Apparently Businesses of All Sizes Waste Money on Printer Ink and Toner

Kyocera pitchman, and University of Maryland economist Peter Morici pretty much sums it up correctly, when he says, "It's really not that complicated."

Peter Morici, PhD in Economics and Printer Pitchman

Generally speaking, the less expensive the printer is to buy, the more expensive that printer is to own.

Most businesses with under 10 employees will have 1 or 2 printers, usually a multi-function unit (e.g. print, copy, fax, scan).  If you're in a paper intense business, for example constantly mailing invoices, letters, etc.; and you're buying ink cartridges more than once per month, you should really start to evaluate your printer's level of efficiency.

A simple question we like to ask business owners is simply, "Do you remember the last time you changed your ink or toner?"  Or, "Do you know how often you change your ink or toner?"  If they can answer either of them, odds are it's time to talk about the value of investing in a more efficient printer.

We frequently recommend the HP Officejet Pro 8600 (and in the past, its two predecessors, the HP 8500A and HP 8500).

HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium

Quite simply, without spending significant multiples on a much higher end laser printer, it's pretty much impossible to beat this unit's efficiencies.  

Some basic math on just the black ink cartidges for the 8600 and its "baby brother" the HP 6500A, and HP's entry level MFC, the HP 4500.  All prices are approximate, and like any commodity, the prices fluctuate up and down a bit from week to week.  The prices are also "street" prices, not the manufacturers list, which are higher.  Lastly, if you were to compare a few competitors from different categories, you will conclude the same inverse relationship between up-front and operating costs.

HP 950 XL (Black ink cartidge for HP 8600)

• Price:  $36.99
• Yield:  2,300 pages
• Cost per page:  $0.016

HP 920 XL (Black ink cartridge for HP 6500A)

• Price:  $28.99
• Yield:  1,200 pages
• Cost per page:  $0.024 (almost double the HP 8600)

HP 901 XL (Black ink cartridge for HP 4500)

• Price:  $27.99
• Yield:  700 pages
• Cost per page:  $0.04 (almost double the HP 6500A)

Notice a pattern?  As you get down to those "super cheapies" you might as well have a coin slot attached to them.

You will notice that all HP ink cartridges have an "XL" notation in them.  Almost all the printer companies give you the opportunity to purchase a "regular" ink cartridge and an "extra capacity."  Unless you litterarlly change your ink only 2x per year, you should always purchase the extra capacity cartridges.

To show an extreme case:

HP 901 

• Price:  $14.99
• Yield:  200 pages
• Cost per page:  $0.075 (That means you pay almost $1.00 for every dozen pages.) 

Now Let's Examine the Up-Front Costs of the Devices Themselves 

We'll start with list prices (which if you actually pay them, you're either crazy, desperate or lazy):

• HP 8600 (there are three models):  $299.99, $399.99, $499.99
• HP 6500A Plus:  $149.99
• HP 4500:  $99.99

Again these are just list prices.  They are essentially perpetually on sale at various big box stores (e.g Best Buy, Staples, etc.), on large on-line stores (e.g. Amazon, Buy, etc.).

In a recent ad for Staples there were no less than thirty (30) printers and multi-functions devices on sale from Brother, Canon, Epson, and Kodak.   

Prices for our three (3) examples:

• HP 8600:  $229.99 (reg. $299.99), and $299.99 (reg. $399.99) *
• HP 6500A Plus:  $129.98
• HP 4500:  $69.98

* As they say in the infomercials, "But wait!  There's more!"  You can save an additional $50 by trading in any old printer toward a new printer with a regular price of at least $199.99.  This reason alone is what drives so many consumers and small businesses to Staples for printers.  

So now the gap between models is even less and the entry point is extemely affordable.

Last but not least, the "duty cycle" of the higher end devices is much greater.  Simply put, the duty cycle is the number of pages the units are designed to be able to process in a month.  (Takes those numbers with a grain of salt.)

Let's talk about paper for a brief moment.  

There are 500 sheets of paper in a standard ream.  There are 12 reams in a standard case.  Which means there are 12,000 sheets of paper in standard case of paper.

Before you go through one case of paper, you will save ink the differnce between HP 8600 and HP 6500A or the HP 6500A and the HP 4500.

So think about how long it takes for you to go through a case of paper.  If you buy a case more than once per year, time to upgrade.

If you print more than 2 cases per year, it's time to really get serious, you need something much more substantial which requires some in-person auditing to pick the best model for your business.

Printer Math

You'll never think the same way about 5% again

Now let's really get into the weeds on printing costs, because those costs per page can be deceptive.

If you look at the fine print, that page yield generally assumes 5% coverage. (i.e. 5% of the paper is covered with ink)  Well what does this mean in the real world?  It means a normal typed letter, double-spaced.  

That was fine for up to about say, 20 years ago.  But today everything has graphics in it.

Print a lot of pictures or maps?  Start multiplying.  A page full of graphics (i.e. 100% coverage) means that even for the miserly HP 8600, full (black only) costs about $0.32 per page.  

Don't Forget About Color

Now for color (and most printers have three (3) color cartridges in addition to the black one), of course cost more money.  So by the time you're done, even the HP 8600, the most efficient printer in our examples listed here could get to around $1.00 per page, full bleed (100% coverage), full color.  

That's how your print costs spin out of control.  

What Should a Small Business Do?

First, think about the use of your consumables (e.g. paper and ink) in very simple terms.

If you track your purchases, so much the better.  If not, make a good estimate.  If you purchase a few reams per month, something like HP 8600, Epson WorkForce Pro or the like should be your minimum purchase.  

If you consume less than one case per year, turn your focus to the ink.  If you are changing cartridges more than once per month, you probably should upgrade.  

Examine Your Printer Logs

I'll bet you didn't know you have one.  Most printers actually track at a minimum their total page count.

Some even track black only versus color.

Start a log of your own to understand your historical usage.

A simple spreadsheet.  Date and total page count.  A weekly log should suffice.  Track for 10-12 weeks.  Now you've got a basic idea of how much you are consuming without any guess work or false assumptions.

Sometimes Two Printers Are Necessary

It may make sense for some small businesses to easily justify the cost of having two (2) printers.  For example, an MFC for color and mid-range laser printer for black and white.  A classic example of this would be any business that prints a lot invoices, but only a limited number of "office" documents.

Take a landscaping business.  They will print dozens (if not hundreds) of basic 1 or 2 page invoices every month but only a few full color proposals.

Summing Up

Let cooler heads prevail.  A little bit of analysis can go a long way when it comes to selecting the right printer(s) for your business.  

Read the fine print on the consumables and as they saying goes, "do the math."  For most businesses, you will not require a PhD in Economics from SUNY Albany or anywhere else to comare the efficiencies of various devices.

And if you're not quite sure, you can always seek further assistance.

Single Sign-On (SSO) for the SMB

Most people want another password like they want dental work.  They'll get it done, but only because they have to and the pain of not doing the work far outweighs the long term implications.

Having one password for everything has long been a Holy Grail in the technology world.  Large companies have spent small fortunes trying to make this a reality.  And in recent years, at least on the consumer front there has been some progress on the SSO front with Facebook, Yahoo! and OpenID leading the charge.  By which we mean you can use the one set of credentials (your username and password) for many sites.  

For example, Gannett's website for local newspapers (e.g. The Journal News) no longer have their own unique commenting system, they simply use Facebook.  Flickr, the popular photo sharing website (owned by Yahoo!) allows for authentication with not only Yahoo! credentials, but Facebooks and Google as well.  

But most businesses probably do not want to have their security entrusted to a third party that has absolutely zero accountability to them. 

Recently a small crop of companies have been popping up that are making the dream of SSO a reality for companies of all sizes. 

One of those such companies is Okta.

They have over 1,000 websites (read:  cloud-based or SaaS applications) supported with their service, plus Microsoft Active Directory (AD).  So if your company has grown to the point where you have your own server, you can have passwords inside and outside your firewall automatically created and provisioned.  Meaning you create a user in AD, and then automatically their new Salesforce.com credentials are created at the same time.  When they move on, accounts are deprovisioned in the same fashion.

Depending on the features you require, their service runs anywhere from about $1 / user / month to about $10 / user / month. 

The auto-provisioning and deprovisioning is the true time, money and sometime (company) life saver.  With a few clicks all the necessary accounts are created.  And when they leave (especially under "extreme" circumstances), the ability to disable everything in one-shot is not just about saving time, it could be about saving your company's reputation or very existence.  

Backups and Going to the Gym

They are two things everyone should do, and at the same time they are two things most people do not enough, well enough, or worse not at all.  Sometime we even go through the motions to give ourselves a false sense of accomplishment.

Everyone wants the same two things from their backups:

• Fast (speed)
• Bullet-proof (reliability)

Here's the rub:  Even if you're doing something, the odds are that you're not covering both points; even worse sometimes neither.

With the right planning, you can have both so your business stays in shape, no matter what happens. 

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage as this post is a little longer than the norm, but it's an important topic that's worth taking the time to understand.

Fast Backups

Fast is pretty easy.  A USB hard drive in most cases will have the average small business covered.  But if you want to be bullet-proof, you need to get the data off-site.  That can be anywere, you're home (assuming you have a separate office), a safe deposit box, a friend or relative's home, etc.  But you're not bullet-proof with just one drive.  You actually need a minimum of two (2) extra copies to completely bullet-proof.

Why?

You take the drive off-site.  Great.  Now you have the data in two places.  Better than just one.  However, you are still vulnerable.  Murphy's Law says that you'll have that catastophe (i.e. building on fire, flood from the floor above you, etc.) on a day when you're performing a subsequent backup and both data sets are in the same location.

One more drive off-site prevents this scenario from taking hold. 

So you've got fast and bullet-proof, but you have inconvenience because you now have to manage the backup copies.

Now let's look at using just the cloud.  

It's possible, but often not that pragmatic.

First the obvious, speed.  Assuming the catastrophe, for example you server is completely destroyed.  Fire, flood, electrical surge, etc.; the server needs to be rebuilt.  Unless you're in a media intense business (e.g. advertising, television, news, etc.) the amount of data most small businesses creates can usually be measured in megabytes, a few gigabytes at best with a robust, document intense business that has been around for a number of years.

Otherwise, the server is probably just a means to an end of making sure QuickBooks or whatever accounting package you use is centrally stored and a few other modest functions.  

The rebuilding of the server is where a small business is vulnerable to being "down" for a prolonged period of time.  (e.g. more than a day)

The "image" of that server, meaning a snap-shot of the entire machine, is in all liklihood over 100 GB.  

Restoring large amounts of data from the cloud is a slow process, regardless of how zippy that "business class" high-speed Internet connection you have is rated.  The reason?  Most websites intentionally limit bandwidth so no one person can monopolize their pipeline.  In other words, the weakest link in the chain is completely beyond your control.  

The Ideal Solution:  A Hybrid Backup Strategy

Simply put, this means doing both which lowers your overall risk to a disaster.

There are a number of ways to accomplish this.  The most ideal of which would be having your files in the cloud, but in the case of a total meltdown the ability to have physical media (e.g. DVD-ROMs, a hard drive, etc.) shipped to you overnight for a local (and thus fast) restore.

It's possible, but for most small businesses, this solution can be cost prohibitive. 

There are some creative scenarios that can cover the bases for the small business.

What Goes Where

The first thing to understand is that computers and programs are always replaceable.  Money not withstanding, anyone can go grab a new laptop in a pinch at their local big box store or have one shipped overnight from the reseller of their choice.

Your credit card will never be able to recreate your life's work.  Everything you created, your designs, your contracts, your e-mails, etc. all need to be backed-up properly so in case of an emergency your business does not suffer. 

Put Your Data Files in the Cloud

If you're a one person business and everything you have ever created can fit in a few GB, then Dropbox is probably the answer.  The first 2 GB is free and you can earn up to 6 GB additional space (for an 8 GB total) with referrals.  

Their pay plans start at $10 / month (or $99 / year, if paid up front) for 50 GB of storage.  In our opinion, they would be wise to create a 20 GB plan at a $5 / month price point, but unfortunately there is nothing between free and $10 / month.

Dropbox vs. Rackspace (Costs for 5 Users)

For a team, Dropbox is probably not your most economical option.  Their entry level plan runs $795 / year for 5 users and 1 TB of storage.  For many small businesses this overkill and price well out of reach.  A small legal or accounting practice just starting out will be a long ways away from needing that much space. 

An alternative would be a Rackspace cloud drive offers group disk functionality for $4 / month per user that pools 10 GB per user.  Meaning a 5 person shop for example would have an expense of $20 / month and 50 GB of storage.  

Assuming 5 users, Dropbox becomes a better value once your storage needs exceed approximately 358 GB.

Here's that break-even point illustrated:

$795 / 12 = $66.25 (per month)

$66.25 - $20.00 = $46.25

$46.25 / $0.15 = 308.34 GB

308.34 GB + 50.00 GB = 358.34 GB

(And you thought comparison shopping items in the supermarket was tough.)

Backing Up Your Laptops, Desktops and Servers (without breaking the bank) Takes Some Creatviity

Laptops & Desktops

Anyone who's tried updating a computer that is sufficiently out of date knows it can be an incredible time killer. No imagine a virus or a simple hard drive failure wher you have to start from scratch.  It gives the term, "Hal Gurnee Network Time Killer" a whole new meaning.

Starting from scratch means formatting the hard drive, running the factory restore program, running all the updates since the time you first started your computer and then reinstalling all your applications can be an all day event (or maybe even more). And then restoring all your data.  And never mind all the little customizations you have made over the years like booksmarks, widgets and more.  It takes more time than you ever want to spend to make yourself "whole" again. 

What if you could make a set of restore discs that includes everything?  Meaning the operating system, the applications, all the personalizations; everything.  Mac users are lucky.  Time Machine, built into Mac OS X takes care of that.  As Ron Popeil would say, "Set it and forget it."  Just remember to take the hard drive offsite to protect yourself against disaster.

Windows users need to do a little more work.  Fortunately necessity being the mother of invention means that someone has figured this out.  And this case, that someone is a company called, Acronis. 

Their imaging software programs means you can make a full image of your computer, and you can even restore to a completely different type of computer.  For those that have worked in the support field for while know that this is a big deal.

Once you have your image, get it off-site.

Everyonce in a while, say quarterly, make a new full-image backup.  This way the machine can be restored without having to sit through every single update since the begining of time.  

Servers

Servers add a bit complexity to the mix.  Yes, you can take a full snapshot, but you also need to worry certain tasks that are always running.  This is why server backup utilities cost more than their desktop counterparts.  Nevertheless, for the small business owner, the procedure will likely be very similar; except that you'll want to run the full backups on a much more frequent basis, monthly at the lonest, weekly in most cases.  

 

Why Not Put the Full Backups in the Cloud?

Simply put, it can quite expensive and as stated earlier the restore process could take an extremely long time.  A full backup of the operating system, all your programs, preferences, etc. could be several gigabytes.  If you have a few computers to backup, that online storage space can add up.

Every Business is Unique

Weigh your options.  In almost all cases, you'll have more than one option.

Just what the world needs - Another blog

The purpose of the (Somewhere in Creation) "Thoughts" blog is provide our insight and opinion on new technology; how it relates to small business; best practices in the SMB sector; and on occasion some diversions in the world of food and travel.  After all, most businesses will have some entertainment expenses every now and again, won't they?

Ecosystems Matter

We are of the firm belief that when it comes to software, they are either an ecosystem or apart of one.  If neither, the software better not be too important to your business.

An ecosystem or platform simply means that other software companies can build on top of a given system to extend it with new functionality.

The original ecosystem is the operating system.  Whether your computer is running Windows, Mac OS, Linux or even something else, all the programs you purchase run on top of that foundation.

Over the years that concept has been extended further.  First with applications and today with websites.  Facebook is a platform.  There are games that run inside it.  You can "like" things from just about anywhere. 

Salesforce.com is one of the best examples in the corporate space of an ecosystem or platform.  An organization starts with the base CRM package but then can add all sorts of features from third parties that just "bolt on" to the base foundation.

Building your own ecosystem means choosing the right collection of platforms that work with each other. 

The small business needs to think long and hard about any major investments.  For example, any system that "touches" money should have integration with your financial & accounting system (e.g. QuickBooks, Peachtree, etc).  Without that integration, time will be spent wasted manually exporting and importing data from one system to the other, which is a process prone to error (human and otherwise) and is adding zero value to the business. 

Having the technological bridges in place to connect two systems together is critical to keeping data quality high and expenses low.