Many midsize and larger companies have dozens of desktop, laser printers throughout their facilities. In most cases these laser printers were purchased with no maintenance agreement and no supply agreement leaving departmental managers or IT managers to waste countless hours dealing with printer maintenance and supply issues.
Not only can this be an incredible drain on these manager’s valuable time but it also can be very expensive. Let’s examine some of the challenges with companies that have to manager their own printer fleets without the benefit of a support agreement:
- Expensive printer cartridges – Printer cartridges are very expensive with an average cost of $125.00 for a black laser printer cartridge and an average cost of $150.00 for a color laser printer cartridge. Using the formula that each printer will use an average of 1 cartridge every two months that means that each printer is using $75.00 a month in toner alone.
- Backup cartridge inventory – most companies choose to keep at least one backup cartridge for every machine in their printer fleet. When you consider that each color printer uses four individual cartridges it quickly becomes a costly endeavor to maintain this stock of inventory sitting on a shelf in a supply closet. A company with a fleet of 20 black printers + 10 color printers will have to maintain 60 cartridges on their shelf. These 60 cartridges equate to approximately $9,000.00 just sitting on a closet shelf.
- Wasted Time – Often it is the IT Manager or Office Manager that is responsible for dealing with service issues such as paper jams, lines on the copies, maintenance kit replacement etc. In the case of an IT Manager handling these menial tasks takes away valuable time from his core responsibility of maintaining the computer network. In the case of an office manager these menial tasks mean arranging for a chargeable service visit from an overpriced printer service vendor that may take several days to address the issue. In either cases a company’s valuable personnel is regularly investing time to deal with the maintenance and supply issues that regularly arise in the ongoing maintenance of a fleet of printers.
The solution to the expense and wasted time is to consider a Printer Fleet Management Agreement – Many office equipment companies offer Printer Fleet Management Agreements that include all service, maintenance, parts and supplies to maintain each and every printer in your fleet. In most cases it will cost less for a company to have this all-inclusive, full coverage supply and maintenance program than they would otherwise pay to handle the situation themselves.
Not only will a company save money but they will eliminate the need to have their own staff wasting valuable on printer issues. A Printer Fleet Management Agreement will not only save money but it will allow your staff to use their time to address more important matters.
Contact your local, office equipment provider and ask for a Printer Fleet Management quote and cost evaluation today. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much you will save to have somebody else handle a job.
