So it’s year’s end and you can’t wait to splash the big numbers across your CFO’s desk.  The one year mark on your MPS initiative has passed and things are going reasonably well.  There is still some grumbling about the shared print devices, but you chalk it up to whiny employee syndrome.  So what if you have to wait a little and walk a little for that print job?  Reducing the carbon footprint is a corporate responsibility.  After all, look at how much it is saving your organization.  It’s worth a little labor time to compensate for the huge savings you are going to reveal!

Managed Print Services Myth or Fact Number Three…

Consolidating devices always means big savings and reduction of your carbon footprint

The calculations are in…$0.006 for black and white prints and $0.06 for color saved your organization over 34% by your calculations!  It’s easy math, so no way to argue it.  You submit your yearend report to the CFO and can’t wait to hit him up for the raise.  When you get the call to go to his office, you’re not surprised.  He probably can’t wait to give you not only a raise, but a big fat promotion too!  When you open his door and see the Business Manager and CIO in his office too, you are a bit puzzled.  It seems the Business Office got stuck with the leases and maintenance agreement portion of the MPS agreement and it increased their costs by over 40%.  When those costs were added to the click charges, the actual cost-per-page rate was at 15 cents for mono and 29 cents for a color page.  Not only that, but the page counts increased by 12% over last year so costs went way out of control!

You struggle to find the silver lining.  What about the reduction in the carbon footprint, huh?  With less devices, there is less electricity consumed, less consumable waste.  It’s worth something to exhibit ecological responsibility, wouldn’t you agree?  Then comes the report from new software that measures the kilowatt usage.  Turns out multi-function devices have a lot more moving parts, hence require more energy.  Section two of the report reveals that only 2.5% of the prints were tabloid prints and they were all being printed by 3 end users that are in two departments.  It looks like out of the twelve tabloid multifunction devices you spent significantly more money on, you only needed two with tabloid feature.  Even worse, there was only 10 faxes all year by one end user.  Twelve fax boards totaled an additional $10,788.  Well how could you have known that information?   There were reports that told us who was printing the most and how many pages per job.  Turns out the labor hours lost by users who were printing thousands of 1-4 page jobs a week far exceed any saving possible on a shared device, even if it really only cost .006 and .06.  Wow!  Who would ever have thought that was possible to find out?

Turns out the CIO met with a vendor who offered a free analysis utilizing software that not only could tell what the devices were doing, but end user habits too.

"Would you consolidate your devices?"

So after hearing the “shpeel”(really spelled spiel, but I thought I would let my New York accent come through…) from two copier guys, two printer guys, the office supply guy and your best friend’s mother, you finally have decided to go with consolidating devices  and a cost-per-page program.  Brilliant!  That’s got to mean you’ll save at least 30%!

Managed Print Services Myth or Fact Number Two…

Managed Print Services means Cost-per-Page and device consolidation

So after several meetings and a walk through at your building the simple solution is presented.  Your Managed Print Services provider suggests removing all the desk top devices you already own and replacing them with brand new shared multi-function devices.

Now it’s your turn to shine – you convince the CFO that all the end-user grumbling is worth it; after all, you are instituting healthy habits and saving them the need for a health club membership too!  You couldn’t be happier as your MPS expert assures you that those nasty desktop printers cost you three times as much as the $0.006 you will pay for black and white prints and $0.06 for color.  How can you not save at least 30% when the page cost includes everything but the paper – or does it?

The industry is abuzz with cost-per-page and device consolidation.  Every day we are asked by customers if a cost-per-page is the best billing plan and should they take away all desktop printers.  All I can tell you is “sometimes yes, and sometimes no”.  Without knowing end-user habits like what applications they print from, the job sizes and actual page coverage you can’t say whether a cost-per-page is a money saver, or money sucker.

SO can the MPS expert you have chosen honestly tell you that removing devices will really save costs?  Can he/she provide the total cost of ownership information for the devices they are proposing vs. the ones you already own and honestly tell you that the “clicks” are all you will be paying for?  Where are the hidden costs – lease or purchase price, maintenance fees, or shipping charges?  Have you really found your savior, your Eumaeus, or is this really Melanthus or Eurymachus in disguise?  Are you headed on the course you set out on, the way to saving costs, or are you really headed into the land of the Cyclopes???