Cost per Page:
Most larger operation companies do maintenance agreement with their vendors who provide printing services to them.
The concept of Cost Per Page (CPC) is a part of this maintenance agreement. It says that the company will have to pay only for the pages they use and the vendors will take care of the printers and this service does include the cost of spare parts and cartridges.
CPC provides an estimate of monthly print volume and after studying various parameters of the company shall provide the right equipment.
However, it does not provide a plan to streamline the cost of printing or optimizing the usage of the printers, whereas, Managed Print Services (MPS) provides a comprehensive strategy for the same.
CPC will charge a monthly fees for the decided print quantity and number of prints going above the agreed amount shall be charged separately.
For example, you could contract for 7,000 pages of black and white at .50 paisa per page and 4,000 pages for color at ₹5/- per page per month. Should you print over those contracted amounts, similar rates will then apply.
Managed Print Services:
Unlike CPC, Managed Print Services (MPS) provides a comprehensive strategy to optimize the usage of the printers, aids in reduction of costs in terms of time and money, management of the printers becomes hassle free.
This is possible by keeping proper track of the toner and other resources applied, provides automated replacement, regular maintenance of all the devices.
All the activities of maintenance are recorded to bring all the facts and figures and hidden problems to surface and management can further dig into the problems identified and can be solved in a way that it will never rise again to incur the time and cost to the company.
The management of the company shall be provided reports of the performance of the equipment at regular intervals so that they can be updated with the usage of the prints in the office.
As we know that improvement is a never ending cycle, reviewing these advance reports shall give a detailed understanding of the wastes involved or eliminated, reduction of costs and bring changes for further improvement.
By getting the reports at regular intervals and all the improvement opportunities on surface, the top management will be able to take informed decision for the betterment of the company and all their locations.
Managed Print Service creates a culture of regular maintenance which shall aid in avoiding arising of the problems or say incurring unwanted costs. For this they have:
- Monthly management of the printers.
- They are one point contact for repair and service needs.
- Automated Toner Replacement
- Regular data collection and reporting of the usage
- Location wise data collection and reporting of the prints.
MPS is an ascendible model which can be scaled depending on the increase of decrease of the complexity and print requirements of the company.
Reducing the number of print devices to be more environmentally sustainable.
Distributing devices strategically according to the needs of people in each building throughout the campus. Providing more backup options if a printer goes down.
Service Call History:
Data of the service calls made is also recorded for improvement purposes as these recordings of data can identify common issues, as well as any major device or user concerns, problems can be resolved which is hampering the device without wasting any time on it.
Also, employees can be trained on the matter to make sure the problem doesn’t arise again. Therefore, ensuring reduced or lesser downtime of the machines.
Before implementing an MPS program, the vendor does the whole assessment of the present system and history in terms of the size of the company, number of employees, number of printers and prints taken, etc.
The company is provided with a detailed report on the history of costs, purchases, and supplies incurred by the company so that the management can compare the before and after costs incurred. Most organizations have realized a steep decrease in costs after implementing the MPS Program.
Supply Order History:
A history report of your supply purchases allows you to compare these costs against your previous expenses before beginning your MPS program.
Most organizations realize signifcant cost-savings at their business review.
Device Use Report:
Depending upon the goals of the company, a device report is generated which will provide the usage and user information like:
1. Total number of pages
2. A total number of black and white prints and color printouts.
3. The Total number of single or duplex pages.
4. Number of scanned pages.
The companies those who have opted for CPC did a good job by outsourcing the things in which we are not proficient in. But to make the process much more easier for the employees and save time, money and efforts and considering the above mentioned benefits, we strongly recommend to opt for MPS Program.
