Hidden Costs of Printing

What are the hidden costs of printing? When it comes to printing, copying, and faxing, businesses either can’t track expenses, don’t track expenses, or track expenses with a simple cost-per-page formula. When calculating these costs, most companies account for the price of paper and toner cartridges but forget about many other contributing factors. This blog examines the hidden costs of printing in your organization!

How Big is the Problem?

The general office budget for “supplies”, especially the ink and toner consumed for printing, faxing, and copying, can quickly erode a large portion of your total budget. Gartner estimates the average business spends up to three percent of their total annual revenue on print-related expenses. The good news is with proper focus, and by creating an active management process, the costs associated with printing, faxing, and copying are quickly reduced.
Instead of making cost-per-page the determining factor, it’s important to understand the hidden costs of printing. If you don’t consider all of the hidden costs, it can be easy to underestimate your business’ print spending.

Here’s a look at what really makes up the true cost of printing, and why it matters.

The Hard Costs of Printers and Copiers

The cash IT spends on desktop printers (MFP) and small multifunction copiers (MFC) is one of the first hidden costs of printing. This is usually in the form of either IT budget expenses or departmental spending. Your accounting department will have this information. The lower priced (consumer) printers are often viewed as a “throw away” asset and can be a hole in the bottom of the bucket.

Service and Maintenance Costs

Printer repair and service is being completed by someone today. The next item on the list of hidden costs of printing is labor. Routine repair and service can be performed by a number of people throughout the day. The interruption caused by a faulty print device takes labor away from other mission-critical tasks inside your organization. If the IT department responds to printing issues, they may be delaying a high priority security project.

If departmental employees are providing services they may be putting customers facing tasks at risk. Either way, the labor consumed often gets overlooked when examining the true cost of print in your organization.

Life Cycle of Equipment

Holding on to old technology is the final hidden cost of printing. We often hear that “we own” our printers and copiers; they are not costing us anything. While this appears to be a valid statement on the surface, technology goes much deeper than the depreciation schedule of an asset. Not keeping up with technology may be putting your organization further behind the competition. Productivity features of modern technology make workflow faster and simpler; thereby saving your employees’ time and the company money.

In addition to productivity improvements, devices continue to enhance the network security of the information they store and transmit. Keeping old technology beyond its useful life may be putting your organization at a huge disadvantage.

Conclusion – Hidden Costs of Printing

Texas Document Solutions provides office technology consulting & financial services for all major brands including Canon, Sharp, Copystar, Ricoh, Konica, Kyocera, Toshiba, Xerox, HP, Lexmark, Brother, Savin, and Gestetner.

Our process starts with an in-depth discovery process. We analyze all document workflow within your organization and provide a comprehensive business analysis that outlines opportunities for improvements in technology and workflow. We assist you in determining all of your hidden costs of printing in your organization!