As companies grow and add employees a common byproduct of this growth is an ever expanding fleet of desktop printers. Over the course of years laser printers seem to multiply like mushrooms until many companies end up with more individual printers than employees. Often this fleet of printers can be made up of a hodge-podge of different brands and types of printers used for a variety of different tasks. Some printers are used primarily for color printing, others primarily for printing checks and some are used just so individual employees don’t have to leave their desks to lay hands on a printed page. This glut of desktop printers can have an un-desirable result including but not limited to; high cost of maintaining replacement toner and ink cartridges, wasted time searching for service to repair issues and lost productivity due to the in-efficient nature of inexpensive desktop printers.
Benefits of consolidating desktop printers to more efficient and cost effective workgroup printers;
- Workgroup printers generally come with all inclusive service agreements that eliminate the need to search for service and support each time an issue arises.
- Workgroup printers generally come with all inclusive supply agreements that include the toner and in many cases include a back up shelf stock of toner to ensure the end user is never out of toner.
- Workgroup printers generally cost a fraction as much to print a page as the cost to print the same page on a desktop printer.
- Workgroup printers are generally of a higher quality manufacture and provide better image quality, faster print speed and greater reliability than desktop printers.
- Workgroup printers offer higher yield supplies and larger paper supplies resulting in less downtime in response to consumable replacement.
- Workgroup printers generally offer a host of efficiency enhancing features not found in desktop printers; 11” x 17” printing, high speed scanning, account tracking and more.
In summary, often companies find that they are spending more money to operate and maintain a fleet of mismatched printers that are modestly efficient at best than they would spend to upgrade to workgroup printers that have proven to be faster, more efficient and reliable. Many office equipment suppliers offer a detailed, complimentary evaluation to determine the best printing solution for your company. In many cases these companies can show you exactly how many pages you are printing, exactly what the prints are costing your company on a monthly basis and exactly how much you would save by switching to workgroup printers. It’s always better to know than not and once you have the information on your company’s usage and costs than you can make an informed decision on what makes the most sense for you.
