“It’s just a few pages here and there, right?”
That’s what many business owners think when they consider office printing. A ream of paper, the occasional toner replacement, surely it’s not breaking the bank?
But the truth is, unmanaged office printing can become a surprisingly expensive line item. Beyond the obvious costs, there are hidden expenses draining your budget, impacting productivity, and putting unnecessary strain on your internal IT team.
Let’s uncover where those hidden costs are coming from and how to eliminate them with smarter solutions.
The Real Cost of Printing Isn’t Just Paper and Ink
When businesses think about the cost of printing, they tend to focus on the obvious: paper, toner, ink cartridges. But those are only part of the picture.
Behind the scenes, there are other costs adding up:
- Maintenance and repair of outdated or overused machines
- Downtime caused by print faults or empty supplies
- Energy consumption, particularly with older hardware
- Staff time wasted troubleshooting or waiting for access to a working printer
And if you’re not actively tracking your cost-per-page or per-device output, you likely have no clear visibility of where your money is going.
How Carden Managed Print helps:
Our print audits give you a clear breakdown of your actual printing costs. From there, we work with you to tailor a solution that reduces waste, modernises hardware, and includes proactive support to prevent costly downtime.
Overprinting and Untracked Usage
Without the right systems in place, it’s all too easy for employees to print excessively, whether it’s unnecessary reports, duplicate jobs, or forgotten documents left on trays.
This lack of accountability leads to:
- Paper and toner waste
- Unclaimed prints
- Unmonitored device usage
How Carden Managed Print helps:
With secure print release and user-level tracking, our systems give you full oversight of who prints what and when. This improves accountability and encourages better print habits across your team.
Costly Downtime and IT Disruptions
Printer issues are one of the most common IT complaints in many offices. But while they might seem minor, the consequences can be costly:
- Staff unable to print at critical moments
- Internal IT teams distracted by minor printer issues
- Time lost to diagnostics, resets, and supply ordering
How Carden Managed Print helps:
We take printer management off your IT team’s hands. This frees up their time to focus exclusively on your technology and security. Meanwhile, our remote monitoring can spot any issues before they affect users, and our engineers are ready to respond quickly, keeping your business running smoothly. This includes automatically sending out new ink and toner when we detect you’re going to be running low.
Fragmented Print Infrastructure and Lack of Standardisation
If your office has a patchwork of printer models, some from past suppliers, some from retail outlets, you’re likely paying more than you should.
Disadvantages of a fragmented setup include:
- Incompatible drivers and network issues
- Multiple toner or ink types to manage
- Inefficient print routing across departments
How Carden Managed Print helps:
We standardise your fleet, providing the right mix of devices based on real usage data. This improves reliability, reduces toner stockholding, and simplifies support across the board.
Missed Opportunities for Cost Recovery and Sustainability
Without visibility over your printing habits, it’s hard to charge back costs to departments or clients or to meet environmental targets.
Hidden costs include:
- Overuse of colour printing
- Ignored duplex (double-sided) defaults
- Missed cost-recovery opportunities for project or client work
How Carden Managed Print helps:
We enable tracking by user, department, or client. That means you can reallocate costs accurately and showcase improvements in your print-related carbon footprint via quarterly reports.
Final Thoughts
Office printing may seem like a minor line item, but unmanaged, it can quietly drain thousands from your budget each year. Hidden costs come in many forms, like waste, downtime, inefficiency, IT distractions, and missed sustainability goals.
With Carden Managed Print, we help you regain control. Our tailored solutions reduce your total cost of ownership, streamline your setup, and give you visibility into every page your business prints.
Want to know what your current print setup is really costing you?
Request a free print audit today and take the first step towards saving time, money, and resources.
