Original is Best

With economic conditions still difficult and future growth uncertain, businesses of all types are inevitably focused on reducing operational costs. When it comes to the print budget, many of these organisations may be tempted to chase cheaper alternatives to consumables from the original equipment manufacturer. Acting on this impulse, however, would be a huge mistake. In the printer market, as elsewhere, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. 

In purchasing consumables from any other source than the named manufacturer, organisations need to assure themselves that printer performance and quality will not be compromised. 

In reality, in failing to meet the high technical demands of an individual printer’s hardware, these poor quality compatible substitutes will almost certainly have a negative impact on both performance and print output quality. Worse, they may also impact significantly on the life expectancy of what is a costly and often business-critical piece of office equipment, by increasing wear and tear and the need for related maintenance and support.

It is a strong message but it also needs to be strongly delivered if users are to resist the lure of short-term print budget savings. This is where reseller companies with their close customer relationships can be instrumental in advising customers about the issues caused by cheap consumables; helping to build brand loyalty and ultimately, protecting a valuable revenue stream.

Resellers are ideally placed to make the key point that the ultimate victim of the decision to buy in compatible rather than original toner will always be the end-user, who will not be getting the bargain they imagined. Their close customer relationships make them best placed to communicate the truth: namely that far from being a mere marketing slogan, ‘original is best’ is the route to go for any user looking to achieve optimum performance and print quality. Quality is critical if their collateral and other materials are to accurately reflect to customers and partners alike the quality of the overall business.

Why Smarter Printing is the Answer
Equally resellers can advise businesses that it is nonsensical to be seduced by possibility of cost savings on print consumables when there are so many other ways they can save money through changing their approach to printing.

In fact according to a recent report by leading economics consultancy, the centre for economics and business research (cebr), firms and other organisations could save £360m a year from replacing expensive outsourced printing with printing in‐house while savings of between £500m and £1,760m could be generated by more efficient management of existing in‐house printing tasks.

Resellers need to help customers to understand that a large percentage of printing, previously outsourced to print shops, can now be carried out more quickly and cost-effectively by staff using high-quality in-house printers. In this way, businesses can see an immediate impact both on their overall print budgets and their levels of wastage. Bringing more print jobs in-house will enable them to eliminate over-runs. And raising the level of ‘right first time’ printouts will allow them to reduce the need to repeat work.