In the current economic climate, companies are more than ever seeking ways to curb unnecessary expenditure. What most companies don't realise, according to Oc'e South Africa's Stephen Bell, is that printing - even black and white documents - on a colour digital printer is a costly exercise for the corporate office.
He says: “As office-printing expenditures continue to climb, business managers are seeking ways to uncover the hidden costs of that process. Printing a colour document on a colour digital system can cost up to 200 times more than printing a black and white document on a black and white digital printer.”
Over the past few years, the trend has been to introduce colour office printers across the board, giving all members of a company access to full colour digital printing. However, such a move adds considerable running costs to the company's bottom line and overlooks a simple business principle: when does being able to print in colour justify the costs thereof? The answer is simple, according to Bell. Only when the document is client-facing, is the cost justified.
He says: “All documents for internal consumption should be printed in black and white as the cost differential between a black and white print and a colour print is just too prohibitive in today's economic climate.”
However, the cost implications go beyond printing in merely black and white or colour. The cost of doing a black and white print on a colour digital printer is also to be considered. Bell says: “If companies really want to reduce their printing overheads without compromising on their service offering, they should convert their entire internal workflow to black and white without exception.”
Bell concludes: “In my opinion, there is no real justification for introducing colour for internal company documents. Business should rather focus its colour activities on external clients and partners.”
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