THE TRUE COST OF PRINTERS..CONSUMABLES

[Anonymous]

The true cost of printers
There’s more than just the sticker price to be considered; consumable are a huge part         
The
true cost of a printer can’t be found on the price tag. In fact, the
one with the cheapest sticker price could end up costing you the most,
long-term, in consumables and other hidden costs.Buying the right
products and managing your print environment can, instead, cut back on
unnecessary expenditures and ultimately lower your total cost of
ownership.Today’s low-end printers follow the disposable razor model.
Unlike razors, however, you could end up spending far more money
maintaining these devices. An “output fleet” includes printers, fax
machines and photocopiers, and this typically accounts for about five
per cent of the average IT budget, says George Goodall, senior research
analyst with Info-Tech Research. And this can be a big variable
cost.It’s a good idea to figure out your cost per page for certain
options. Fixed costs include hardware, accessories and installation. If
you installed the printer yourself, the cost of installation becomes
time. Then there are operating costs, such as print cartridges and
paper — and don’t forget about power consumption.Also, consider the
importance of reliability, print quality and consistency of that print
quality, says Mike Orekovic, category business manager of supplies with
HP Canada. Labour costs are by far the biggest aspect of cost of
ownership. If you have a busier and larger environment, then you also
have to consider the cost of IT, help desk support and
downtime.”Everybody worries about it,” says Bill Fournier, senior
market analyst with PRC. “They worry about how much they’re going to
print and what the consumables costs are, because consumables costs are
eventually more than the cost of the unit.”In a small or medium-sized
organization, it should be fairly easy to control these costs. When
employees print off the Internet, for example, they should select
“greyscale” to print in black and white instead of colour (you can set
the printing parameters so this is done automatically).You want to
avoid overuse of colour, because that can make costs jump, and they’re
going to be higher in ink than in toner. But there’s also a
misperception that colour is going to kill you. It costs a lot for
colour, says Fournier, but when vendors quote coverage costs, say 20
cents per page based upon 10 per cent coverage, it sounds dramatic but
that kind of coverage is seldom used. With general business
correspondence you might have colour letterhead and maybe a business
graphic, which is more like two per cent coverage.If you know you’re
going to use a lot of paper, say 40,000 pages per month, then don’t try
to save yourself a few hundred bucks by buying a printer that’s rated
at 30,000 pages per month. Buy the appropriate product so the product
will last as long as it’s intended to last, and perform as it’s
intended to perform.Often, when buying consumables, people only look at
the price of the print cartridge, but 70 per cent of the print
technology resides in that print cartridge, says Orekovic. “It’s not a
stapler,” he says. “It’s actually a technology piece.” Buy the
recommended brands of toner, ink and paper that are designed to work
with your product, so you’ll get the best print quality and longest
life out of your equipment.You may want to consider killing the inkjet
altogether. When it comes to consumables costs, inkjets are about four
times more expensive than network lasers, according to Goodall. There’s
still a role for inkjets, though, for confidential documents or for use
in remote locations.If you plan on auditing your processes and existing
contracts, drafting legal documents and negotiating with vendors, that
will typically take about three months and cost at least $10,000, says
Goodall. “So unless the savings are going to be in that neighbourhood,
don’t even start,” he says. “But the savings can be quite
considerable.”The first step is to benchmark. What printers do you
already have? How much are you spending on ink or toner? This
information could come from inventory logs, purchase orders and billing
orders. The second step is getting executive buy-in by making a
business case to upgrade your existing infrastructure. Third, build
requirements. Figure out what you want to do moving forward. Keep the
good, get rid of the bad and replace the ugly, says Goodall. Equipment
that’s more than three years old is often a trigger point. After that,
it’s a matter of monitoring your service-level agreements and costs.On
the high-end, if you’re negotiating with vendors they’ll typically come
in with a monthly price, but this can also be a mistake. Instead, look
at the full price over the length of the contract, including
consumables and service.

[Author]

November 30, 2006 at 12:09 PM