Managed Print Services

Many organizations manage their administrative expenses closely but overlook the costs of managing their laser printer fleet. Often, they don’t know what they are spending annually on Supplies, how many printers they have, or what it costs to make a print.

Almost 99% of our MFP/Copier customers have a “Cost Per Copy” service contract that covers the expense of Toner, Labor, and Parts. Those contracts bill the customer monthly on one invoice for how many copies/prints were run and give meter details on each device. It creates excellent visibility into expenses and usage by department.

Many of those same organizations have fleets of laser printers that are “unmanaged.” Usually, unmanaged fleets run inefficiently and have much higher operation costs. Due to the lack of visibility and reporting for Finance, managing those expenses is virtually impossible. Almost every assessment we do for an unmanaged fleet discovers the usage, number of printers, and operating expenses are much higher than the customer’s “best guess” was. We generally can save a customer 20% of what they have been paying for toner and include Service Labor and Parts.

If you manage your printer fleet, are you having any of these issues?

• Wasted/obsolete supplies stored in a closet somewhere?

You bought the supplies, and then the printer went down and was thrown away. It adds up over the years, and you don’t have the heart to throw away thousands of dollars worth of supplies you’ll never use. You probably threw away a printer last month that still has two unopened toners and no other printers to put them in. It’s a huge waste of money…

• Printers being thrown out and replaced because nobody can fix them?

Who do you even call? Do they want $95 to come out to look at it and then $150 per hour plus parts to work on it? Do you pack it up and take it to a printer repair store somewhere? Or do you throw it away (maybe with a new toner cartridge in it…)?

• Supplies being sourced by multiple employees from multiple sources?

Executive Administrative assistants buy for their departments, Sales Administrators buy for their departments, and Receptionists buy from anyone who asks. Sometimes, they buy from Staples, sometimes from Office Max, and sometimes from someone on Amazon.

• Employees bringing in their printers and having the organization buy the supplies?

Employees usually buy a cheap laser printer without concern about the cost of operation. Cheap printers typically cost per page 3 x 10 times that of an office laser printer. It doesn’t matter if the employee only makes ten prints per month, but it matters if the employee makes 1,000 prints monthly. Without reporting and visibility, you don’t know.

• Multiple invoices from various sources for supply/toner orders?

Studies show the cost of processing an invoice is $10-$15 or more. Do you get two or three invoices per month from two to five toner providers? Do each invoice get coded to the correct account and department, or do they just get lumped into “Office Supplies”?”

• Monthly Office Supply expenses fluctuate wildly

One month, you spend $200 on printer toner, and the next month, it’s $1,800 just because more printers ran out of toner. It all gets lumped into the Office Supply Expense, so it’s hard to identify where the fluctuations are coming from.

• Lack of visibility into how many prints you make monthly or even how many printers you have?

You could walk around every room, look on and under every desk in all your locations, print out a configuration page from each printer, and figure out where the current meter is listed on the four pages of data. That will tell you how many printers you have today. If you do the same thing 30 days later and compare the meter with the first reading, you will get an Average Monthly Volume (based on one month). Then, you will know how many printers you have that day and their estimated Average Monthly Volume. That’s a lot of work, and very few people do it.

• Lack of visibility into how much those prints even cost?

After doing the previous process, you could look at all your invoices from all your providers over the past 12 months and divide that total cost by your Average Monthly Volume times 12 months. That will give you the total Average Cost Per Page for your entire fleet. Unfortunately, not all printers have the exact operation cost. Some printers may cost you $.015 for Black and White and $.10 for Color while others cost $.15 for Black and White and $.45 for Color. In an ideal world, you would like to limit the volumes on the high-cost printers and push that volume over to the low-cost printers. Doing that with good reporting and real-time visibility in your fleet is almost impossible.

The Benefits of our Managed Print Services (MPS) program include:

• Pay only for what you use after you use it.

Instead of paying $100 upfront for a toner cartridge that might last 12 months in a printer, we send you a free one, and you only pay for 1/12th of it each month after you use it. This significantly improves cash flow and eliminates the risk of paying for something you don’t use.

• Parts and Labor are included in the Cost Per Page

When you have a printer malfunctioning or making poor-quality images, we will send a technician to your location at no cost to repair or replace the part (also at no cost). This helps keep landfills from filling up with old laser printers and lowers your total cost of printing.

• Supplies/Toner is included in the Cost Per Page

The Cost Per Page consists of all Black/White and Color toner. When you run low, we will send you a new one at a lower cost. You don’t have to spend time looking all over for someone who has the cartridges you need.

• One invoice per month or quarter for your entire printing expense.

We send you one invoice per month or quarter listing every printer, its beginning and ending meter readings, the cost per page, the total cost for that printer, and the total cost for the fleet.

• Fewer monthly fluctuations in printing cost.

Usually, the actual monthly volume stays relatively stable unless there are seasonal fluctuations or big special projects. However, toner replacements and service calls can come in random bunches some months and cause significant volatility in expenses if you are paying transactionally for those expenses. The Cost Per Page program absorbs those spikes in expenses.

• Full visibility into printer usage and cost by device/department.

You will have all the details of each printer’s usage and costs and can expense that down to the end user department. This will also give you the ability to analyze changes in usage over time. Plus, we are always available to consult with you on the best locations for printers based on usage, Cost Per Page, features, and the age of the equipment.

• Average savings of 20% or more versus managing your printer fleet!

In addition to all the other benefits, our customers save an average of 20% from what they were previously paying to support their printer fleet. We also include Service, Parts, and Labor. When you add it all together and look at the ancillary savings of one invoice and not paying for cartridges that may get thrown away or banished to the “obsolete closet,” you’ll save substantially more.

As part of our program, we proactively assess your fleet performance to help you continually optimize your print environment. Putting the proper devices in suitable locations and eliminating prints on the high-cost-of-ownership devices can save you more money. Giving you reports and visibility into your fleet’s performance gives you the power to make better decisions and increase efficiency and profitability.

If you want to learn more about our MPS program, the first step is to reach out for a free assessment. After a short meeting, we won’t waste your time or ours if we don’t think we can save you around 20% or more. There’s nothing to lose!!