Printing is one of those costs that almost never gets its own line in an SME budget, yet in total often swallows more than a CRM licence. Scattered across a few suppliers, a few device models and a few invoices per month — it is invisible, and precisely for that reason expensive.
In most 20-50-person companies we audit, printers are the topic "nobody handles". Someone once bought an HP, someone else added a Brother "because it was on sale", the accountant has her own Xerox "because it's the only one that prints labels", and there is a hulking Konica in the front office from 2016 that nobody dares touch "because it works". Toner is bought by an assistant from a random online shop, faults are reported to three different service providers, and no one can tell you how much all this actually costs each month.
At one of our clients — a 24-person accounting firm in Poznań — an audit of the print fleet uncovered five devices from different manufacturers (three HP and Brother mono lasers, a Canon colour, a Konica MFP from 2017) printing around 12 000 pages a month between them. Toner bought ad hoc from IT retailers: 3 400 PLN/month. Service visits: 2-3 a month at 400-600 PLN each. The assistant spent about 10 hours a month ordering supplies and chasing faults. After consolidation onto two identical A3 multifunction devices in an MPS contract with per-page pricing (0.04 PLN mono, 0.25 PLN colour), the cost dropped to roughly 2 100 PLN a month, service and toner included. The manual work disappeared. Payback under six months.
Why printing costs more than you think
When the CFO asks "how much do we spend on printing", the answer they get is usually the toner invoice line. That is maybe 40% of the real cost. The rest is hidden and that is exactly why it slips out of control.
- Cost per page, not cost per cartridge. The vendor sells you a printer for 900 PLN, but a set of original toners costs 1 400 PLN and lasts 6 000 pages. That is 0.23 PLN per page — double what a company on an MPS contract pays. You are not buying a printer, you are buying a consumables contract nobody named for what it is.
- Faults and downtime. A printer is a mechanical device that, in a 40-person office over five years, breaks 2-3 times a year on average. One service visit is 400-800 PLN, plus 3-4 hours during which nobody prints.
- Administrative work. Ordering, receiving deliveries, complaints, explaining to the supplier that "no, we meant the other model". In a 30-person company this is easily 8-15 hours a month of someone's time.
- Paper, power, floor space. Paper is cheap but it adds up. A large multifunction pulls 800-1 500 W in print mode and takes up a real square metre of office floor.
- Wasted printing. Without pull-print, 5-15% of printed pages are never picked up. They sit in the tray and end up in the recycling bin.
Added up, in a Polish SME this typically comes to 60-120 PLN per employee per month. In a 30-person company that is 2 000-3 500 PLN a month, or 24-42 kPLN a year. Very few people count it this way.
Three models: own, lease, MPS
There are three sensible models for managing an SME print fleet. Each has its place.
Model 1 — own devices, bought consumables. The classic. You buy the printers, you buy the toner, you pay for service separately. Only really makes sense at very low volumes (up to 500-1 000 pages per month across the whole company) and only if you buy one type of device and enforce that discipline. The biggest problem: nobody knows what it truly costs, because expense is scattered across a dozen invoices from different suppliers.
Model 2 — device lease or rental. You pay a monthly fee for the hardware (typically 3-5 years), you buy toner separately. Frees you from a one-off CAPEX, good for companies that want predictable monthly cost. But financially it often works out more expensive than buying, and consumables are still your problem. Mostly makes sense when the investment budget is blocked.
Model 3 — MPS (Managed Print Services). The supplier gives you devices, toner, service and monitoring on one contract. You pay per page: mono usually 0.03-0.05 PLN, colour 0.20-0.30 PLN. On top a fixed device fee (0-300 PLN per month, depending on class). The supplier remotely monitors toner levels and ships new ones before you run out; faults are reported through one email or a portal. For companies from about 15 people upwards, printing over 3 000 pages per month, this usually comes out cheaper than the own-devices model, and — more importantly — is operationally simpler.
In the Polish market MPS is offered among others by Konica Minolta, Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, HP and their local resellers (often it is the local resellers who are easier to negotiate with). Make sure your provider is local — next-day device replacement is only realistic then.
MPS contracts — what to negotiate and what to ask
An MPS contract is a trap for the inattentive. A standard supplier contract contains several clauses which, over 3-5 years, can push the cost up by 30-40%. Know them before signing.
- Minimum volume. Many contracts include "minimum 2 000 pages/month mono, 500 colour". If you print less, you pay anyway. Check your real volume over the last 6 months before signing.
- Fixed vs indexed page price. The per-page price can be flat for the whole contract, or indexed annually (usually to inflation or a national statistics index). In the current climate indexation rarely works in your favour. Push for fixed, or a cap on increases.
- Who connects the printer to the network. Installation, Active Directory configuration, user permissions — should be in the price. Suppliers like to invoice this separately at 500-1 500 PLN per device.
- Device swap on failure. A clause saying "24 h SLA" does not mean "repair in 24 h". It may mean "service reaction within 24 h", which is worth much less. Force the wording: "replacement device within 48 h or financial SLA".
- Exit from the contract. Standard term is 3-5 years, followed by automatic renewal unless you cancel three months before end. This is where companies get stuck in expensive contracts for years. Put a reminder in the CEO's calendar.
- What happens to the device after the contract. Usually goes back to the supplier. That means after 5 years you have nothing to show for it. Do not try to buy the device out at the end — it will be worn and expensive to maintain.
Finally, the biggest lever: negotiate on the basis of real competitive offers. Two or three comparable quotes in hand will typically knock 15-25% off the first price list.
Security: a printer is a file server
Nobody talks about this and it matters. A modern multifunction printer is a Linux computer with a hard drive, a network card, a touchscreen and rights to scan to email or SharePoint. It is a network device with real potential for data leakage.
- The printer's hard drive. Multifunction devices cache scans and prints on an internal drive so they can be replayed. When the device is swapped out, the drive often goes back to the supplier full of files. Force a contract clause on drive encryption and wipe before return (or physical destruction at the supplier's cost).
- Scan-to-email without authentication. By default the supplier configures "scan to email" as an open form — anyone can type any address and send a scan outside the company. That is a leak the size of your HR archive. Force user login (card, PIN, AD code) before scanning.
- Admin panel. The printer has a web interface at its IP on the LAN; the default password is usually "admin/admin" or "admin/1234". Change it. Restrict panel access to the IT network only.
- Firmware updates. Manufacturers publish security patches, but almost nobody applies them. In an MPS contract, make regular updates a supplier obligation.
- Pull-print (follow-me printing). Prints wait in a server queue and are released only when the user logs in at the device with a card. No more documents sitting in the tray waiting to be collected, waste drops by 10-15%, and it is a GDPR-friendly feature on top.
Where to start
The practical order we use with clients:
- Count what you have. Do an inventory: model, age, monthly volume (laser printers have a counter in the panel). Pull toner and service invoices from the last 12 months. Two or three hours' work, usually a shock for the owner.
- Get 2-3 MPS quotes. Give potential suppliers your volume and mono/colour split. A reply usually comes within a week and shows that yes, it can be done cheaper.
- Decide the model. Below 15 people and 3 000 pages/month — usually not worth it. Above that — almost always worth considering MPS.
- Consolidate hardware. Target: 1 multifunction per 15-25 people, plus desktop printers only where truly justified (payroll, executive office).
- Configure security. Turn off open scan-to-email, force login, encrypt the drives, plan firmware refresh.
- Measure after six months. Compare the current print invoice to what the audit showed. Usually the difference is striking.
If you don't know which step to start with in your business, half an hour of conversation is usually enough to make the first cut. This is not a multi-month project — most often it fits into weeks.
A printer is not office equipment. It is a network device with a hard drive, an operating system and a contract that — badly signed — can cost the company more than a new hire.