Managed Print Services

Onega can now offer a fully managed print service. This is automated as far as possible and allows for automated monitoring and ordering of toners for your office printers.

Features of this service include:

• Provision of toner and maintenance for your printers on the basis of a simple and competitive cost per page.
• All you need to provide is paper and electricity for your printers / copiers / multifunctional machines.
• Automated monitoring of printers to make sure that toner is pro-actively ordered so that you will normally have replacement consumables to hand for when a printer runs out.
• Automatic engineer call if a printer reports a technical fault. Ability to cover nearly all makes and models of printer - including HP, Canon, Kyocera, Lexmark, Epson, OKI, Brother, Xerox (Tektronix) Phaser etc.  We can also cover wide format printers as used in graphics studios and architectural practices etc.  It does not matter if the printer is inkjet, wax, laser or die sublimation all can be covered.

How does it work?

We install a small piece of management software on a computer on your network (this takes very little resource so can sit on most servers). This can then discover and monitor printer status and usage for a period; all modern printers include a facility to do this though until recently it was only practical to make use of this in very large offices with extensive monitoring software. Thanks to 'the cloud' and our Managed Print service, this has now all changed.

For an initial period we can monitor your printers to see typical usage and print patterns and then we are able to process this to work out a projected cost per page and monthly costs for all your printers that were monitored and give you very competitive pricing for the Managed Print Service. The benefit of this is that it is based on your real world usage so that if your office is heavier or lighter in print yields that the standard IEC print test pages that are used for traditional manufacturer toner yield calculations so the cost estimates that result are as close as possible in prediction to your final bills.

To allow for the monitoring we need to install the small piece of software on your network and you will also need to allow connection for the cloud service through your firewall, which we can assist with or liaise with your IT department on. All communications with the monitoring service are made securely from specified IP addresses over encrypted SSL (eBanking security equivalent) links so there is minimal impact from a compliance or network security standpoint.

There is a choice of having coverage for just consumables (ink / toner) or for both consumables and maintenance if you like. There is also a choice between specifying only guaranteed original manufacturer toner cartridges or also having the option to use remanufactured (recycled) cartridges. We generally recommend the use of quality remanufactured cartridges. There are a whole range of cartridges available for use with printers from poor quality knock-offs which are not licensed and are sold cheap with poor toner that can wreck your machine through to the brand new original cartridges. The good quality manufacturers of recycled cartridges will take used new original cartridges and refill these once only with good quality toner and these do not harm or void the warranty of a printer. We are happy to discuss choices with clients as to what is right for your business. Once the service goes live, when a printer gets to within a couple of weeks of predicted need for a new cartridge, the system automatically orders the cartridge to send to you ready to swap over when the original cartridge is empty. It is important to note (in any case) that you should not swap laser printer cartridges until the printer tells you that you have to swap the cartridge. If you swap a cartridge when it first says 'low toner' then you may waste as much as 20% of the cartridge which ultimately increases your print cost, so now you know not to do that.

What does it cost?

The initial cost is based on the monitored print use and is paid quarterly in advance to cover the cost of service and toner used during the period. If your pattern of use changes over time then there may be adjustments made so that the basis of a charge based on equitable cost per page is carried through. There is also a standing charge of £5 per printer per month to cover the electronic monitoring system. There are no charges for maintenance (as long as you take that) or parts covered under maintenance or toner delivery. You also get complete transparency and access to valuable management information as to how much print you are using and what the relative costs per page on each printer are.

What are the benefits?

• Very cost effective - no more need to individually source and order toners.
• Comprehensive managed service - one less headache.
• Best Practice - as in place at some of the world's biggest and most successful companies.

What is the next step?

The first step is for us to install the software to monitor and collect usage data over a number of weeks to create estimates for print cost and provide you with a comprehensive overview of your print fleet costs and proposal for the managed print service.

Are there any caveats?

Yes there are. Most of these are common sense though and all are detailed in the formal contract document. For example, printers need to be in a working and serviceable state before they can be accepted onto maintenance and you must have at least 25% toner in your printers at the time when the contract starts (or need to buy a new toner to top up). Printers on their last legs and where parts can no longer be obtained from the manufacturers may also be excluded. Maintenance does not also cover abuse, misuse or operation of a printer outside of normal parameters; if it is determined that a fault has been caused for one of these reasons then the repair and parts would be chargeable.