Stop Paying for Managed Print Services

Managed print services made sense 15 years ago when offices were printing thousands of pages a month and printers were complicated machines that needed constant attention. For most businesses today, that’s just not the reality anymore.

You’re paying a monthly fee for what’s mostly lease administration and the occasional toner delivery. Meanwhile, the “support” you’re getting often can’t actually solve your problems.

Here’s What We’ve Seen

When something goes wrong with a printer, it’s usually not the printer. About half the time, it’s a network issue. Scan-to-email stops working? That’s almost always a firewall or email configuration problem. Print jobs not going through? Check the network first.

The printer services company shows up, looks at the printer, and then calls your IT team because they need help troubleshooting something on the network. You’re paying two companies to solve one problem.

And here’s the thing: most printer services companies started as copier companies. They added “IT services” to stay relevant, but their core competency is still hardware, not networks. When the issue is actually the printer, they’re great. When it’s anything else, they’re out of their depth.

Modern Printers Are Pretty Simple

A good business printer today is modular. When something breaks, you can usually:

• Replace the part yourself (toner, drums, fusers are designed to be swapped)
• Have your IT person handle it (it’s not rocket science)
• Call a repair technician on a per-incident basis

You don’t need a monthly contract for something that breaks once or twice a year. Pay for repairs when you need them.

What You’re Actually Paying For

• Lease administration – Someone to manage the financing paperwork
• Toner delivery – Which you could just order yourself
• Per-page fees – Based on estimated volumes you may not hit
• Monitoring software – Installed on your network and forgotten about
• Manual meter readings – Or automatic ones from that forgotten software
• Service calls – That often require your IT team anyway

Add it up over a 3-5 year contract and compare it to just buying a printer outright. For most small and mid-sized businesses, the math doesn’t work out.

The Alternative

When Managed Print Actually Makes Sense

We’re not saying it’s never worth it. There are situations where managed print is the right call:

• High-volume environments – If you’re running a print shop out of your office, that’s different
• Construction job trailers – Distributed sites where you need printers delivered, installed, and picked up when the job ends. We have clients who print massive volumes at job sites across the country. Having a printer company handle logistics makes sense.
• Large organizations – Hundreds of employees, dozens of printers, actual fleet management needs
• Regulated industries – Where you need detailed print tracking and audit logs

But a 30-person office with two printers? You’re probably overpaying.