The Care And Feeding Of Printers

Via
Express Computer,
India's IT Business Weekly


By Pratap Vikram Singh

Printing is a cost centre that is frequently overlooked by most organizations. They look at printers and copiers purely as CAPEX, ignoring the significant running costs associated with maintaining and running equipment. The fact, however, is that printers and copiers probably represent a significant part of an organization’s operational expenses—typically 1-3% of revenue on average, according to industry experts. MFDs are fast emerging as an answer to growing printing costs.

The truth is that the cost of feeding a printer, copier or MFD over the course of its lifespan is likely to far exceed the cost of buying it in the first place. In fact, it’s likely that the initial purchase cost of a business printer will represent only a fraction, in some cases as little as 10%, of the money you spend on that printer over the course of its life.

The consolidation of multiple devices (printer, copier, scanner, and fax) into one has been an ongoing accelerator for the industry and continues to gain more traction. In an environment where saving costs and energy is becoming a priority, the importance of multi-function devices as powerful and efficient hubs of printing and imaging activity cannot be understated. These devices have emerged as one-stop-shop for all the document printing needs for businesses—SMB or enterprise. There is a clear advantage to an MFD—it saves retail space (as print, copy and fax functions are integrated into a single device) thereby reducing TCO. –AP]

Analyst firm IDC India is quite upbeat about the growth of MFDs in India. According to its report, the inkjet MFD segment is expected to grow by 12.6% to around Rs 357 crores in CY 2008 up from Rs 317 crores in CY 2007.

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