It’s easy to be led by your wallet when looking to buy a printer and get drawn to cheaper devices because of the lower upfront costs. But this sort of approach can fail to account or the true costs of printing. In reality, buying a printer is just the start of the process and to understand the true budgetary impact, it's important to take running costs into account. Of course, when purchasing a printer or MFP it is crucial to make sure that the product meets your needs, but it is the wise man that thinks about more than just the box and sees that buying cheap may turn out to be just the opposite. You should always take a little more time to consider Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Thinking long-term
There is one simple rule to remember – The cheaper the product, the more expensive it is to run.
This may not be an issue if you do not print very much, however, you will be surprised how quickly costs can rise if you get this wrong. Therefore, the first thing you should do is work out your Average Monthly Print Volume (AMPV). Most people can have a very good guess of how much they print in a day, take this number and multiply by 20 working days in a month to get your AMPV. Once you have this information you will be better equipped to make the right decision.
Make a shortlist of products for consideration based on specifications, functionality and price, then pause! You need to think running costs and think about TCO. How long do replacement toners last (specified in pages) and how much do they cost? What other consumables are required for each machine e.g. image drum units, fuser units, transfer belts, paper feed rollers etc. and how often do these components need to be changed. It’s all there on product datasheets, you just need to know what to look for.
How to calculate Total Cost of Ownership
To begin working out the TCO of a device there are three key steps to follow. Firstly, you need to know how much you print, hence the advice on working out your AMPV. Once you have your AMPV simply multiply by the number of months you will keep the product (usually taken as 36 months based on the fact that most businesses depreciate their assets over three years) to get your total print volume.
The next step is to work out the running costs of the printers you have shortlisted. Build a profile by listing the consumables (toners, drum units, fusers, belts etc.) for each machine together with their life listed in number of pages. Compare the life of each consumable against the total print volume you have calculated to determine which consumables will be required. Once you have built a profile for each machine you can search out the price for each of the consumables required. Then simply divide the cost by the life (in number of pages) for each consumable to get a cost per page.
Price / Life (in pages) = Cost per Page
Add the cost per page of each consumable together to get the Cost per Copy (CPC) for each machine. Multiply each CPC by your total print volume and you will have the running cost or each device.
Total print volume x CPC = Running costs
All that’s left is to add the purchase price of the device and you will have calculated
the total cost of ownership.
Beyond the box
In working out the TCO of a device in this way you will see that the running cost of a device makes up the largest part of the overall costs, far outweighing the purchase price of the device. Include KYOCERA products in your comparisons and you will quickly see major savings in the total cost of ownership.
KYOCERA products with their ultra-long-life image drum technology deliver a toner only proposition for the majority of users. And with toner being the only consumable you ever need to change running costs will be extremely low far offsetting any small premium you may have pay on the purchase price of the device. KYOCERA toners have a capacity to match the print volume capabilities of each device and always at a low cost, to keep TCO to a minimum. Addressing costs in this way makes original KYOCERA toners easily affordable, meaning performance, reliability and superb print quality can be guaranteed.
Supported nationwide by KYOCERA's team of engineers, whatever you decide we are here to help.
