What's actually going on
Print volume in most offices has fallen while scanning has grown, but the equipment was sized for the old pattern.
Paying for print speed you no longer use is the most common form of copier overspend.
What to do in the next 48 hours
- 1Measure the last three months of mono, color and scan counts separately.
- 2Prioritize single-pass duplex scanning and searchable PDF output over top-end print speed.
- 3Add secure print release so nothing sits in the tray in a shared space.
- 4Re-quote at your real volume rather than renewing the same configuration.
The honest tradeoffs
- Downsizing lowers cost and reduces headroom for the busy week. Size to the busiest realistic week, not the average.
- Desktop units are cheap to buy and expensive per page. They belong at the edges, not at the center.
Your next step
Questions people ask next
- What should I look for in a copier if we mostly scan?
- Single-pass duplex scanning, a high-capacity document feeder, searchable PDF and OCR output, and reliable delivery to email or your document system. Print speed matters less than feeder throughput.
More on an office that's changing
- We're opening a new location and starting from scratch
- My copier lease is ending and I don't know what to do
- My lease auto-renewed and I never agreed to it
- I have to return a copier and I don't know the rules