Colour costs scare off businesses

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 4 Sep 2003 at 15:39

A survey by Ricoh has shown that more than half of businesses polled restricted use of colour printing and copying because of what they deem the higher cost.

Fifty-five per cent of businesses polled would increase the use of colour printing and copying, but that same percentage place restrictions on these activities, mainly because of financial reasons.

However, only 10 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses made use of multifunction devices, instead laying out for separate printers and copying and picking up the higher running costs that come with it, or even getting colour work done out of house.

Richard De Lay, head of marketing with Ricoh UK, said: 'The results indicate that businesses have not fully realised the potential of using multifunctional technology... Organisations deploying colour capable solutions stand to make considerable cost savings, but manufacturers need to be aware of their role in educating the market as to how the cost of copying and printing can be effectively reduced.'

Enterprises are already catching on to the benefits of multifunction devices with 22 per cent deploying them.

'It's understandable that businesses want to restrict the use of colour because it has traditionally been an expensive facility to operate in-house... [But] developments in digital technology have given rise to the emergence of colour capable machines that serve the dual purposes of providing a black and white print/copy solutions that can also offer business colour output on demand,' said De Lay.