We often get asked: “what’s the right number of printers for my business?” There is no magic formula that will give a consistently right answer because every business is different. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad question.

It’s actually a very good question, because often organisations haven’t thought about it and have a mish-mash of printers throughout the business. In most cases, asking the question can lead to significant consolidation of their print fleet and save money.

It really does depend on what the business needs are, but there are some key points to consider.

1. How much do your existing printers get used?

2. Do you print more in colour or black and white?

3. Are there security or privacy issues that mean sensitive documents can’t be sent to public printers?

4. Do some departments print more than others?

5. Do people really need individual printers?

Auditing your print fleet on a regular basis can reveal some really interesting behaviour and lead to a complete re-think of your approach.

Research based on our existing customers shows that organisations can reduce their printer numbers by a third – the cost savings in reduced toner, paper and maintenance speak for themselves.

As an example, take a look at an example floor plan before and after we carried out an audit on a customer, to see just how many printers we were able to remove from the business.