The printer salesman began his pitch: "Once upon a time there was a poor, dull document that was of interest to no-one. Its vital information was ignored by one and all, and it stayed unloved and unlovely at the bottom of a drawer in the kingdom of Officeland." NewField IT is an independent consultancy practice with primary data covering 28 countries and over 70,000 devices. In this paper, they take an impartial look at the use of colour in an office, its advantages and the cost to a business.
Colour in the office
Document fairy tale
or cost demon?
By Nigel HancockSenior Consultant, NewField ITIntroduction PLAYING THE PIED PIPER:halting the onward march
The printer salesman began his pitch: "Once To control the increases in colour printing, upon a time there was a poor, dull document it's first helpful to understand why this that was of interest to no-one. Its vital increase has occurred:information was ignored by one and all, and it stayed unloved and unlovely at the bottom 1 The rise of the mono/colour printerof a drawer in the kingdom of Officeland. The value of colour in differentiating Then one day a handsome printer salesman information and highlighting a message is came riding into Officeland clutching a colour now well accepted, but in the past colour printer. Everyone was overjoyed, and the output came from a dedicated machine, document - because everyone knew it was a usually with limited access. The latest very important document (just rather dull) technology from the manufacturers delivers - was reprinted in multi-coloured glory with mono output from a colour machine at charts and pictures galore, and they all lived the same cost and speed as a mono only happily ever after" or so it seems when you machine, so as these devices replace mono mention growing colour needs to your local only devices, they become a Trojan horse for sales representative! pushing more colour into the office. Colour printing has become increasingly prevalent in the office environment in recent 2 New sources of informationyears and the challenge for those that control the printing budget is that the price Document volumes have historically increased 2tag attached to colour printing is typically by 14% year-on year and colour volumes are ten times higher than a mono page. This increasing at a greater rate than mono price premium has traditionally been based volumes, driven largely by new sources of on the perceived value of the colour output, information - like the Internet. Web pages and the more expensive technology involved are a good example of real waste when in delivering it. While the value does exist, it comes to colour printing. By their very the use of colour used to be confined to nature, web-pages are not designed for specialist departments. the printed page and yet we print lots of lots of them; maps, menus, timetables and Yet, Newfield IT research shows that colour information that at one time we would have printing already equals one in every six pages obtained on the telephone and written down 1printed in the office, which many companies now becomes a costly printed page. Not only will be unaware accounts for up to two-thirds that, web-pages usually print off on several of their overall print bill. The trend is that pages when the only information we require by 2010 one in three pages will be colour - at is on the first one. current (often contracted) consumable costs, this means office printing costs could rise a staggering 72%, or £225 per user per year, if 3 The value of colourunmanaged. We have been conditioned by vendor This white paper looks at why organisations marketing messages over the years to believe now need to look beyond the argument of that use of colour in documents equals better whether colour output is justified to how it understanding and that it is vital for effective should be managed in the office. communication. While that is true in some
1 2 16% as derived from NewField IT printed output audits Cap Venture: Western European Outsourcing report, 2002
2circumstances, equally the use of colour in whatsoever, like a link to a web-page which documents can be an expensive distraction, appears in blue in an otherwise monochrome causing our eyes and our brains to focus upon page, or a small colour logo that appears in the wrong information. This is frequently the an email signature; each of these examples case when colour is over used in spreadsheets automatically classifies the document as and tables. colour for cost purposes.
In 1999, as part of a "use of colour" We print more colour pages than necessary workshop, the author conducted a controlled simply because we can, because the experiment with a group of some 25 office computers, software and printers we use workers, ranging from secretarial staff make it effortless for us to do so. The through to senior managers. Each member ... [download for more]
