What Cost The Real Cost of Print

Budgets are Hard

Managing a budget and cost efficiency can be hard for businesses, yet it is a key priority in making or breaking your company or department’s future growth. To quote Dave Ramsay, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” As business owners and managers, it is our responsibility to be good stewards with our finances. In business it has an exponential impact on not just you, but your workers and the communities you serve. Keeping control of this area of business is a good purpose to fulfill, but how often do you look at the cost of what you print as a way to become a better financial steward? Will dive into the real cost of print.

What does an office document cost per page?

All Associates produces a periodical EDAM Insight Guide that analyzes data from 4,200 organizations to provide document management figures for better budget decisions. They formulate an individual document cost on average 57.1¢ for the average business. We’ll break down the details below.

Visible Hard Costs- 3.5¢ 

Making the document happen falls into this cost category. Printer, Copier, Scanner devices & supplies (toner & ink) are factored into this calculation. Grouped with this is the paper stock used, on-site technician labor, power & service charges as well.

IT Infrastructure & User Support- 5.4¢

Getting your devices delivered, installed & configured comes with a cost as well. Setting up print server hardware, IP ports, print management and security, document elements (fonts, images & etc), IT staff support, 3rd party break-fix repairs and parts source all contribute to this section’s cost.

Administration, Purchasing & Facilities- 2.6¢

Managing the departments, facilities & purchasing process for documents throughout the business are an overlooked cost area. This includes FTE dept. staff, real-estate, requisitioning inventory management (storage, delivery, receiving), P.O. invoice administration, vendor relationship management, contract management & spend / auditing reporting.

User Document Creation & Production- 15.9¢

The tools used to produce the document are grouped in this section. Examples would be computers, operating systems, document creation software, output devices for hardcopies or digital presentation (PDF), email applications & SMS messaging systems. Anything that could be used to create or deliver the document, would probably be grouped here.

Document Management- 29.7¢

The lion’s share of document cost is in the document management. Physical document storage and retrieval, whether it be on-site or off-site- physical or digital format. In addition to storage, compliance measures, auditing, process automation, USPS mail & courier services are all elements in the group.

3/4 of a document’s cost is never factored into a printing services budget. Let’s change that.

Most offices that look to cut cost on document printing only look at the last 1/4 of the problem- the printer. At Smart Tech, we like to call this the “burning dollars to chase pennies” effect. To really be effective in maximizing your company’s printing budget, you need to look across the entire lifespan of a document process. While the document arrives when it gets picked up off the printer (or doesn’t), the journey started long before that. If you are looking for ways to save cost and maybe some sanity, reach out to us today to plan a smart start to managing your office printing.