The five hidden costs of your printing fleet

90% of companies don’t know how much they spend on print*. Do you really know all your printing expenses?

Managing all the printers in a company involves certain hidden costs which can be hard to evaluate.  However, having a clear and precise overview of these costs will make it possible to control them. Below we list the five hidden costs of your printer fleet:

1.The cost of managing your printer fleet

Time spent managing printing equipment is sometimes underestimated: ordering consumables, overseeing maintenance, purchasing machines, managing several service contracts and warranties, facturation… Together, all these tasks represent considerable time and therefore cost, which needs to be taken into account. 

2.The cost related to unsuitable equipment

To procure equipment, companies can choose between two solutions:

• The leasing solution: The risk is that the pace of renewal of the machines is not necessarily suited to your needs and is more closely related to supplier constraints. It is important to ensure that someone oversees this issue and that the supplier can be duly trusted. Is the supplier really taking care to provide the right equipment for your needs? Or is it that its objective is to place the most expensive and imposing equipment in its own interest. Always ask the price of your equipment excluding leasing, to really understand the cost of it, you could have surprises...
• The purchasing solution: The risk is to find yourself without a solution. Breakdowns can also require renewal of equipment and the presence of different brands within the fleet. Purchasing is an ever more economical solution, but one that requires precise monitoring to avoid having an out of control fleet.  

In either case, if the equipment is unsuitable, there may be coordination issues. This will very soon have cost repercussions. This can easily be seen, for example, in the number of tickets sent to the IT service.

3.The cost of maintaining printing park

The maintenance and service contract is often taken out at the beginning with the equipment provider. It may be wise to keep an eye on changes to the rate of this contract. Do the services still correspond to your expectations and needs? 

4. The cost of wasted supplies

Has a “green practices” policy been implemented in your company?  In addition to respecting the environment, this policy will allow you to reduce costs.  All too easily, paper or printer cartridges can be unnecessarily wasted: single-sided instead of double-sided printing, printing in colour instead of black and white, premature changing of print consumables…

- A company employee prints an average of 28 pages per day **
- 20% of printed documents are discarded within 24 hours or forgotten at the printer**
- 80% of documents are still Simplex printed today** 

By raising awareness among your staff, with the introduction of a page cost system and a printing system with identification adapted to their needs, you will be able to better control your expenses. 

5. The cost of storing consumables

Thinking ahead, the instinct is often to procure greater stocks of consumables than are actually needed. As a result, part of your cash flow is mobilised unnecessarily and the stock takes up space. And what’s more, when upgrading equipment the consumables may no longer be compatible. This can mean a significant loss.

Are you ready to take back control of your printer-related expenses? Armor Office Printing can help you to do so!  Discover now and test our managed printing service for free: OWA PRINT SERVICES

*Source GARTNER

**Source IPSOS