Most businesses know roughly what they pay each month for their photocopier or printer.
What they often do not know is what printing is really costing them across the whole business.
The monthly lease or rental is only one part of the picture. Toner, servicing, desktop printers, staff time, inefficient devices and unnecessary colour printing can all add cost without being particularly visible.
That is where a proper review can be useful.
The obvious cost is not always the real cost
A business might have one main multifunction printer on a contract, but also several smaller desktop printers around the office.
Those smaller devices can be convenient, but they are often much more expensive to run per page.
Then there are consumables.
Toner might be ordered from different suppliers at different times. Some cartridges may sit unused in cupboards. Staff may order replacements reactively because nobody has a clear view of what is running low.
None of those things looks particularly dramatic on its own.
Together, though, they can make office printing far more expensive than it needs to be.
Too many devices can create unnecessary cost
It is common for print equipment to build up over time.
A department buys a printer.
Another team gets a different model.
An older machine stays in place because it still works.
A new copier is installed but some staff continue using the desktop printer next to them.
Eventually the business has a mixture of devices with different toner, different support arrangements and very little visibility over how they are actually being used.
That does not automatically mean there are too many printers.
But it does mean there is usually value in understanding what each device is doing and whether it is still the right fit.
Print volume matters
A machine that is perfect for one office may be completely wrong for another.
If a device is doing far more work than it was designed for, reliability and running costs can suffer.
At the other end of the scale, a large multifunction device may be sitting almost unused while expensive desktop printers handle most of the day-to-day printing.
Looking at actual print volumes helps build a much clearer picture.
It can show which devices are heavily used, which are hardly used, and where work could be distributed more efficiently.
Colour printing can quietly add up
Colour printing is useful and often necessary.
But in many offices, colour is used simply because it is the default setting.
Emails, internal documents and drafts may all be printed in colour even when mono would be perfectly adequate.
That does not mean restricting staff unnecessarily.
It simply means having sensible defaults and visibility over how equipment is being used.
Small changes can make a noticeable difference when they are applied across an entire organisation.
Staff time is part of the cost too
Printing problems also consume staff time.
Someone has to order toner.
Someone has to report faults.
Someone has to work out which supplier supports which machine.
Someone has to chase a service call.
If equipment is spread across different suppliers and different arrangements, that admin can become surprisingly time-consuming.
A managed print approach can simplify this by giving the business one clearer view of its equipment, support and consumables.
You do not necessarily need to replace anything
A print assessment should not begin with the assumption that every machine needs changing.
Sometimes the equipment already in place is perfectly suitable.
The useful part is understanding:
- what devices you have;
- what they are costing;
- how much they are being used;
- whether they are being used efficiently;
- whether consumables and support could be simplified;
- and whether any machines are becoming expensive or difficult to maintain.
From there, the business can make decisions based on real information rather than guesswork.
A clearer picture of your print environment
Managed Print Services are ultimately about visibility and control.
For some businesses, that may lead to replacing ageing equipment.
For others, it may simply mean consolidating support, improving consumable management or making better use of the devices already there.
The important thing is knowing where the cost actually sits.
Phoenix Digital Systems can review your current print environment and help identify where equipment, consumables or support could be simplified or made more cost-effective.