Printing and document management might be a significant hidden cost within your business.

Research suggests that 52% of business stakeholders don’t know how much they’re spending on printing. And this is perhaps no surprise when you consider how common it is for print management to be outsourced.

Calculating the ROI of your print services is key to ensuring the costs don’t spiral out of control, and in this post we look at how you can reveal the true figures involved.

There are six areas to consider:

1. Devices

If there’s always a printer nearby, it’s unlikely users will think before they print.

Retaining too many printers will play havoc with your printing budget and cost-per-device. This is why the best MPS providers will assess your current infrastructure and calculate the ratio of printers to employees.

For instance, single-user desktop printers can often be replaced by workgroup alternatives and if devices are spread fairly and evenly among users, your print ROI should naturally increase.

2. Consumables

Over the lifetime of a device, the consumables it uses will normally dwarf the original capital outlay.

By reducing the number of printers available, businesses can drastically cut down on annual running costs by maximising the use of consumables.

The more usage you get out of one cartridge for example (rather than it lying dormant for long stretches of time), the more return you’ll get on that seemingly innocuous investment.

3. Support and maintenance

To determine the true cost of ownership, you’ll need to include support and maintenance fees within your ROI calculations.

The key lies in quantifying these costs by attributing the monthly support used to each device.

Common printer issues such as paper jams and driver installations can be an expensive drain on IT support resources, but a highly-optimised printing environment that’s faster to administer and proactive in predicting maintenance requirements will result in fewer print-related issues and therefore a far more cost-effective use of support services.

4. Usage

There are two methods you can use to calculate the ROI of your printing devices based on usage:

• Average Monthly Colour Volumes (AMCV): the average cost of colour printing in terms of paper and ink.
• Average Monthly Mono-colour Volumes (AMMV): The cost of black ink cartridges is significant, despite the fact that printing in black and white tends to be cheaper per sheet.

5. Productivity

Document management solutions overcome the common problems associated with printing and productivity (e.g inability to locate information quickly, duplicated effort, problems sharing physical documents, etc).

The time taken to manage printed documents will reveal its impact on ROI when you calculate the hours required and the impact it has on output.

By reducing your reliance on print and embracing digital transformation, your business will have more immediate access to information that provides a measurable ROI.

6. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Benefits to CSR as a result of reduced paper and power usage may seem intangible, but they form an essential part of your ROI.

Cost savings typically come from behavioural change, therefore if you can educate your users on why a reduction in print is both environmentally and economically beneficial, the cost savings should come naturally.

The right MPS provider will help you foster this culture through schemes such as gamified printing policies (i.e. competing with colleagues to print less) and software configuration that forces more cost-effective modes of printing.

An ongoing process

You’ll need to demonstrate continuous value as the business and its print environment matures, which is why the six tips above should be an ongoing exercise.

Measuring the ROI of your print services is a task that needs to become a natural part of your business strategy.