TCO for the most part is how much money you dump into a printer over a year divided by the number of prints you get out of it. Configuration headaches and reliability aside, this will tell you what each sheet costs. If you're going to weigh in with these guys you need that number, because that's how they operate with their billing. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to figure this out if you have any kind of records at all on your printers. At our office I tell the secretaries to take a meter reading each time they change a toner. After you go through a couple toners you should have an idea how much a print costs from how long that $200 toner lasted. This is a little more difficult with a color unit but not by much.
I've said this here before, but what I found out was that our HP printers were not lasting anywhere near the rated amount of prints, but the Xerox units were very close. At $.02/print (B/W right?) they must be talking small workgroup printers. You're going to achieve that cost on your own because it sounds like maintenance isn't an issue for you. But for a larger MFP unit, you should be looking at pricing around $.008 or less per sheet (B/W). It boils down to some pretty simple math. We print about 20K/mo on our MFP and it's a 55ppm leased unit. I wouldn't do it any other way for something like that. Most copy guys are below slimy used car salesmen so you still need to do some research to get a good company. And don't ever get an agreement over 3 years. Technology moves to fast and you'll be wanting new units with the new bells and whistles but won't be able to get one if you're locked in too long. And ask them how they handle lemons. Leasing a printer is like leasing a car. A lot of these outfits can't easily replace a printer when you get a lemon because the printer (linked with serial number) is actually financed through a bank, not them. -- Mike Gill From: David Mazzaccaro [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 7:03 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: printer maintenance contracts? Wow! Thank you so much for the feedback. They really confused the heck out of us with the numbers they threw out. "Did you know you're TCO is xxxx?" - But they have a hard time proving it. "Did you know your actual cost per page is xxxx?" - But they have a hard time proving that as well. "We can save you xxx over the life or your printers" - But the additional expense is what we could buy a new printer for? "Parts and labor are what your paying for" - But we have 30+ HP printers, and have only had to replace 1 fuser in 5 years?!?! I know I am probably jinxing myself by posting this, and will be running around fixing printers over the next weeks! LOL _____ From: Robert LeBlanc [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 9:55 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: printer maintenance contracts? We just terminated our contract and will be saving about 1500.00 a month. We are now on the same page as others and will just replace as needed. Robert _____ From: David Mazzaccaro [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 7:33 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: printer maintenance contracts? I was wondering how many people subscribe to a printer maintenance contract? We have never done this, and are now being presented w/ a proposal to put all our laser printers under a 3 year contract for toner, maintenance and labor for a monthly fee. Traditionally, if a laser printer craps out, we would just toss it and buy a replacement. This company is trying to tell us they can "save" us money by putting the printers under a contract that basically comes out to $.02/page. But if we look at strictly toner costs alone, the monthly maintenance charge is more than we are spending now on just toner. IIRC, the extra money we would be paying per month for maintenance could just as easily be used to purchase a new printer about every 2 months. Thoughts, comments, suggestions welcome. Thx ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
