Why does your business need a print audit?

Performing a print audit can dramatically slash your printing costs in the short and long-term.

Research reveals that 90% of businesses do not track print and copy costs. Yet a recent study suggests companies that do so can save between 10% and 30% on recurrent spending. One of the World’s leading healthcare companies saved £586,000 over two years following a Balreed print audit.

What is a print audit?

A print audit is designed to reveal how much it costs you to produce a mono or colour page. Using a combination of metrics Balreed analyses your printing over an agreed audit period and calculates how much it costs you each time you click the ‘Print’ button.

This is not a simple matter of factoring in ink costs, paper use and energy consumption. After all, over 50% of printing costs are hidden below the surface and include managing the network and infrastructure, help desk calls and employee productivity losses.

How is a print audit conducted?

Balreed will visit your premises on two occasions and perform the following tasks:

• Identify all your print, copy and scan devices
• Record their physical and infrastructural location
• Track the colour and mono volume produced by each device
• Collate information lease or purchase agreements and associated running costs
• Interview your key users to assess the way your devices perform and how key documents are produced
• Use our energy consumption calculator to work out your carbon footprint
• Identify opportunities to reduce wastage and carbon emissions
• Evaluate document security and risks

We produce a detailed report showing you how we have calculated your costs and where appropriate savings can be made.

What types of improvements are made?

Our print audits frequently result in substantial improvements to IT infrastructure and business services.

IT improvements:

• Number of devices in fleet is reduced and expensive printing is migrated to multi-function devices
• Remote management results in more reliable fleet with guaranteed uptime of 98%
• Substantial reduction in print-related calls to the help desk
• Increased resources available for core business issues – Information Week found 15% of IT time was spent on print-related issues and running costs

Business benefits:

• Up to 30% direct costs saving in first year, mostly due to rightsizing equipment
• Greener fleet and carbon footprint reduced by almost 40%
• Risk of document theft reduced substantially
• Reduced hidden costs and time by wasted by employees performing print-related tasks such as checking toners and phoning help desks

Why should I choose Balreed for my print audit?

When companies offer you a free print audit, they do not generally conduct the in-depth research that our service provides. In addition, because they are tied to one vendor they are unable to offer a solution that truly fits your company’s needs.

Balreed is an independent supplier of equipment and partners with many of the World’s leading device manufacturers including Canon, HP, Konica Minolta and Ricoh. With such a vast array of devices available, the solution we offer you really is unique to your requirements.