What Accounting and CFOs Care About
Saving money may be your CFO’s highest priority, and right-sizing the printer, copier and MFP fleet for your office environment can result in a healthier bottom line. Instead of relying solely on purchase price, the smart CFO will want to look at an MFP’s total cost of ownership—in other words, what it costs not only to buy, but also to run the device over the course of its lifetime, factoring in servicing, replacement parts and supplies cost per page (“CPP”). BLI’s total cost of ownership calculator can help bring total cost of ownership into better focus for copiers, printers or MFPs you’re considering, or you can ask each dealer to provide you with possible outcomes.
For example, let’s say Copier A has a retail price of $10,000 with a CPP (including service costs) of two cents, and generates an average of 10,000 pages per month. That will result in a total cost of ownership of about $17,200 over the next three years.
Contrast that with Copier B, which costs $12,000 but has a CPP of only one cent. When running the identical volume, the “more expensive” Copier B’s total cost of ownership is only $15,600, even though its initial purchase price is higher. (In contrast, in a low-volume environment—say, one where output is only about 1,000 pages per month—the lower-priced model may offer a lower overall total cost of ownership, but the only way to know for sure is by calculating the TCO.)
A relatively low TCO is an important part of the value equation, but companies that consider only the lowest prices might be pennywise and pound foolish. For example, if one copier costs $2,000 more than a second copier over its life, and even if that represents a whopping 20% difference in cost, when you consider that you’ll be living with your MFP for years, that $2,000 is really only going to be a few dollars a day.
If you buy the cheapest MFP you can find without considering factors other than price alone, that slight difference in price can be eaten up (and more) by a product that is less reliable, requires more user intervention, doesn’t have a feature you use (such as finishing or color capability) so that you still have to send jobs out to print shops, doesn’t default to energy and resource saving modes (such as sleep mode, duplex mode, toner save mode, etc.). Being armed with information about your own company’s workflow requirements can help you make more informed decisions about which products deliver the best value.
The Right Setup Depends on the Environment
In one office, centralizing operations (by, for example, eliminating dozens of small desktop printers in favor of a single workgroup MFP) can also save money by eliminating the need to buy and store consumables for a wide range of brands and models. Add to that the ability to assign print and copy rights and color privileges (and therefore reduce the potential for employees to use the copier or printer for personal business), and the potential savings can be substantial. In contrast, another company may find that a central copier serves the needs of some workgroups, but key employees (such as the CEO, art director, or accounting) are more efficient using dedicated printers in their offices.
The CFO might also consider the potential cost savings possible by “in-sourcing” jobs that were previously sent out to print or copy shops. A copier with a booklet finisher can produce employee handbooks as effectively as a print shop can, for example, and replacing a black and white copier with one capable of producing color output can allow you to produce presentations in-house instead of having to outsource that type of job. Another source of savings that some businesses overlook is to keep the main paper tray stocked with inexpensive draft-quality paper, with most jobs printed or copied from that main drawer. Learn more about choosing the right paper or recycled paper.
Accounting, Auditing and Service Agreements
Keeping operating costs low may be the CFO’s highest priority, but another critical factor to consider is how well a copier, printer or MFP provides accounting and auditing capabilities.
- Can it track copies, prints, scans and faxes accurately, by user, or department, or device, and generate usage reports?
- Can reports be printed from the device itself, or from the Web, or can data be exported to programs such as Excel?
- And, if your company bills different accounts for services, can usage be tracked according to which account will be billed?
BLI Lab Test Reports, available from your dealer or on bliQ, detail specific accounting and auditing capabilities of each tested machine, and compare those capabilities against those of competitors.
Service agreements are another area where it pays to do a little homework up-front.
- If you’re buying a service agreement, does it cap costs?
- What happens if you go over your monthly volume cap?
- What happens if you don’t meet your minimums?
- Are you responsible for removal and recycling of your old equipment, and if not, can you be assured it will be handled in a way that complies with environmental and data security regulations?
Whether it makes more financial sense to lease or buy depends on your company’s specific cash flow and tax situation, and the majority of businesses lease their copiers and MFPs. Talking to your CFO will give you a better idea of whether buying or leasing is better for your business.