Many businesses and organizations require printed materials. Whether you are a small company that needs to invoice their customers, a lawyer who needs to print client documents, a marketing firm that needs to print art proofs, or even a university or school handing out learning materials to your students, printed materials are often a valuable part of what you do. But let me ask you:
Do you know how much that full color marketing brochure is actually costing your business?
What about the agenda notes for every Thursday sales meeting?
How about the 50 page report you print every month for your company meeting?
Printing costs add up…and for most companies, the cost of office printing (cost per printed page, routine maintenance, and service calls) is an unexplored opportunity for considerable savings.
Whether you are creating promotional materials and information for business meetings, or memos for your company, there are always more cost-effective ways of managing your printing needs.
If you find that your company seems to go through paper and toner at high-rates, seems to have high or uncontrolled printing costs, or just doesn’t have a handle on printing efficiency, then perhaps it is time to consider managed print services (MPS) as a way to help your business streamline your print needs.
Here at Parmetech, we pride ourselves on our MPS experience and expertise; we have a long successful track record helping our clients reduce their print and copy costs while improving their security and processes. We’ve created the Ultimate Guide to Managed Print Services to give you a one-stop resource for everything you need to know about MPS. Read on to learn more about how MPS can save your business money and improve efficiency!
What is Managed Print Services
Managed print services (MPS) is a way of letting you, the business leader, take control of all of your business’s printing requirements. It allows you to see what you are spending money on in terms of printing and also bring spending back into line with your company’s printing budget.
When we say “printing,” we are talking about all print outs that are being made directly by your staff, whether in the office or from a remote location. This includes all types of devices – from printers, scanners, copiers, and fax machines – whether they are for small or large work groups, and ranging from infrequent prints to daily, high-volume usage.
Printing costs consist of any consumables used in the printing process such as toner, drums, maintenance kits, and waste cartridges. Other costs incurred can include parts and labor associated with the breakdown and repair of a device. Then, of course, comes any IT services related to printing. This includes setting up drivers and managing access to the relevant printers from any terminals required, and all of the ongoing service desk support required to ensure that your devices are performing at their best.
Overspending and wastage in your company’s printing could be quite costly to your business, and you need to know that you are not hemorrhaging money. Did you know that the average business eats up anywhere between 5% and 15% of its annual revenue on document costs?1 Spending money on printing that is not necessary is not only problematic to the environment but is also a waste of your company’s money, resources and, most importantly, time.
If you have unproductive printing habits within your team, then this is something that you should be looking to manage and nip in the bud. No matter the size of your organization, your printing infrastructure is vital and needs to be reliable.
Signs That You Need Managed Print Services
Buyer’s Lab reports that 90% of companies fail to track printing costs.2
Managed print services can be a great benefit to businesses and organizations of all sizes. Of course, the bigger your company, the more chances there are of wastage, but quite often, smaller companies can easily fall into bad habits around their print management due to a lack of policies and procedures surrounding them.
The Gartner Group has found that many companies can potentially reduce their printing expenditures by anywhere from 10% to 30%.3 Implementing better print management with a long-term MPS strategy will not only ensure that you are operating efficiently and productively, but help you to reduce operating costs as well.
There are many signs that your company could benefit from managed print services:
- You notice staff members with print outs of emails or other information that could quite easily remain in digital form
- You see members of your team printing off reams and reams of paper
- You see printouts of documents in color when really only black and white was necessary
- You see unclaimed documents left in the output tray when you go to use the printer
- Your supply closet has stacks of unused toner, possibly for machines you don’t even have anymore
- You have invoices from multiple vendors for supplies, service, and hardware
- You run out of toner or ink and don’t have a replacement supply
Bad habits such as these may seem small and trivial at the time, but when looked at across the entirety of your company, can amount to significant spending that could be avoided. With this high level approach, you can see the opportunity for improvements with efficiency and spending.
