Business Info - issue 145

COVER STORY 01732 759725 magazine 23 support, and the general reliability of the product before committing to the price of the product alone. Printers are a little less sexy than cars, you just expect them to work, which is why a ‘fit-and-forget’ managed print service (MPS) has become so popular over the years. Epson’s MPS solutions not only provide automatic ink delivery and printer maintenance of a device of your choosing, but they enable you to plan exactly how much your monthly costs will be, prevent you from having to stockpile/under-order consumables, and give you the flexibility to alter your service based on your printing volumes, whether you’re a small SME or a large corporation. For businesses looking to repopulate their offices in 2021 with a greater sense of control, they should be looking at a managed print service. But what about the sustainability benefits? To make print sustainable, Epson has engineered inkjet printers that are heat-free, consume less energy, run off large bags of ink that last longer and minimise waste, and require minimal user intervention. The advantages of inkjet printers mean they consume up to 95% less energy than a laser printer, print 3.5 times faster, and require up to 98% less user intervention 3 . Let me put this into context. EG (Euro Garages) Group operate an extensive petrol forecourt retail convenience at locations across the UK. They print shelf edge labelling and pricing with their in-store laser printers, or at least they used to before one of our partners, Office Odyssey, replaced their laser printers with 575 Epson inkjet printers across each UK site. Here’s why. EG Group were burning through around 300 toner cartridges and drums each month, with each unit printing 2,000 pages before having to be changed. Toner consumables were being stockpiled across their different sites where there was limited space, and their supplier wasn’t always getting it to them on time, which led to a significant impact on their productivity and costs. Office Odyssey explained that by replacing their laser printer fleet with Epson inkjet, EG Group could – over a five- year period – save around 50 tonnes (49,355kg) in CO2 emissions based on reduced energy alone, 179,400 kWh in energy, 16,600 consumables, and 15% in printing costs 4 . The turning point for Euro Garages was when Office Odyssey showed them an Epson printer with an ink yield of 40,000 pages with just one bag, the highest ink yield in the printer segment they were looking at, but, because Office Odyssey was offering a managed print service, ink replenishment and printer maintenance were no longer issues Euro Garages would have to worry about. By choosing a managed print service with an inkjet printer, you are reversing the traditional perception of sustainability by proving that sustainability is no longer the alternative to low cost and high productivity, it is the cause of both these benefits. There’s no knowing how quickly or consistently we’ll be able to transition from home office to office-based working, but minimising downtime is one preparation businesses can make to help recover our economy just as minimising our carbon footprint can help to recover our planet. For more information on how you can integrate a sustainable, managed print service into your office, visit: https:// www.epson.co.uk/verticals/print365 1 Research commissioned by Epson, conducted by B2B international Ltd to 4000 working professionals across EMEA 2 Research commissioned by Epson, conducted by Vital Research to 500 IT service professionals in the UK 3 https://www.epson.co.uk/advantage-inkjet 4 https://www.epson.co.uk/insights/casestudy/eg-group-saves-50-tonnes-in-co2-emissions-on-printer- u pgrade-with-epson High ink yield bags mean Epson inkjet printers can run for longer without having to be changed