"WHEN MOST people buy office equipment, such as a printer, they buy a brand name without thinking about the total cost of ownership (or TCO) of the devices," explained the managing director of Copier Concepts, Duane Lue-Fung.The TCO is simply the cost of operating and maintaining a particular piece of equipment over its life cycle. In many instances, the TCO has been up to three times the purchase price of the device. As it relates to printing instruments, the TCO can be easily calculated by examining the cost of the unit, the number of pages being printed, the cost of consumables like print cartridges, the speed of the device and the number of people using the instrument. Lowering this TCO can cut expenditure and increase profits in a matter of months.
"What you buy is not so much the equipment but the cost to own that printer - which is the catch," stressed the businessman.
PRINTERS HEAVILY SUBSIDISED
He explained that manufacturers, because of the huge sums spent in research and development, heavily subsidise many of the brand-name printers. Hence, the consumer pays in the end through the frequent changing of cartridges. And because it is expensive to maintain these types of equipment - which ultimately affects the bottomline - more and more companies want to know what their TCO is.
Accurately identifying and evaluating all of the costs associated with owning and operating a printer, not just the cost of the machine, is a challenge worth pursuing, noted Lue-Fung. Whatever level of TCO analysis a company eventually performs, this exercise will help to develop the appropriate information a company will need to make educated decisions on which printing system meets its needs. He emphasised that the best way to avoid mistakes when implementing new technology is to consider the TCO and plan accordingly.
Lue-Fung argues that Kyocera brand of printers - which Copier Concepts distributes - provides the most economic TCO.
"It's a big thing overseas ... people are gravitating towards [Kyocera] because the TCO is less, your yields are higher and you get more print. That's the main selling point," said the businessman.
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
"The response from our customers has been overwhelming. The Kyocera line of products within itself has been doing exceedingly well in terms of sales. We find that after introducing the Kyocera brand to customers, they are most impressed by the exceptionally high yield of the Kyocera consumables which in most cases gives at least four to five times more than that of its competitors, and this has been a very important part of the buying criteria, and the reliability and performance of the brand."
Lue-Fung emphasises that Copier Concepts is not only selling a solution, but is actually providing companies with a solid return on their investment with the implementation of document solutions that allows them to spend less.
"I want to personally challenge the financial controllers and operations managers to take a closer look at how they currently purchase print and copier fleets and the criteria used to acquire these devices," he said.
