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ResourcesFive warning signs that an office is overspending on printers, toner and copier repairs, and what to do about each one.
Scott Townsend, UrFleet, Edmonton
Printing rarely shows up as a big line on the budget, which is exactly why it gets expensive. These are the five signs we see most often when we walk into an Edmonton office for an assessment.
If someone orders cartridges when a printer starts complaining, you're paying retail prices, rush shipping and the cost of their time. You also tend to end up with a cupboard full of toner for printers you no longer own.
Small desktop printers cost little to buy and a lot to run. Their cartridges produce far fewer pages per dollar than a shared copier. A handful of them can quietly cost more than the main machine.
A mix of brands means a mix of supplies, drivers and service companies. It's harder to keep stock, harder to support, and nearly impossible to know what you're spending overall.
When the copier goes down and you have to find someone to fix it, you're paying for downtime as well as the repair. Devices that are monitored remotely often show warning signs well before they fail.
If you can't put a number on your annual print spend, you can't manage it. That's the most common sign of all, and the easiest to fix. Here's how to work out your cost per page.
Start by counting your devices and gathering last year's toner and repair receipts. If the total surprises you, a managed print program can usually bring it down and take the ordering and repairs off your team's plate.
Tell us what you run today and we'll show you where the money goes and how to lower it. We respond within 2 hours during business hours.