Posted by Andrew Miller
How much are print servers costing your organization? That’s not a rhetorical question. We really do want to know—because that’s a large portion of how much you’ll be saving by eliminating print servers and choosing PrinterLogic as your enterprise print management solution.
In a recent survey of approximately 200 PrinterLogic customers, the independent research firm TechValidate asked about the total costs of provisioning and maintaining print servers. Total cost is important because it accounts for obvious expenditures such as hardware and software but also the “invisible” costs like labor and hosting. Those invisible items can have a big impact on bottom line but don’t always get factored into print management estimates.
Nearly 70% of the customers surveyed said it cost them between $1,000 and $3,000 to provision each new print server or replace an existing one. The remaining one-third of respondents reported that it cost their organization $3,000 or more—with close to 10% stating figures in excess of $6,000 per print server!
Of course, you could justify that (and many organizations do) by saying that provisioning or replacing a print server is a one-time expense every few years. But what about the ongoing costs of print servers? What do those costs look like?
Around 80% of these customers reported that print servers required between $1,000 and $3,000 each year to operate and maintain. The number of respondents that recorded higher costs of operation were smaller but still significant: A full 20% said that each print server cost them more than $3,000 annually to operate and maintain, with 8% citing annual costs greater than $5,000.
Even in a very conservative scenario of around $1,500 per provisioned print server and $1,500 in annual operating costs, most organizations would be looking at about $9,000 in provisioning and operating expenses for each print server per five-year cycle, assuming a fairly generous lifespan. Now multiply that by each print server in your organization and factor in some additional real-world overhead for eventualities like early hardware failures, redundancy and extra licensing.
Once you’ve arrived at that figure, imagine what saving that amount could do to your budget.
No, that’s not an idle thought exercise. PrinterLogic can actually eliminate these costs by eliminating print servers altogether. Best of all, there’s no hidden compromise. Your organization will actually gain printing functionality and ease of administration that are far superior to any print management scenario that is possible with print servers. PrinterLogic achieves that through:
Centralized printer management: PrinterLogic leverages proven direct IP printing so that you can administer printers across the enterprise using a single web-based console. You can effortlessly create, batch edit, set defaults or quickly remove those printers with unprecedented precision and ease. The same goes for drivers and profiles.
Self-service installation: Our intuitive and consistent web-based portal empowers your end users with the ability to identify, select and install their own printers. Optional floorplan maps make it even easier.
Automated printer deployment: Dynamically deploy the right printers to the rights users based on a host of criteria (e.g., Active Directory user, computer, group, hostname, IP address) – all without complicated group policy objects (GPOs) or scripts. And even in virtual environments like Citrix and VMware.
But PrinterLogic doesn’t just eliminate print server costs. The combined benefits above drastically reduce the number of service desk calls and minimize the time investment needed to maintain your print environment. That could be why so many PrinterLogic customers also reported return on investment (ROI) greater than 200% in separate TechValidate surveys!