How to Get Buy-In For New Printing Technology

Why are you shopping for new printing technology for your office? These are the top reasons we hear from customers:

• Your copier lease is due to expire soon, and you want new printing technology with modern productivity features.
• You’re tired of spending so much time and money supporting a variety of desktop printers, and you want to consolidate printing to more efficient shared devices.
• You’re getting terrible performance and/or service from your current equipment and you’re hoping there’s new technology in printing that will better meet your needs.

The problem is, copiers and printers tend to be the under-appreciated workhorses in today’s workplace. They are perceived as commodities that are all the same, so the goal is to get something for a rock-bottom price. So if you’re after more modern printing technology that may cost a little more but has a bigger payoff in efficiency, you might have a tough time getting that signature on your purchase order.

In this article, we’ll help you make your case. We’ll explain the payoff you can get with new technology in the printing industry, and why it’s a smart financial investment.

The right way to select new printing technology for long-term success

Many buyers don’t want to pay a cent more than they have to for copiers and printers. We have even found that to be the case for high end production printing equipment that’s mission-critical for a company’s core business. They don’t give any thought to what’s new in printing technology and how that might positively impact their business.

Here’s the unfortunate truth about that mindset: it often results in poor decisions. And the regret that comes with having to live with the wrong equipment, often for 3 to 5 years (the typical length of a copier lease term). Or even worse, the frustration of having to live with a terrible service provider.

If you always go for the cheapest machines from the cheapest vendors, you’re selling yourself short. Here are the 3 things you must consider when shopping for new printing technology to make sure you’ll be satisfied with your decision for the long term.

• Choose new printing technology that provides modern productivity features that save people time.
• Choose a vendor that provides great service and support, so printer downtime doesn’t impact important work.
• Choose a vendor that will help you develop an efficient managed print environment. Doing that cuts out lots of waste and can save you a great deal of money.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these points.

1. Choose new printing technology with modern features that save time

Think about this: every minute that employees waste on inefficient printing (such as running back to their desk to print a document during a meeting, for example) is costing you in productivity. That’s time they could be spending on work that makes you money. Features like mobile printing and pull-printing (which are provided with new printing technology) eliminate these hassles and make employees more productive.

Learn more about modern printing technology:

Follow Me/Pull Printing: a Solution for Modern Offices

Office Mobile Printing: Don’t Get a Copier Without It!

Easy to Use Printer/Scanner/Copiers Work Like Your Phone

2. Determine which vendor will provide good service

People tend to think it’s impossible to predict in advance whether or not you’ll get good service from a vendor. Actually, it’s not that difficult to figure out. For one thing, look at their supplies management service. New printing technology makes it possible for a service provider to monitor low-toner alerts remotely and send out supplies automatically, so you never have to stockpile toner and you never have to worry about running out. Are they offering this service?

This is just one way to tell if you’re signing on with a reliable service vendor. There’s a lot more helpful advice in this guide: How to Evaluate Copier Service & Support BEFORE You Buy.

3. Choose a vendor that will help you save money

There’s an unbelievable amount of waste that happens with office printing:

• People print documents multiple times and leave them on the printer.
• They print big documents to a costly desktop printer instead of a more efficient shared copier.
• They print things like emails and website pages that are easily available electronically.
• They print single-sided by default, which uses twice as much paper as duplex printing.
• They print documents in color that don’t need to be in color. Color ink and toner costs much more than black. Plus more color printing increases your service costs, since service contract prices are based on number of prints, and color costs more than black and white.
• They print personal documents.

We guarantee that you’ll be shocked at how much this waste is costing you. However, a good copier vendor can offer you a service called managed print that helps you optimize your office print setup, take control with printing rules and monitoring, and save quite a lot of money.

Feeling skeptical? Read this case study that explains how a NYC business is saving thousands every month with smart managed print decisions.

Here at SOS, we offer managed print service for no additional cost when you get new printing technology from us. Does your bargain-basement vendor provide that service?

How to get budget approval for new printing technology

Your choice of new printing technology matters! If you can convince the powers that be to spend just a little bit more than the lowest possible price (using this information about the benefits of modern printing technology), you’ll get not only better equipment and service, but you’ll gain a business partner that can save you a lot of money by reducing waste with a managed print program.

Want to know how much you can save? Sign up for a no-obligation office print assessment.