Total Cost of Printer Ownership

Are you in a situation where you are needing to purchase a new printer?  When printers are purchased for personal and commercial use, factors like durability and wear and tear, pages per minute, and life expectancy are thoughts to consider.  PC Mag reported “You have to make assumptions about how long you'll own the printer—the usual assumption is three years—and how much of each kind of page—monochrome, color, and photos—you'll print. Kodak says its research shows that the average home user prints 800 pages of black text, 550 pages of color graphics, and 150 photos per year. HP uses very different numbers based on information gathered by Lyra Research—roughly 550 pages of black text, 275 color pages, and 72 photos per year.”

It’s almost crazy to believe but it costs close to $4,731.00 per gallon for printer ink.

Printer Ink!

Printer Ink is more expensive than vintage champagne, rare whiskey, and Russian caviar according to PC World reported this almost ten years ago.

And not much has changed since.

These days, printer ink will still run you about $20.00 to $35.00 per tiny cartridge, each yielding from 400 to 1000 printed pages. In fact, unlike everything else in the world of consumer electronics, ink prices are going up--as much as 30 percent since 2009.
  
In a business where hundreds of pages are being printed each day, those costs are significant. It’s easy to dismiss a single page coming out of the machine as inconsequential, but with a price per printed sheet (per color used) now hitting anywhere between 3 and 10 cents, a business that goes through 500 sheets a week could be spending $2,600.00 annually on printing--and many times that if staffers regularly print in color.

Inkjet printers are not the only culprits for high cost of ownership printing - small laser printers sold at your larger office retail outlets (such as Office Depot or Office Max) are more costly than most might seem.  Some of these units are attractive with relatively low-up front cost but over time, you will spend more on 'cost of ownership' than expected.  

A general rule – the lower the cost to acquire a printer, the more the printer costs to operate.  There is a reason inkjet printers are practically given away.  Like we stated above, the ink in an inkjet printer is more expensive than some of the finest perfumes.

For MFPs, the reverse is true.  The cost of acquisition is very high compared to the cost or operation.

Copier and Printer vendors will tout the low cost of operations but not factor in the monthly lease payment as part of the total cost of operation.

Printing is a substantial business expense, but ultimately you have more control over it than you might think. Sure, some printing--packing slips, mailing labels, legal paperwork, and so on--may be unavoidable, but there’s a lot you can do to cut printing costs. There is one sure way to help not only identify how much you are spending monthly, per printer and per page - perform a Printer Fleet Analysis.  The MPS Group performs these analysis' for your business - for free.

In the Printer Fleet Analysis (PFA), we help you develop a strategy, establish a baseline and treat the printer as an asset.  We also monitor, measure and manage your equipment to measure and adjust on a continuing ongoing basis.  

The comprehensive study brings to the surface your total cost of ownership exposing - down to the penny - your cost per print.   After we engage with our client finding out their specific needs and goals, we can put together a cost-saving solution that will not only increase functionality and improve processes it will also lower costs - immediately.