I'm quickly approaching the middle of my second decade as a documemt management specialist, and if there’s one thing of which I’m certain, it’s that while most businesses think they have their document-related spending under control, in reality…most don’t.
Quite often, I hear phrases such as these:
“We just replaced our printers last year. We’re fine”
“We shop the internet to get the best toner pricing for our printers, so we’re good right now.”
“We outsource most of our color printing…it’s cheaper that way.”
…or my personal favorite:
“We’ve had these printers (or copiers) for years, and they’re working fine. There’s no reason to replace them.”
In reality, these statements are “red flags” that usually mean these clients are making financial decisions based on bad data.
I explain to my clients that the age of a printing device (new or old) has little to do with how cost-effective the device is at producing the documents their business creates each day. In fact, many printers today are marketed using the “Gillette Theory”, in which a razor manufacturer will offer a free razor (in this case, a printer), fully counting on the fact that the user will now have to buy blades (toner…get it?). Not usually a good long-term financial solution when applied to printer purchases, however, printer manufacturers have built empires based on this type of marketing.
I explain to my clients that the age of a printing device (new or old) has little to do with how cost-effective the device is at producing the documents their business creates each day. In fact, many printers today are marketed using the “Gillette Theory”, in which a razor manufacturer will offer a free razor (in this case, a printer), fully counting on the fact that the user will now have to buy blades (toner…get it?). Not usually a good long-term financial solution when applied to printer purchases, however, printer manufacturers have built empires based on this type of marketing.
Likewise, the discounted purchase price of a toner cartridge is irrelevant unless also considering the page yield of that cartridge. For instance, that $90 cartridge, purchased at a 10% discount online, has a page yield of 1,150 pages. This supply purchase, often unaudited and seen as a “necessary evil”, generates a cost per page of about 7¢. Outrageous!
Yet another culprit in creating lost profits for a business is the copier that was purchased 5 (or more) years ago. Each year, as the cost of the annual maintenance contract creeps up, the cost per page of this printing device rises, as well. While the acquisition price of this system has long since been depreciated and it appears to now have a $0 cost (speaking acquisition-wise), in actuality, the high cost per page of this system now makes it a financial liability when assessing document costs.
My point here is that managing document-related spending is all about identifying and defining current costs, and then cost-justifying the changes required to reclaim lost profits. Granted, embarking on an audit of this sort may not seem the least bit exciting or exhilarating to most, but to me…well, this is why I come to work each day…and more often than not, it can have a substantial impact on a business’s bottom line.
Let’s get together to discuss your document-related spending.
Brian
bmerson@centricbiz.com
bmerson@centricbiz.com
