How Managed Print Services Reduce Printing Costs for UK Businesses
Printing is often treated as a routine office expense, but the true cost of business printing extends far beyond paper and toner. Hardware, maintenance, energy consumption, inefficient workflows, unnecessary printing and employee time can all contribute to the overall cost of running a print environment.
For organisations operating multiple printers or supporting several offices, these costs can become particularly difficult to identify and control.
Managed Print Services (MPS) provide a more structured approach. By assessing how an organisation prints, monitoring its devices and matching equipment to actual requirements, businesses can gain greater visibility over their print environment and identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary expenditure.
But where do those savings actually come from?
What Are Managed Print Services?
Managed Print Services involve the ongoing management and optimisation of an organisation's printers, multifunction devices and associated print processes.
Rather than treating each printer as an isolated piece of office equipment, an MPS provider looks at the wider print environment. This can include print volumes, device utilisation, consumables, maintenance requirements, document workflows and the number and type of devices being used.
The objective is to create a print infrastructure that is appropriate for the organisation's actual requirements while making costs easier to understand and manage.
How Do Managed Print Services Reduce Printing Costs?
Managed Print Services can reduce printing costs by identifying inefficiencies across the print environment and improving how devices, consumables and print resources are managed.
Savings can come from several areas, including consolidating unnecessary devices, reducing avoidable printing, improving consumables management, preventing downtime and replacing inefficient equipment with devices better suited to actual usage.
Importantly, this isn't simply about finding a cheaper printer. The total cost of printing matters more than the purchase price of an individual device.
1. Identifying the True Cost of Business Printing
One of the first challenges for many organisations is understanding how much printing is actually costing them.
Printer-related expenditure may be spread across different budgets and suppliers. One department may purchase toner, another may arrange maintenance, while replacement devices and paper are accounted for separately.
There are also less obvious costs, such as employees spending time resolving printer problems or ordering emergency consumables.
A managed print assessment can provide a clearer view of factors such as:
the number and type of devices in use
monthly print volumes
colour versus monochrome usage
consumables consumption
maintenance requirements
underused or overworked printers
inefficient device placement
recurring support issues
Once these costs and usage patterns are visible, they become much easier to manage.
2. Reducing Unnecessary Printers and Devices
More printers do not necessarily mean a more productive office.
Over time, organisations can accumulate desktop printers, ageing multifunction devices and equipment purchased by individual departments. Some may be heavily used while others produce very few pages.
Each additional device can introduce further costs through maintenance, consumables, energy and administration.
Managed Print Services can help determine whether the existing fleet is appropriate for the organisation.
In some environments, consolidating several inefficient devices into fewer appropriately specified multifunction printers can simplify the print estate while reducing ongoing costs.
The aim isn't simply to remove printers. It is to make sure the right device is in the right location for the people who actually need it.
3. Matching Printers to Actual Print Volumes
A printer that is poorly matched to its workload can become expensive.
A small office device used for consistently high print volumes may require frequent intervention and consumable replacement. At the other end of the scale, installing a high-capacity multifunction system for a team that prints very little can mean paying for capability that isn't needed.
Print-volume data helps businesses select equipment based on actual usage rather than assumptions.
This is particularly useful when an organisation is considering replacing or leasing new printers.
Before recommending equipment, factors such as monthly print volume, number of users, colour requirements, required paper sizes, scanning requirements and document workflows should all be considered.
4. Controlling Colour Printing
Colour printing can be important for presentations, marketing materials and customer-facing documents, but not every document needs to be printed in colour.
Print-management software can provide organisations with greater control over how printing is used.
Depending on the solution and configuration, businesses can introduce policies such as defaulting appropriate documents to monochrome or duplex printing and applying different print rules to particular users or departments.
This doesn't mean preventing employees from using colour when it is genuinely required. The objective is to reduce unnecessary higher-cost printing while retaining flexibility.
5. Reducing Paper Waste with Secure Print Release
One common source of waste is surprisingly simple: documents are sent to a printer and never collected.
The pages are still printed, toner is still consumed and eventually the unwanted document ends up in recycling.
Secure print release can help reduce this problem.
Instead of immediately producing the document, a compatible print-management system can hold the job until the authorised user releases it at the printer.
This can help prevent abandoned print jobs while also providing an additional layer of document security for organisations handling confidential information.
Solutions such as PaperCut can also give businesses greater visibility and control over printing across their organisation.
6. Improving Toner and Consumables Management
Consumables can become unnecessarily expensive when they are managed reactively.
Businesses may order cartridges too early, keep excessive stock in cupboards or discover that a critical toner cartridge is unavailable only when a device stops printing.
A Managed Print Service can make consumables management more proactive.
Monitoring compatible devices can help identify when consumables are required, reducing the need for employees to manually check printers and organise replacement supplies.
This can also reduce unnecessary stockholding and help minimise situations where productivity is interrupted because toner has unexpectedly run out.
7. Reducing Printer Downtime
The cost of a printer problem isn't limited to the engineer's invoice.
When an important office printer stops working, employees may have to redirect jobs to another floor, postpone work, contact support or spend time trying to diagnose the problem themselves.
For a busy department, repeated disruption can create a significant hidden productivity cost.
Proactive device monitoring and regular maintenance can help identify certain problems before they develop into more disruptive failures.
At Managed Print Solutions, ongoing support and proactive monitoring form part of the wider approach to maintaining an efficient business print environment.
8. Reducing Energy Consumption
Older or inefficient equipment can also contribute to unnecessary energy consumption.
An organisation may have numerous devices permanently powered throughout the working day despite some of them being used only occasionally.
A print assessment can identify opportunities to consolidate equipment and consider more energy-efficient devices when replacements are required.
Power-saving settings and sensible device deployment can further contribute to reducing the energy associated with an organisation's print infrastructure.
For businesses working towards wider sustainability objectives, reducing unnecessary printing and equipment can provide environmental benefits alongside potential cost reductions.
9. Giving Businesses Better Visibility of Print Usage
You cannot effectively manage what you cannot see.
Print-management solutions can provide information about how printing is being used across an organisation. Depending on the system, reporting can provide insight into volumes, devices, users or departments.
This can help answer questions such as:
Which departments are producing the most print?
How much printing is in colour?
Are some devices being heavily used while others are largely idle?
Could certain processes be moved from paper to digital workflows?
This data can inform future decisions instead of relying on estimates.
10. Streamlining Document Workflows
Reducing printing costs doesn't always mean finding a cheaper way to print the same number of pages.
Sometimes the more effective solution is not to print the document at all.
Modern multifunction printers can support scanning and digital document workflows, helping businesses move information from paper into digital systems.
For example, instead of copying and physically distributing a document, an organisation may be able to scan it directly into an appropriate digital destination.
The exact workflow will depend on the organisation's systems and requirements, but reviewing these processes can identify areas where paper-based working is no longer necessary.
Are Managed Print Services Cost-Effective for Small Businesses?
Managed Print Services are not exclusively for large enterprises.
Small and medium-sized businesses can also benefit, particularly when they operate several printers, depend heavily on printing or don't have internal resources available to continually manage their print equipment.
For an SME, predictable support, appropriate equipment and better control over consumables can be particularly valuable.
The important factor is designing the service around the organisation rather than applying the same print strategy to every business.
Can Managed Print Services Reduce Costs Across Multiple Offices?
Yes. Multi-site organisations can potentially benefit from having a more consistent approach to printing across their locations.
Without central management, individual offices may purchase different printers, consumables and support arrangements. This can make costs and performance difficult to monitor across the organisation.
A managed approach can help standardise appropriate equipment, monitoring, support and consumables while still recognising that different locations may have different requirements.
For businesses operating across London and elsewhere in the UK, this can provide much greater visibility over the overall print estate.
How Much Can a Business Save with Managed Print Services?
There isn't a single percentage that applies to every organisation.
The potential saving depends on the condition of the existing print environment, current print volumes, number of devices, existing contracts, consumables usage and how efficiently printing is already managed.
An organisation with a well-optimised print estate may have relatively little unnecessary expenditure. Another business with ageing equipment, unmanaged toner purchasing and too many devices could have considerably more scope for improvement.
For that reason, businesses should be cautious of universal savings claims made without first analysing their existing print environment.
A print audit or assessment provides a much more meaningful starting point.
What Should You Look for in a Managed Print Service Provider?
Price is important, but it shouldn't be the only consideration.
A business should also consider the provider's approach to device selection, ongoing support, response times, monitoring, consumables, print-management software, security and scalability.
Manufacturer independence can also be valuable. Rather than automatically recommending equipment from one manufacturer, a provider with access to multiple technologies can assess which solution is appropriate for the organisation's requirements.
At Managed Print Solutions, we work with business print technologies from manufacturers including Ricoh, Develop, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, RISO and Xerox, alongside print-management solutions such as PaperCut.
Reducing Printing Costs with MPS UK
Reducing print expenditure isn't about simply choosing the cheapest printer or toner cartridge.
It requires understanding how, where and why your organisation prints.
Managed Print Solutions LTD helps businesses assess their existing print environments and identify opportunities to improve efficiency. This can include selecting appropriate printers and multifunction devices, printer leasing, proactive monitoring, maintenance, consumables management and print-management solutions.
Whether you operate a small office or manage printers across multiple UK locations, the first step is understanding what your current print environment is actually costing you.
Speak to MPS UK about a print assessment and discover where your business could improve the efficiency and cost control of its print environment.
FAQs
How can managed print services reduce printing costs?
Managed Print Services can help reduce costs by analysing print usage, identifying inefficient or unnecessary devices, improving consumables management, controlling avoidable printing and providing proactive maintenance and monitoring.
Can managed print services reduce paper and toner waste?
Yes. Print policies, duplex printing, secure print release and better consumables management can help organisations reduce unnecessary paper and toner usage.
Are managed print services suitable for small businesses?
Yes. Small businesses can benefit from Managed Print Services when they want better control over printing, maintenance and consumables without having to manage the entire print environment internally.
Can managed print services help reduce colour printing costs?
Print-management software can provide greater control over colour printing, including policies that encourage monochrome printing where colour isn't required.
Can managed print services support multiple UK offices?
Yes. Managed Print Services can provide centralised oversight of printers across multiple locations while allowing equipment and workflows to be tailored to the requirements of individual sites.
How do I know if my business is spending too much on printing?
A print audit or assessment can examine device numbers, print volumes, colour usage, consumables, maintenance and existing workflows to identify potential inefficiencies and unnecessary expenditure.
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