Very few businesses have even the vaguest idea of what printing is costing their organisation. The real cost of print goes way beyond the cost of the hardware.
That’s according to Graeme Victor, CEO of Du Pont Telecom which recently acquired a shareholding in one South Africa’s leading office automation specialist companies, Konica Minolta Corporate Solutions (KMCS).
“Too few businesses look beyond the advertised or quoted cost of office equipment. Yet research organisations like Gartner have estimated that the cost to operate a typical fleet of output devices in the average enterprise ranges from one to three percent of the company’s total annual revenue,” he says.
That takes care of the fixed monthly costs of purchase/rental, consumables, service, maintenance.
However, Victor notes, there are other costs – costs of opportunity and productivity that need to be taken into account. These are the costs associated with missed deadlines, lost deals, angry customers, employee frustration and productivity leakage.
For example, business can literally come to a standstill if the printer/copier/scanner/fax goes down or is too slow to enable a tight deadline to be met. Think of a delivery operation that needs to produce weighbills; or a multi-million tender that has to be submitted in triplicate by a specific time; or a presentation to a new client that has to be printed…
“With these high costs, companies need to look very carefully at how to get the most from their investment in office equipment. And this should start long before the order for the equipment is signed. Purchasers of office equipment must do their homework and ensure they purchase and install a solution that is right for their business.”
Victor emphasises that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ office equipment solution.
For some businesses, a centralised solution could be the way to go: one machine instead of many; one set of maintenance costs instead of many; one set of consumable costs – and possibly a reduction in unnecessary printing if people have to walk some way to retrieve their output.
However the disadvantages of centralised printing solutions include the cost of having highly skilled, high-earning individuals walk long distances to and from the nearest shared printer several times a day, the time and productivity wasted queuing at the printer for a document to emerge, and the risk of highly confidential documents falling into unauthorised hands.
According to Victor, organisations should look at the entire environment and consider such issues as: is it more cost-effective – taking account of productivity and security – to have a smaller printer located closer to a particular individual or group of individuals? Should some individuals rather be allocated desk printers? Should one opt for a multi-function peripheral (MFP) or standalone printers, photocopiers, scanners and faxes? What software can be used to replace or enhance devices?
“And, probably one of the most critical issues from a productivity perspective – what type of load is a printer, photocopier or MFP likely to handle? This is of concern not only to ensure the device remains reliable, but also from a productivity perspective. There is little more frustrating than having a deadline looming while the printer appears to be on a go-slow,” he adds.
And then there’s the machine that breaks down – often at the worst possible time.
Victor maintains that the real problem doesn’t lie with flimsy office equipment that is unreliable or prone to failure. In fact, he says, office equipment failure is often the result of equipment not being correctly specified for an environment or application.
The answer? Correct specification of equipment; a solution that meets the needs of a specific organisation – or department within that organisation; and a preventive maintenance contract that guarantees a satisfactory response to a service call within a specified timeframe.
ends