Three Printing Stats That Are Terrifying to Your IT Budget

When I start talking with potential new clients, I often find that their companies massively overlook print spend as a major culprit behind their rapidly depleting budgets or chronic over-expenditures. 

However, a short discussion on the real numbers behind print spend quickly makes them realize how much money they might currently be throwing away.

For example, few know that on average, businesses waste 14 percent of their revenue on document and print-related inefficiencies. Just imagine what those teams could accomplish with 14 percent of their revenue back—and that’s just the beginning.

Here are three more printing stats that should make you think twice about your current print management system or lack thereof:

1. About 50% of Help Desk Calls are Printer-Related

Printing is an essential function in almost every office—and employees print a lot. However, if you’ve got older equipment, you risk wasting time as employees call the IT desk to help with paper jams, faulty printing or scanning, and any other issues that may arise.

A study by Gartner estimates that as much as 50% of Help Desk calls are printer-related! This means that your IT staff’s time is closely tied to how your office printers are functioning. If something’s not right, they’re spending their day fixing small issues, and their ability to help execute your overall IT strategy is severely limited.

But it’s not just the time wasted that should scare you here. Say each printer-related help desk call takes 20 minutes to answer, and your IT desk gets 100 calls a day. This means that your team is spending 460 minutes a day—over seven hours—on print-related calls. You can do the math to see how much of your payroll is directly affected by print.

2. On average, employees print 10,000 pages per year

Not only is that a lot of ink and paper. It’s also a lot of money! If you did the math, those 10,000 pages would equate to about $725 annually per person. That $725 adds up quickly when multiplied by hundreds of workers.

Now, just take a moment to think about what you may have printed over the last year—the presentations for meetings, slide shares, contracts, proposals, and even (gasp!) emails all take up a fair amount of paper, especially if you’re making copies and going through multiple drafts. And if you’re printing from the Internet, there’s often a page at the end with nothing but a URL on it, and that page goes straight to the trash.

When you factor in everything, it’s pretty easy to get to that 10,000 page number. It’s also not so great for maintaining an eco-friendly office). According to the Sierra Club, those 10,000 pages of paper is equal to just about one tree.

So, how many trees did your office use last year?

Printing Checklist

3. MPS can reduce operating costs by 30 percent

One of the best (and easiest) solutions to save time (and trees) while reducing costs in your print environment is to work with a strong Managed Print Services partner, also known as an MPS.

While reorganizing and redeveloping print processes internally can be challenging and time-consuming, a managed print service can do all that and leave you with up to 30 percent more in your print budget than before.

But that 20 to 30 percent isn’t just an arbitrary range of numbers. Here’s where it comes from:

  • Managed print can reduce hardware costs from 25 to 60 (!) percent
  • Managed print is responsible for a 10 to 15 percent reduction in wasted output, meaning 10 to 15 percent less you have to pay in any “per page” print agreement
  • A 30 percent reduction in energy consumption
  • A 20 percent reduction in toner consumption

When you add all these up, you get some major savings to your overall IT budget. But it’s not just savings that these stats show. It’s about efficiency. Your company works better, prints less, and needs less print-related IT help—setting everyone up for a greater amount of success.

Learn more about how working with an MPS can enhance your print security and reduce print-related costs by 20-30%. Schedule a no-obligation 15-minute discovery call with imageOne today!

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