Some of us do ROI presentations and some of us don’t. For those who don’t you’re missing opportunities. Do not leave any stone unturned when consulting on current costs for the total cost of operation.
Recently, I had the opportunity to provide a quote for two MFP’s in two workgroups. The first thing I noticed is that every desk had a laser printer on it. Below is a rundown of the two work groups:
Workgroup #1 (6 people)
- 6 laser printers
- 1 fax
- 1 large copier (MFP) however it was not connected
Workgroup #2 (8 people)
- 8 laser printers
- 2 fax (one for inbound and one for outbound)
- 1 large copier (MFP) this also was not connected
I did my usual routine, gathered configuration sheets from every printer, got the meter reads from the copiers and printer along with the reports from the faxes for inbound and outbound pages. Once I gathered all of the information I went back to office and looked up the cost per page for each device and put together a ROI spreadsheet for the customer.
As usual I indicated that the desktops printers and fax machines should be eliminated because of the higher cost per page when compared to a connected copier/MFP. Working late on the proposal I needed to save the customer some additional dollars, but where was it going to come from? I had already accounted for auto duplexing to save paper, fax4ward2email to save paper and consumables, put them on a cost per page plan, and even had 10 licenses of PPDM to help save paper.
Something finally clicked and I did a search on the Internet for “electricity cost for copiers” and I got what I was looking for at http://www.aps.com/ . They had a document that actually showed the average cost of running office equipment on an annual basis. With that I created a new line in the spreadsheet that focused on the electricity savings by removing 14 laser printer and 3 fax machines. Eliminating the fax machines would save $27.00 per fax per year (if left on 24 hours), and then the laser printers were $44.00 per year (if left on 24 hours).
The faxes total $81 annually and the laser printers came in at $616 annually for a total of $697 per year. Break that down to a monthly cost and the savings would be around $58 per month. Over the term of 60 months, the total savings is $3,484.99.
Summary: I doubt that the laser printers were left on 24 hours a day (you never know), however even if they were turned off at night, the end user still had a savings each and every month. Plus, if you’re the person presenting the ROI proposal and you’ve taken the time to show this to the client, my guess is you’ll get their business.
I’ve been the first one in the office in the a.m., my office is a branch office with employees coming and going all day. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve arrived and every electric device in the office is on? That’s a waste of energy and decreased profit. It may not be much for one office, but what if you had five, 10 or 50 offices? That’s big bucks! Have you ever considered doing an energy audit or thought about offering a Managed Power Program? If not, check out what my friends at ESP/SurgeX are doing to help dealers grow their business and create new revenue streams.
It’s all about saving money.
Good selling!
