According to Gartner, the volume of printed pages is increasing at 6% to 8% compound a year, 90% of documents are still held in paper format, an organisation will print approximately 9 million pages for every R1 billion of turnover, 85% of documents that are filed away are never retrieved, up to 40% of help-desk calls are printing related, and printed documents are likely to be costing an organisation an amount equivalent to 1% to 3% of its gross revenue.
These costs are increasing every year as users have access to more information and technology. However, document printing is widely perceived as a free resource because it usually is unmanaged.
A survey conducted by Lexmark in Europe in 2004 found that 61% of financial directors questioned had no idea what their business spent on document production.
Simply by being aware of this substantial cost, organisations can start taking the steps necessary to reduce it, directly impacting on the bottom line.
The true total costs of printing can be broken into three sections: the hardware cost, the running cost and the management cost. Another factor to keep in mind is the return on investment.
Hardware costs
Simply by being aware of this substantial cost, organisations can start taking the steps necessary to reduce it, directly impacting on the bottom line.
Hans Horn, MD, Lexmark South Africa.
Hardware cost is likely to represent anything up to 5% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) and will include the fit for purpose evaluation process, procurement/ordering cost, hardware cost, delivery cost, hardware installation/commissioning costs (to IP address) and driver installation on workstations.
While not a significant portion of the overall picture, most of the purchasing decisions are made only on the hardware and implementation costs. The purchase of a multifunction printer (MFP) will remove the necessity of having to purchase three devices and send these all through the procurement and even accounting departments. Time saving becomes a major factor when considering pre-usage costs.
Running costs
Running costs are often overlooked as it usually is not the responsibility of the purchaser, but of the office administrator, or, in some cases even the main user. Points to consider when looking at direct usage or running costs which can represent up to 45% of TCO include: paper consumption, toner/ink usage, power/electricity and service/maintenance involved to keep the printer up and running.
This is the area where an MFP device`s advantages are most evident. "Clever" printing is easy and effectively achieved through the scanner. Documents can be scanned and e-mailed to multiple users, who can print on demand, and immediately save on toner and paper. Multiple page documents can be scanned in duplex and multi-up, further reducing the number of pages used. The most cost-effective page is the one that is not printed! One consumable needs to be ordered and stored instead of three, one device is powered instead of three, and the space saving is obvious.
Management cost
This is the biggest and the most difficult to control, and can reach to up to 50% of the overall TCO of a printing environment.
Elements directly associated with the management cost can include: bandwidth usage, problem management - help-desk support, change management, inventory management, usage management, user intervention, training, and device decommissioning and disposal.
Getting support staff and service staff to service one machine, as opposed to three, immediately reduces the number of hours for maintenance one would have to cover. A single networked device is more cost-effective than three networked devices, and problem resolution is more immediate - making the MFP a viable option in this case.
Measuring the return
Return is the value you get back from the deployment and usage of a device. Was it a necessary expenditure and did it fulfil the necessary needs? Did the device reduce your paper consumption and improve user productivity and efficiency?
In addition to these simple truths about TCO, it is recommended that organisations do not look at document production merely as a cost to the business. Instead, they should adopt the approach of investing in the correct type of technology that will deliver real business value.
Wise investments in technology can become a source of income as well as a means of enhancing current operations in terms of productivity, efficiency, shorter business process cycle times, and improved customer service levels.
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