an organisation needs to operate effectively. We often see departments are given access to colour printing when mono will suffice; simply redressing and implementing colour or black-and-white rules can significantly impact the total print costs.
Even when printers are working, they may not be optimised for efficiency. Employees can waste large chunks of time waiting for large documents to print or dealing with paper jams and errors—again, ensuring the right departments have suitable machines for their workflow can save a significant amount of time.
Whenever a new client approaches us, we conduct a detailed print audit to see where your current fleet needs to meet demand. When we carry out these audits, we often find cupboards full of toner and other spare parts. Businesses that have grown their fleets organically may have several different brands and models of printers, and to reduce downtime, they will overstock consumables. Then, as machines become obsolete or are upgraded, these purchases can be a significant waste of budget.
As all our print agreements are fully flexible, we allow our customers to increase or decrease their fleet and volumes throughout the life of the partnership, ensuring that your business always has the right mix of devices and volumes for its current needs. These agreements are generally either 3 or 5 years, and having a partnership that can change and adapt to your needs can lead to substantial cost savings.
Another often overlooked aspect is energy usage. Printers, especially large-format multi-function devices, can consume significant electricity. The cost of powering your fleet can be a substantial part of your energy bill, especially if machines are sitting idle and left on during non-working hours.
We’ve already mentioned the mono vs. colour argument, but not having the correct permissions for colour printing is a common issue. We regularly see clients printing internal documents in colour because they don’t have the software to control it. This practice alone can save companies a lot of money on printing costs.
Something core to our values at Parallel is the impact of our customer’s printing on the environment. Printing can have a hefty carbon footprint, from the manufacturing of consumables to the power, not to mention the obvious environmental cost of paper use.
We consider all these factors when we specify our clients’ print portfolios. In addition to using energy-efficient units, we can implement duplex printing, print quotas, and print-on-demand, which can greatly impact print volumes.
Aside from hardware and software, we also automatically enrol all our customers in the Print Releaf program, which translates the pages you print into new forests worldwide. You will even receive a monthly LifeTime impact statement, which shows exactly where your trees have been planted and is a valuable resource to share with your stakeholders.
We hope that this shows you that the actual cost of your printing stretches beyond the price of the initial units and the consumables you purchase. When you consider wasted team time, overstocked consumables, and the environmental impact of your printer network, there are some important hidden costs.
So, what can businesses do to mitigate these costs? One effective solution is implementing Managed Print Services. These can help you to: –
- Optimise your printer fleet – by analysing your needs; we can optimise your fleet, remove underused devices and ensure that the ones that are specified are the right fit for the intended tasks.
- Improve efficiency – our managed print services can streamline your workflow with faster, more efficient printers that are set up with default printing preferences to save toner and paper.
- Reduce Downtime – utilising proactive maintenance and quick repairs, MPS reduce your staff’s downtime, boosting productivity and freeing up the IT department to work on more significant projects
- Cut Consumable Costs – our consumable program and remote monitoring ensure that you always have the right part at the right place whenever you need it.
- Sustainability – we reduce the environmental impact of your printing by offering eco-friendly consumables, recycling programs, energy-efficient machines and membership in the Print Releaf reforestation scheme
Understanding the cost of your printing operations means looking beyond the obvious and considering how these operations affect your finances, your staff’s productivity, and the planet. By doing so, you can make more informed decisions that save money and support your business’s operational and environmental goals. Managed Print Services can be a key partner in achieving these efficiencies and sustainability, turning a hidden cost into an opportunity for improvement.
Parallel offers nationwide Managed Print Services. We are a provider in Uxbridge (HO), Camberley, Kent, Wolverhampton, Cardiff, Manchester, and Edinburgh committed to propelling your business through tailor-made print solutions.
By understanding your requirements and utilising cutting-edge technology, our objective is to minimise wastage, cut down on expenses, and improve operational effectiveness. To discover more about how our printing solutions can benefit your business, please visit the Contact Us page.