Managed print is one of those services with a dull name and a simple idea behind it: instead of buying a printer and then dealing with everything that follows, you pay one monthly amount and your supplier handles the rest.
What "the rest" covers is the bit worth understanding.
What is included
A typical managed print agreement covers:
- The device itself, either supplied as part of the agreement or covered on hardware you already own.
- All toner and consumables – cartridges, drums, waste units, staples.
- Maintenance and servicing, including parts and labour.
- Support, remote and on-site, when something goes wrong.
- Monitoring, so the machine reports its own status and supply levels.
- Reporting on volumes by device, by department, colour versus mono.
Paper is nearly always excluded. Check that, along with whether there is a call-out fee and what response time you are promised.
How the pricing works
Managed print is priced per page. You agree a cost per mono page and a cost per colour page, usually with a minimum monthly volume. The machine reports its meter reads automatically and you are billed on what you actually printed.
The important number is not the monthly fee – it is the cost per page, and the overage rate if you exceed the included volume. A low monthly rate with high overage charges can end up costing more than a straightforward higher fee. Ask for both figures in writing before you compare quotes.
Toner that arrives before you run out
This is the feature people notice most. The device monitors its own toner levels and signals the supplier when a cartridge is getting low. A replacement is posted out and sits in the cupboard waiting.
What that removes: the mid-invoice-run panic, the emergency drive to an office supply store, the staff member who ordered the wrong cartridge, and the shelf full of consumables for a machine you replaced two years ago. Small annoyances, but they happen constantly.
Less downtime
Monitored machines report faults as they develop. A roller wearing out or a fuser approaching end of life shows up in the data before it fails, and a technician can attend during a quiet period instead of at 9am on the busiest day of the month.
When something does break, you are calling a service desk that already knows the model, the history and the location, rather than starting from scratch with a manufacturer's call centre.
A cost you can actually budget
Unmanaged printing is lumpy. Nothing for two months, then $600 of toner, then a $400 repair. It is difficult to budget and easy to overlook until the invoices arrive.
Managed print flattens it into a predictable monthly figure that scales with what you print. For businesses that need to forecast, that alone is often the deciding factor – and it makes it possible to see whether printing is actually costing what you assumed.
The environmental side
There are genuine benefits here, not just talking points. Empty cartridges are collected and recycled through manufacturer programmes rather than going in the bin. Duplex and mono defaults get set properly at installation, which cuts paper and toner use. Secure release printing eliminates the abandoned pages that pile up in every office tray. And reporting shows where the waste is – usually one department printing far more colour than anyone realised.
Who it suits
Managed print makes most sense for businesses printing more than roughly 1,000 pages a month, or running more than one or two devices, or where nobody has clear responsibility for keeping the printers going. Offices with reception staff, accounts, and a few departments all sharing machines are the classic fit.
If you are a two-person operation printing a hundred pages a month on a small desktop unit, buying cartridges as needed is probably still simpler and cheaper. It is worth being told that honestly rather than sold an agreement you do not need.
What to ask before signing
- What is the cost per page, mono and colour?
- What is the minimum monthly volume and the overage rate?
- What is the contract term and what happens at the end of it?
- What response time is guaranteed for a breakdown?
- Are call-outs and parts genuinely included?
- Can the agreement scale if your volumes change?
Bold Media Group supplies printers, copiers and managed print to businesses around Australia, and we will tell you straight if your volumes do not justify an agreement.
If you would like a quote based on what you actually print, send us your recent meter reads and we will price it properly.