It is estimated that 1 – 3% of a company’s annual revenues are consumed by printing as stated by Gartner Group while IDC states that print volumes are declining by 1 – 2% per year.

Most companies and organizations have a good idea of what they are spending on printers, copiers, toner and paper, but have no idea what the impact is to performance when they need to be serviced.  Now day’s organizations have a split support environment between copiers and printers.  A copier company services the copier, while the IT department maintains the printers.  However, printer manufacturers are bringing inexpensive “Multi-Function Printers” (MFP’s) to market that further blurs the lines between copier and printer.  Thus the roll of the IT department and copier service provider gets confused.  These MFP’s scan, fax and print in B/W AND color making it very easy to dramatically increase the cost to print.  The MFP’s require computer drivers and integration into your network resources and this is clearly the responsibility of IT.  When you begin use the copier like copier, and it needs to be serviced, the wear and tear requires a local service provider to get it running again.  What is largely unaccounted for in this arrangement is the amount of time that IT spends trouble shooting these MFP’s.  It is estimated that 50% of the help desk calls into an IT department are printer related and distracts your critical IT resources from more important productivity issues.  Worse, if you do not have an IT department, the “power user” stops what they are doing and digs into the problem with mixed results but always consuming a lot of time.

A solid print management strategy that focuses on;

1. Rightsizing your existing fleet of printers.  This is done with a print study that determines print volumes, locations and manufacturers of all printers in your organization.

2. Utilize the benefits of the Multi-Function Printer.  These printers are well designed, energy efficient and offer many excellent features.

3. Purchase competitively.  The hardware is not the goal of the manufacturer, it’s the supplies.  Leverage your buying power of the base unit for all its worth.

4. Maintain control of the fleet.  Adjustments will have to be made.  Equipment will have to be retired and printers be returned to some desktops for special needs.  Be ready for change management.

The bottom line in print management strategies is that an organization can trim 10 – 30% from there spend on document production.  Not only can a good print management strategy hit your bottom line, it can also return your critical resources to work faster.