Printing costs tumble after office integration

Korean companies are trying to reduce the cost of printing by being more efficient in where they place printers and managing the machines through an integrated system.
According to David Chan, Asia-Pacific head of the global printer maker Lexmark, companies normally spend between 500,000 won ($542) and 1.5 million won per person every year on printing-related costs. He said that good management of printers and copy machines can reduce costs.
Korea Exchange Bank rearranged its office equipment and was able to increase management efficiency. Only last August, the bank had more than 5,000 print-related machines, including printers, copiers and fax machines. Now, however, the company only has 1,600.
The bank was able to save a lot of repair and management costs while increasing space in the office. Printers at the bank headquarters and local branches were linked with a network system and copy machines and fax machines were switched to machines that support both functions. Shin Hyun-jeong, a senior executive of the bank’s office support division, said that task processing speed has increased threefold and the money spent on buying toner, paper and electricity was down 20 percent from the previous year.
Alliantz Life Korea also introduced an integrated management system in March, reducing print equipment by 54 percent.
After realizing that the printer and copy machine market was saturated, Epson Korea’s senior executive Seo Chi-hyeon decided to start a consulting service for companies that want to improve their office environment.
Because companies increasingly seek an integrated print management system, printer makers such as Samsung Electronics, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark and Epson are now offering these services.
For instance, in the case of Korea Exchange Bank, printers were managed by the company’s IT department while copy machines and fax machines were managed by the office support department. When a machine broke down, yet another general affairs department had to cope with the repair. It was also difficult to manage supplies because the machines were all made by different companies.
Now, however, all printers are linked together, with machines placed next to the employees who use them the most. Color printers and those for large documents are also linked to computers for joint use.

By Chang Chung-hoon JoongAng Ilbo [wohn@joongang.co.kr]