Printers, and what they really cost
With printers the purchase is rarely the expense. What counts is the cost per page over five years, and that is not on the box. This page sets out the kinds and says, per kind, where the bill sits.
What falls under it
Five kinds, five different sums
They sit under one heading in the catalogue and solve different things.
- Laser printersThe workhorse of an office. Fast, dry and cheap per page once volume rises. For anything running all day this is the standard.
- InkjetCheaper to buy and dearer per page, unless it is a business inkjet with a refillable tank. At low volumes cartridges dry out, and that is an expense nobody budgets.
- Label printersFor labels that stay on a box and have to survive a scanner. A different machine from a receipt printer, with different consumables and a different lifespan.
- Receipt and till printersFor the counter. They belong with the point-of-sale equipment rather than the office, and are driven by the till software.
- Wide format and specialistPlotters for drawings, card printers for access badges. Separate worlds with their own consumables and their own maintenance.
The real cost
Three things that decide the bill
All three sit outside the quotation for the machine itself.
- The cost per pageToner or ink, divided by the number of pages a filling delivers. Work it out for the machines you are considering: the gap between two printers of the same price grows over five years to a multiple of the purchase.
- Who manages and patches itA network printer is a computer with an operating system and a web interface. It sits on the network, it rarely gets updates, and that makes it one of the easiest ways in there is.
- What comes off the printerPrints left in the tray are both money and a risk. Secure printing (the job only leaves the machine when somebody is standing at it) solves both and costs nothing extra in hardware.
What belongs with this
A printer sits on the network and therefore belongs to more than procurement.
Printing that does not run away
Tell us how much is printed each month and where. You get a proposal with the cost per page worked into the sum, not just the purchase.
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