How do I choose a Multi-Function office printer copier and how much does it cost
For the purposes of this article we’re focusing on A3 multi-function printers, we’ll be covering A4 models in a later article.
We’ll answer the most commonly answered questions we get when people make an enquiry with us.
- How much does an A3 office printer cost / what is the best price for an A3 office printer
- How much does it cost to lease or rent an office printer
- How much does it cost to maintain and service an office printer
- What office printer is the cheapest to run / what office printer has the lowest running cost
- How much do the cartridges cost for an office printer
We’ll answer all of these questions and we’ll also help you to get the best deal on an A3 office printer for your business.
What’s the most important thing to focus on when buying an A3 office multi-function printer; price or running costs?
Probably the most overlooked item when a business buys an A3 office printer are the running costs.
You will spend more on running costs over the life of the printer than you will spend on buying it!! You might think that’s a bold claim, but we’ll back it up and you’ll find out how that’s possible if you read all of this article, when we reveal the true cost of owning an Office Printer
The first thing you need know is how to choose the right model of office printer for your business
We’ll help you figure out the size of printer that you need. The simplest benchmark for this element is the amount of pages per month you will print. Whilst speed of an office printer is important, the amount you print will is the overriding factor. For example, most manufacturers have a model range and each model in that range differs only by their print speed. Often times, some accessories are only available on the faster models and some are only available on the lower speed models, but everything else is pretty much the same as far as the end user is concerned.
For example, in the Xerox AltaLink C81XX range you have the following models that are all from the same series and differ only by the pages per minute print speed. The print speed in A4 pages per minute is denoted by the last 2 digits.
e.g. C8130 / C8135 / C8145 / C8155 / C8170
Xerox AltaLink High performance A3 Multi-Function Printer copier scanner
Xerox states that the ranges below are the recommended average monthly print volumes that are suitable for each model;
C8130 5,000 – 12,000 pages
C8135 5,000 – 15,000 pages
C8145 8,000 – 20,000 pages
C8155 8,000 - 22,000 pages
C8170 10,000 - 40,000 pages
Other than monthly print volume you should ensure that the printer has all of the features you need as well as considering the available accessories, for example; Stapling, Booklet Making, card swipe access.
What accessories can I get or should I consider for my A3 office printer?
Some manufacturers do not include Document Feeders and Cabinets or Paper Decks as standard. In our opinion these are essential items and shouldn’t even be optional.
When comparing prices online, you should double check what options are included in the price and what are extra. We are fortunate to be a partner with Xerox, all of the above options are included as standard on Xerox A3 models (except the budget priced C7120DN which comes with a just a single paper tray and no cabinet).
The most popular options for A3 office multi-function printers are increased paper capacities, followed by stapling and Booklet Making.
Genuine Adobe Postscript is also an essential option in our opinion, Xerox include this as standard on their AltaLink series, it is optional on the VersaLink series.
Managing your printers, controlling and monitoring costs and access.
You may want to consider how you are going to manage the print usage and control access. After all you wouldn’t want your cleaners being able to use your printer when you’re not around.
You might also want to be able to report your carbon footprint and demonstrate to stake holders that you are encouraging users to be considerate to the environment as well as not wasting money on non-essential printing. Some tools help Management to have insight in to print flows and allows them to encourage users to adjust their behaviour to make financial and environmental improvements.
There are numerous software solutions that can help you achieve those goals, some are quite simple and often free, others can be much more sophisticated and can provide personalised logins and departmental or user quotas.
Printer purchase prices
Prices for a VersaLink entry Level free standing A3 office printer start at just over £2,000.00 +VAT.
Prices for a mid-volume machine such as the Xerox AltaLink C8130 start at around £3,700 +VAT.
Printer Rental Prices
You can also rent a Multi-Function Office printer, rental prices start at around £50 per month.
We frequently hear from customers who assume that when they rent or Lease a multifunction printer it automatically includes some element of maintenance or extended warranty. Renting or Leasing a printer does not usually include any element of maintenance, it is purely for the financing of the equipment.
Service inclusive rental agreements
If a supplier does offer you an all-inclusive rental agreement that includes an element of maintenance, service or supplies, we suggest that you run. These agreements are very rare, but they do exist. They are purely for the benefit of the supplier, not the customer.
Whilst on the surface the supplier will try to convince you that this is a good thing for you, it isn’t. The supplier is essentially tying you to a binding contract to print a minimum number of pages for the duration of the finance agreement. This not only obligates you to continue to use that supplier for the duration of the finance agreement, it reduces your ability to renegotiate terms if you want to upgrade your machine and prevents you from moving your service to a new supplier if you become dissatisfied for any reason.
Service and running costs for an A3 office printer
You should be asking any potential supplier what the running costs of the printer are. The most popular way to keep your printer maintained and in good working order is to have a full service and maintenance agreement or managed print agreement as they are often called.
Typically, office printers have meters that count the number of pages that are printed and you will be charged a flat fee for each print that comes out of the machine. Colour and mono prints are charged at different rates.
The cheapest way to run an office printer is on a managed print agreement when compared to running the machine and buying everything you need online on a DIY basis. Download our Managed Print Service cost guide and price comparison HERE Within that guide are all the printer running costs which we have summarised below.
How much do the consumables cost for an A3 office printer
For years printer manufacturers have sold printers at near or below the cost of manufacture, they make money by selling you consumables at a huge profit margin. This practice exists to this day.
The typical cost to run an A3 office printer on a DIY basis is between 5p – 10p per page for colour and 1.2p – 3p per page for mono. This may not seem a lot, but multiply that by the number of pages you print per month and the number of years you’ll own that printer and the cost is eye watering.
Here’s an example of total cost of running a Xerox VersaLink C7120 printer for five years printing just 1,500 colour pages per month colour and 2,200 mono.
Colour - 1,500 x £0.05 = £75.00 x 60 months = £4,500.00
Mono – 2,200 x £0.012 = £26.40 x 60 months = £1,584.00
The above running costs do not include any routine maintenance or emergency repairs or parts, you should allow an additional 15% (circa £1,000) on top of the consumable costs.
Total Running cost of an office printer will therefore be around £7,084 over its lifespan.
The cheapest way to maintain and service an office printer
For many years smart corporate buyers have realised that office printers are expensive to run, so accordingly they do not buy consumables on a DIY basis. What they do is to negotiate good terms for a managed print contract. A managed print contract includes not only all the consumables needed to run the printer, they also include on-site service support and access to a specialist help desk where their users can seek assistance from a printer professional.
Compared to running a printer on a DIY basis the typical costs for a managed print agreement will be;
Colour - 1,500 x £0.035 = £52.50 x 60 months = £3,150.00
Mono – 2,200 x £0.035 = £7.70 x 60 months = £462.00
The above running costs typically include all toner, parts, labour and call-outs, access to a help desk, remote monitoring and automatic replenishment of consumables.
The total running cost of an office printer on a Managed Print Service Agreement will therefore be £3,612.00 – that’s around half of the cost of running a printer and buying consumables yourself.
Looking to buy, rent or lease an A3 office multi-function printer copier?
If you are considering getting an A3 office multi-function printer for your business, have a browse through our Printer and Consumables Shop or reach out to us on 0800 011 2858 or email us interface@scriptumds.co.uk or reach out to us on the chatbox.