{"id":7144,"date":"2018-05-11T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uniprint.net\/?p=7144"},"modified":"2025-10-16T12:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:25:10","slug":"tco-of-printing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniprint.net\/en\/tco-of-printing\/","title":{"rendered":"TCO of Printing: 5 Issues that Are Affecting Your Hardcopy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"5<\/p>\n

What is the hardcopy TCO of Printing?<\/h4>\n

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of printing refers to the overall cost of owning printers. This comprises of the costs of acquiring printers, along with the continuous expenses related to supplies and maintenance for the printing devices over the course of their lives.<\/p>\n

Studies show that very few enterprise IT managers and departments pay attention to monitoring their printing costs<\/a>! However, through detailed assessment and tracking of the TCO of printing, firms tend to discover significant opportunities to drastically reduce their printing costs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll look at five key issues that drive the hardcopy TCO of printing in today\u2019s enterprise-printing world!<\/p>\n

1. Ratio of Printers to Users<\/h4>\n

Gartner<\/a> reports that large firms tend to have a far greater number of printers than they require, averaging out to one printer per 4 users.<\/p>\n

There may be various reasons behind such findings, however, one key reason may be the affordable pricing of personal printers in today\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

Gartner points to another major problem being that employees tend install old and disposed printers into their personal offices.<\/p>\n

In any case, firms operating a greater number of printers will incur higher costs, ultimately leading to a higher TCO of printing.<\/p>\n

2. Desktop vs. Departmental Printers<\/h4>\n

This factor has a direct correlation to the ratio of printers to users, as discussed above.<\/p>\n

With the price of personal desktop printers being extremely affordable in today\u2019s world, workers in many firms have resorted to installing their own personal printers rather than using the department\u2019s shared printers.<\/p>\n

Although the low price of individual printers might seem to justify this trend, consumables such as ink and toner heavily outweigh the savings of purchase costs.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Gartner reports that the per page consumable expenditures are costlier for individual printers as compared to department printers.<\/p>\n

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Interested in learning more about how you can reduce your printing costs? Check out this free whitepaper on considerations for reducing print costs<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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3. Number of Printer Models Used for Printing<\/h4>\n

Without a detailed and established strategy to manage printing resources, an enterprise can easily accumulate excess equipment, consisting of old and non-functional printer models.<\/p>\n

This inevitably leads to an increased TCO of printing due to wasted money spent on equipment which may not even be in use!<\/p>\n

Gartner reports many instances of enterprises spending money on support contracts, printer driver updates, and help desk related expenses for printers that had previously been detached and placed in storage!<\/p>\n

4. Age of Printing Equipment<\/h4>\n

Older printing devices are more likely to:<\/p>\n