How can I reduce my print costs?
Nik Rawlinson discovers why Epson thinks companies should switch to inkjet, while Kyocera has a laser-like focus on the right device for your needs
We speak to Epson and Kyocera to find out what they offer forward-looking offices.
“We are very much down the inkjet route these days,” Peter Silcock, manager of Epson’s business management division told PC Pro. “Our focus is 100% on business inkjet, because we see it as being the future.”
It comes down to two things, Silcock explains: sustainability and pr oductivity. Inkjet printer tech, he said, “cuts energy by 96% because it do es n’ t have to use a fuser. There’s none of that heating up and cooling down business that you get with a laser printer.” Si lcock believes we’ve become used to making compromises for the mechanic s of laser printing, but we’ve re ached the point where we need to break the habit. “Laser devices are kind of unsustainable. We need to look at more [business] efficient and en ergy- efficient devices. So, we have a wh ol e range of products that look as if th ey are laser devices – and feel like it – but inside they’re not.” Fo r department heads who favour business as usual, and haven’t considered inkjet beyond the home for some year s, Epson’s move might look gutsy, bu t both its range and that of arch-rival HP shows that inkjet, once characterised by frequent cartridge changes and low print cycles, have evolved to become a practical proposition for business printing.
Where a laser printer might sustain a run of 3,000 to 10,000 pages before requiring a toner swap, Epson’s business inkjets can now provide up to 84,000 pages between interventions, courtesy of an ink bag system. Such a device could service the average office for, by Silcock’s reckoning, three to five years without requiring attention, and when it’s time for a refill there’s no cartridge and less waste.
In a study completed last year, Epson examined the benefits of transitioning healthcare professionals to inkjet. “One of our printers, an A4 device that matches up to a mono laser printer, has a 40,000-page ink bag,” Silcock said. It also has fewer consumables, such as drums and fuser belts. “If you imagine a GP’s practice with a room down because the toner’s run out or the fuser’s done [preventing doctors printing prescriptions and forms], they may not be able to get another one for a couple of days. So actually, [by switching to inkjet] they’ll be far more productive. They don’t need to store supplies, order them, look after them, not to mention the cost associated with that, delivery costs and CO₂ generation.”
The printing mix
But while Epson may be reducing its emphasis on laser, it’s still a trusted ally in many, if not most, workplaces. Kyocera has long been a lead player, and, like Epson, its focus is on sustainability and longevity, just as much as it is on keeping costs low. It has built a commendable reputation for reducing heat generation and consumable use, and for minimising the number of parts that need to be disposed
of or replaced throughout the life of the printer. This is a refreshing approach for a company with an interest in selling hardware and consumables. And it’s not done yet.
“We’re going beyond the printing, scanning, copying and faxing, and offering the ability to fully manage context”, said Michele Mabilia, head of product marketing at Kyocera Document Solutions. “We have a group of consultants who can advise companies how to save on printing, by perhaps instead digitalising. So how, for instance, they can capture, convert, archive and retrieve and turn documents from paper into digital, index them and make them easily accessible. That saves a lot of money on printing costs and can improve security and compliance within organisations.”
This latter point, with the advent of GDPR, is a very important one, allowing organisations to track personal data within a system and respond in a timely manner to the subjects’ requests.
Digitalisation, though, is just part of the mix: futurists have long been predicting the paperless office, and long been wrong, after all. That means, for Kyocera, understanding how customers use documents is a key part of making recommendations that should, ultimately, cut costs. It does so with a data-collection agent that profiles the organisation’s existing print activities and then advises accordingly.
“That’s fundamental, because there’s no single approach that fits all,” explained Mabilia. “When we understand the customer’s requirements, we can help them choose a more balanced setup going forward. The analysis might show that some departments print more or less than others, or the coverage could be different, or the use of colour and mono, page size and so on, so, we can optimise their fleet, saving them money in the first instance.”
What this means, in short, is companies that planned to purchase a colour A3 device might ultimately opt for mono A4. As such, Kyocera isn’t looking to maximise revenue on hardware sales alone: it’s a services company, too. “We can provide everything from the start to the end, not just the hardware but automated consumable ordering, too,” said Mabilia. “We can save a lot of time for employees, whether in purchasing or facilities by automating the processes. Equally, we can make sure that they have the relevant amount of consumables to be able to run the machine effectively. They never run out or have too much stock.”
Beyond print
Both Kyocera with laser and Epson with inkjet are, therefore, considering how minimal intervention can reduce the cost of printing once the hardware is in place. For this reason, and the fact that, as Mabilia explained, “competitiveness has driven prices to a point where we can’t go any lower”, businesses need to look beyond the shelf price. That could mean decommissioning their existing fleet before it’s been fully written off and recouping the loss in the form of longer-term savings.
“The longer technology is out in the field, the more issues occur,” Mabilia said, highlighting, as Epson did in its healthcare study, that this leads to a loss of productivity. “If you have five new machines, they would probably be equivalent to seven or ten older machines, because you have much less downtime… that’s important if you think of cost savings
“The largest benefits come through reduced support requirements, infrequent intervention and enhanced environmental benefits”
beyond the technology, like employees needing to travel lo nger distances [to print] or spend more time next to a printer because it’s not working. That probably costs far more than not investing in a couple of new printers because overhead costs and costs related to personnel are significantly higher than co sts related to imaging and pr int. ”
Whether inkjet or laser, it’s difficult to identify potential cost savings if you’re focused purely on the device and its consumables. Consequently, the largest benefits, as both Epson and Kyocera highlight, come through reduced support requirements, infrequent intervention and enhanced environmental benefits.
“We use a micro piezo technology, so there’s no heat involved in the whole printing process,” Epson’s Silcock explained. “So, rather than using 600 watts of energy, we’re using 20 watts for an A4 device.”
That’s a significant saving, and it’s not just where printers are concerned that cuts can be made. As Silcock said,
“the energy used by a copier or printer can account for 20% of the energy use in an office. We can save 90% of that. That’s an 18% reduction in the cost of the energy for your building.”
Combine this with potential productivity improvements and savings in apparently disassociated factors – such as obviating the need to cool a building full of older, less efficient devices running fans – and it’s clear that, if you want to cut the cost of printing, the old strategies are no longer fit for business.