Should You Buy or Lease an Office Printer?
In today’s business landscape, agility, first-to-market and competitiveness are key factors to drive revenues. Agility to scale your business easily, first-to-market and support a product or service with little to no infrastructure delay, and competitiveness in terms of cost of production and product pricing.
Unless you are in the printing business per se, it is a known fact, that printers, scanners, copier, and printing needs in general are part of the business operational support and not the key business function of the organization.
This is where leasing comes into play, you outsource the non-critical but important aspects of your business to a competent service provider so you can focus on driving your money, time and effort to activities and investments that matters most for your business.
What Is Printer Leasing?
Leasing, in general, means renting a piece of equipment, product, or service. Similarly, the idea of printer leasing incorporates renting a printer for your business. Printer leasing services include costs of leasing, maintenance, paper, ink or toner and other business printing needs. It’s an all-in-one printer leasing service that simplifies the whole process for you.
Why Is Printer Leasing Better Than Buying a Printer?
Unlike buying a printers that requires upfront-cost and capital expenditure (CAPEX), leasing or renting does not need huge cost upfront, you only pay a fixed monthly cost which is for of an Operating Expense (OPEX) model. A mutual agreement is signed between both parties, usually in the range of 1,3 to 5 years contract duration. The longer the contract, the cheaper the monthly payment. Companies can divert their capital to business investments that will yield more business results.
● Low Upfront Cost
Since buying new printers will cost a company hugh investment in a single go, printer leasing diminishes the impact of high-investment by dividing the cost into monthly payment. You won’t even have to worry about things like paper, ink, and the maintenance cost since that will be automatically covered in the contract.
In total, the cost of buying a printer, man-hours of personnel to maintain it, depreciation and disposal of units, not to mention the opportunity loss due cash not being diverted to more profitable investments all contributes to the company’s bottom-line. This make printer leasing a viable strategy to keep operational cost low and profit high.
● Latest or Updated Models
By leasing from a credible printer leasing company, you’re getting the best possible printer equipment for your actual operetional consumption. You don’t need to settle for mediocre models, leasing companies will allow you to get the best possible hardware that can cater to your business’ printing needs.
● Maintenance and Technical Support Are Provided
Printers are business equipment that requires ongoing maintenance simply because of moving mechanical parts and heavy usage. Having an in-house maintenance may not be cost effective while calling a technician for adhoc maintenance is disruptive to business continuity. However, by leasing a printer, maintenance is included in the overall package and the lessee will be responsible for the printer’s overall maintenance and performance.
● Flexible Contract Duration
Short-term and long-term contracts are available. A long-term contract incorporates somewhere between 2-5 years while a short term incorporates a few months to a year of leasing. Hence, you can budget and plan according depending on the needs of your business.
● Tax Savings
Since leasing is paid as a monthly cost, it is considered as an operating expense that is tax deductible, while printer equipment purchase is considered as an asset. Not to mention that depreciation has to be monitored and declared in the accounting books for it to be considered as depreciation expense.