Colour printing was always something of a luxury in the past. As a result of costs, for both the equipment and the consumables, use was strictly limited and even reserved for “professional” purposes, such as quality reproduction of photographic images.
Today, there are compelling reasons to use colour more widely in the business context, quite apart from the needs of customers in the publishing area, where it is a necessity.
Firstly, costs are much less than they used to be. Looking at the average, mid-range devices, the equipment cost has come down by about 10% a year in the past three years.
An A4 colour laser printer is about R8 000 today, whereas three years ago it would have been about R17 000. Features such as network cards and duplex printing are now standard. A couple of years ago, these were optional extras with additional costs.
An A3 colour MFP is now about R65 000, compared to over R90 000 a couple of years ago. This also has standard features that were previously charged as extras - and improved quality of reproduction.
In black and white
The cost of running colour reproduction equipment has also come down. For business purposes, as opposed to professional quality, standard papers can be used and the cost of colour inks and toner is less than it was when it was first introduced. Maintenance cycles on quality machines are longer and vendors will set up contracts that cover specific needs at attractive prices.
Organisations of all sizes will often set up their equipment - and the contracts that go with it - so high-volume, everyday printing is still done in monochrome on normal black-and-white printers, but specific personnel or departments will have network access to colour printing for special projects like brochures and other marketing materials.
The technology has also improved so a letterhead can be printed with spot colour for the company logo, but the rest of the document is in normal monochrome. This means colour toner is not being used for what is mainly black print on a white page.
Generally, colour printing is still more costly than monochrome. It can be anything from three to five times the cost per page, depending on the equipment, reproduction quality and the precise terms of the contract.
Colour does, however, have compelling advantages that make it a preferred choice. Over the last few years, the market share of colour devices has increased by double-digit percentages annually. It is obvious that customers have realised the advantages.
Looking good
The first aspect is that colour or spot-colour documents look more professional - but colour is not just a “nice to have” feature.
The international research group IDC did some extensive studies on this and the report they issued last year has some surprising results.
The technology has also improved so a letterhead can be printed with spot colour for the company logo, but the rest of the document is in normal monochrome.
Michael Powell is product marketing manager at Kyocera Mita SA.
The report notes that generic use of colour in the typical office context requires some innovation to get the best return on investment. IDC points out that nearly everyone recognises the value of colour in the marketing area. The study highlights the improvements in other areas that result from strategic use of colour documents:
* Awareness and comprehension: 80% improved.
* Communication and selling of ideas: 88% improved.
* Learning and recall: improved between 55% and 78%.
* Timely payment of invoices: 30% improved.
Apart from the direct impacts above, it is noted in the IDC report that specific categories of documents benefit greatly from colour reproduction: presentations, training guides, manuals, newsletters, specification sheets, reports and analyses.
Timing is everything
This is what we mean by strategic deployment. As with all systems and business processes, customers need to plan when they invest in colour devices. They need to know what their essential usage profile is - how much is best done in colour and how much in monochrome.
Then customers can put in the devices that meet the usage needs. After that, the primary concern is managing the usage and having policies in place to prevent intentional or accidental abuse of the equipment.
As we have said before, a customer cannot derive maximum value from their equipment investments without proper planning and implementation. Vendors can often offer the expert consulting services to support these aspects.
When putting usage policies in place for the users, it is critically important that these are communicated, understood and enforced. This is essential to ensure the savings achieved are not being eroded by incorrect usage.
There are a number of third-party management software solutions that support auditing and control of who is using the equipment and what jobs they are running.
Once the right equipment is in place, properly managed with systems and policies - and supported by expert vendor consulting -all the benefits of colour documents can be reaped.
* Michael Powell is product marketing manager at Kyocera Mita SA.
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