In the last ten years, office printing costs have become a significant budget item. In fact, according to the Gartner Group, office printing costs comprise 1%-3% of total corporate revenues. Analysts also estimate that office printing costs are increasing at an annual rate of 20%-40%.

There are a few key reasons for the increase in office printing costs, mainly:

A staggering increase in office printing volumes. According to the Boston consulting group the consumption of cut sized paper (Letter/A4 etc.) has doubled between 1996 - 2003.

The increasing usage of new enterprise applications, like ERP systems, enterprise portal etc., which are graphic intensive and use more toner during printing.

Reduction in the user per printer ratio, from 15:1 in the past to 4:1. This reduction leads to printing inefficiency, waste and most importantly, an inability to manage, monitor and optimize the printer fleet and users' printing  activities.   

How much does it really cost?

The cost of consumables per page can be calculated by adding the cost of a toner/ink cartridge divided by the real pages yield, plus the cost of a drum divided by the real pages yield and the cost of a maintenance kit divided by average yield per kit. Please note: the average actual coverage of a printed page is around 10%, which means that a cartridge that is supposed to yield 6000 pages at 5% coverage, in a real office environment will yield only slightly over 3000 pages. the same applies for drums.   (See calculation example)    (See page coverage examples)

Estimated annual spending*