The faithful printer will be found in every office. The dream of a paperless office is still a distant one, even with all of the cloud and digital options available to us. Given that the printer is here to stay for a little while longer, let’s take a look at some considerations to lower the price of owning one.
A simple place to start is looking at the consumables cost themselves. For many, they will be buying the toners for all of their printers from the same place they always have, often this would be the stationary company. If you haven’t shopped around recently then you are likely to be paying over the odds for your toner you may be surprised the difference this can be too. The last customer we helped review the cost of their toners saved approximately £400+VAT every quarter just by buying the same toners from We Do Your IT Supplies Limited rather than from their stationary company. It doesn’t always amount to this much but worth checking!
This is a little bit of a tricky one. Non-genuine cartridges can cost 75% less than the genuine ones, however, they are not supported by the manufacturers and can void the warranty of the printer itself. Our rule of thumb is if the printer itself costs less than £200 (so a small one) and you are likely to save this amount in year one by buying the non-genuine one then they are probably worth the gamble. For any large printer and certainly for any toners that don’t offer savings as great as the cost of the printer itself then it’s not worth risking. For those that do try non-genuine toners, make sure you buy from a reputable seller who are able to offer after sales support and other customer reviews.
Most of us are inherently lazy and it often shows in our printer choices! Many offices will have small printers dotted around on almost everyone’s desk. Some will claim they need to print confidential material but in reality, its driven by the desire not to have to get out of your seat to collect your printing. This is obviously quite understandable, however, using lots of small printers is likely to be increasing your costs considerably.
As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the printer the higher the printing costs per page. Likewise, each printer is another one to maintain on the network, to update and install, to manage its consumables and a need to hold spare toners or cartridges. Having one large copier/printer almost always works out to be cheaper. This can be accompanied by a small ‘back up’ printer for emergencies but a quick cost analysis will often show a saving by using a single bigger printer than lots of little ones.
When you buy a printer, many people simply focus on the cost of the initial purchase. What many people miss is the price per page printing costs, maintenance costs and setup costs. Here are some things to look for:
The toners for different printers may cost the same but are likely to have different amounts of ‘ink’. Using the price per page cost given by many printer suppliers will help you gauge which printer/toner option offers the best value
Depending on the printer itself, there can be other consumables such as imaging drums, fuser units or waste toner bottles. Some of these can be quite expensive and most will vary massively depending on the printer.
Make sure that you know all of the features that you need so you can get the correct printer first time. For example, you may require duplex printing, multiple trays, network connectivity or scanning/copying functions maintaining fewer devices will almost always be cheaper.
We Do Your IT Supplies can help with the process of sourcing, costing and supply of your next printer or toner. We have years of experience of pointing our customers in the right direction with these types of purchases.
