Managed Print Services: Cut Print Costs and Hassle

Do you know what your business spends on printing each month? Most owners have no idea, and the honest answer is usually a shrug.

Printers get bought one at a time, toner is ordered in a panic when it runs out, and no one tracks who prints what. The result is a running cost that hides in plain sight and a device that always seems to jam on the busiest day of the week, exactly the problem managed print services are built to solve.

Managed print services fix exactly this. They hand your printers, copiers, and consumables to a single provider who runs the whole fleet for a set monthly cost, so printing stops being a recurring headache and starts being a controlled, measured line in your budget.

Printing is often the last unmanaged corner of an otherwise well-run office. Every other system has an owner and a budget line, yet the print fleet grows by accident, one cheap unit at a time, until nobody can say what it costs or who looks after it.

This guide explains what managed print services cover, how they cut cost, and how they secure every print job. It is written for New Zealand business owners and managers who want their printing sorted properly without adding another thing to their own to-do list.

What Are Managed Print Services?

Managed print services are an outsourced arrangement where a provider takes over the supply, support, security, and monitoring of your entire print fleet for a single monthly fee. Instead of buying printers and toner yourself and fixing faults when they happen, the provider owns all of that for you.

The model covers the physical devices, the consumables that feed them, the software that tracks them, and the support that keeps them running. You get one point of contact and one predictable bill in place of scattered hardware purchases and surprise toner orders from three different suppliers.

At its simplest, managed print services move printing from something you own and worry about to something you consume as a service. The provider carries the responsibility for keeping the fleet working, stocked, and secure, and you pay for the output rather than the equipment. Print management becomes their job, not a task that lands on whoever happens to be near the machine.

It follows the same logic as Device as a Service, which does the same for computers and endpoints. Managed print services apply that thinking to printers, copiers, and multifunction devices specifically, so your printers get the same steady attention as the rest of your IT.

What does a managed print provider actually do?

A managed print provider audits your current devices, consolidates them into a right-sized fleet, and then runs that fleet on your behalf. Day to day, they monitor device health, ship toner before you run out, resolve faults, and report on usage and cost.

The work is proactive, not reactive. A monitored fleet flags a low toner level or a failing part before it stops a job, so problems are handled in the background instead of at the front counter with a queue building behind you.

Reporting is one of the most useful parts of the service. Because every device is tracked, you get a clear picture of what is being printed, by which team, and at what cost, which is often the first time a business has ever seen that information laid out.

Who provides managed print services?

Managed print services are usually delivered by an IT provider or a specialist print partner who supplies the devices, the tracking software, and the support under one agreement. The best fit for most businesses is a provider who already understands their wider IT setup.

Working with a single provider for print and IT avoids the finger-pointing that happens when a printer problem sits between a hardware supplier, a network provider, and an internal team. One team owns the outcome from device to network to support desk, so a print fault is logged, diagnosed, and fixed the same way any other IT issue would be, without you having to work out whose problem it is first.

How Do Managed Print Services Cut Costs?

Managed print services cut costs by removing waste, consolidating devices, and turning unpredictable spending into one flat monthly rate. Businesses that measure their print spend for the first time are often surprised by how much was leaking away unseen.

The savings come from several directions at once. Fewer devices mean fewer things to buy and maintain. Bulk toner supply costs less than emergency retail cartridges. And usage tracking exposes the heavy, needless printing that no one was watching.

Industry studies routinely put unmanaged printing at between one and three percent of annual revenue, most of which is invisible because it is spread across petty cash, supplier invoices, and staff time. Managed print services bring that spending into one measured agreement, which is what makes the saving possible.

How does consolidating the fleet save money?

Most offices run more printers than they need, often a mix of ageing desktop units bought at different times. Consolidating to a smaller number of efficient shared devices lowers both the purchase and running cost per page.

A single well-chosen multifunction device usually costs far less to run than several small desktop printers, because larger devices use cheaper high-yield consumables and are built for volume. Removing the little machines also removes the drip of small toner orders that add up over a year.

Right-sizing the fleet sits alongside good Hardware Lifecycle Planning, which plans when devices are refreshed so you are never running expensive, out-of-support hardware past its useful life. A managed print agreement builds that refresh cycle in, so devices are replaced on a planned schedule, well before they finally fail.

Turning cost into a predictable line

A managed print agreement replaces ad hoc hardware and consumable spending with one monthly cost, usually billed per page or per device. That makes printing easy to budget and easy to forecast across a financial year.

Predictable billing also ends the small emergencies that cost more than they should. There are no more last-minute cartridge runs to a retail store at full price, and no capital approval needed every time a device wears out.

It is the same discipline that Software Licensing brings to software: know exactly what you are paying for, remove what you do not use, and stop the surprise costs before they arrive. You cannot control a cost you have never measured, and print is usually the last one to get measured.

How does usage tracking reduce wasteful printing?

Usage tracking makes people think twice about what they print. When a business can see that one team prints thousands of colour pages a month, it can set sensible defaults, such as black and white or double-sided, that cut cost without anyone feeling policed.

Rules can be applied automatically across the fleet, so the cheaper option becomes the default and the expensive one takes a deliberate choice. Small changes at that scale add up to a meaningful reduction over a year.

Tracking also settles arguments with facts. When a department questions its share of the print bill, the report shows exactly what was produced and when, which turns a vague dispute into a simple conversation about a real number.

How Does Managed Print Improve Security?

Managed print improves security by controlling who can release a print job, encrypting data in transit, and keeping device firmware patched. A printer is a networked computer with a hard drive, and an unmanaged one is a genuine gap in your defences.

Secure release printing is the most visible protection. A job only prints when the person who sent it authenticates at the device, so sensitive documents never sit unattended in the output tray for anyone to pick up, read, or walk off with.

For businesses handling personal or client information, this matters under the Privacy Act. A confidential document left in a shared tray is a small breach waiting to happen, and managed print services close that gap as a matter of routine, not as an afterthought.

Why is an unmanaged printer a risk?

An unmanaged printer often runs outdated firmware, stores copies of documents on an internal drive, and sits on the network with default settings and passwords unchanged. Each of those is a way in for an attacker or a route for a data leak that no one notices.

Attackers increasingly treat printers as an easy foothold precisely because they are overlooked. A managed print service keeps firmware current, enforces access controls, and securely wipes device storage when a machine is retired, so a printer is never the weakest link on your network.

Printing becomes part of your security posture, not a blind spot in it. The same provider that patches and monitors your other devices does the same for the print fleet, under the same standards.

How print security fits your wider defences

Print security works best when it is one layer of a joined-up approach, not a standalone bolt-on. Access to devices can be tied to the same user accounts and controls that protect the rest of your systems, so there is one identity behind every action.

That consistency is easier to achieve when print and IT are managed together, because access, monitoring, and reporting all sit under one roof, not stitched across separate vendors with different tools.

What happens to old print data?

When a printer or copier is retired, the data stored on its internal drive is a common and overlooked risk. Many devices keep copies of scanned and printed documents, and a machine sold or returned without a secure wipe can hand that data to a stranger.

Managed print services handle end-of-life properly by wiping or destroying storage before a device leaves the business. This closes a gap that catches out firms who dispose of old machines the same way they would an empty filing cabinet, without realising the device still holds their records.

What Is Included in a Managed Print Service?

A managed print service typically includes device supply and consolidation, automatic toner and consumable delivery, usage and cost tracking, print security, and ongoing support and maintenance. The exact mix is scoped to the size and needs of your business.

The point is that everything to do with printing is covered by one agreement. Nothing is left for staff to chase, and nothing falls between the gaps of separate suppliers who each blame the other when something stops working.

Most agreements are billed on a cost-per-page or per-device basis, which keeps the pricing transparent and directly tied to how much you actually use. There is no large upfront outlay for hardware, and no separate invoices arriving from a toner supplier.

The core components

Device management keeps the fleet healthy and consolidated. Automatic toner supply means consumables arrive before they run out, triggered by the monitoring, not by someone noticing a low warning. Cost and usage tracking shows exactly what is being printed and by whom.

Print security controls access and protects data, while support and maintenance handle faults and servicing without a separate call-out charge each time. Together these turn printing from a recurring annoyance into a managed, measured service with a clear owner.

Good providers also review the service regularly, not setting it and forgetting it. A periodic look at volumes and device performance keeps the fleet right-sized as the business changes, so you are not paying for capacity you have grown out of or struggling with too little.

How managed print fits your wider IT

Managed print works best as part of a broader managed arrangement. Exodesk delivers it alongside Managed IT Services so your printers, devices, and network are looked after by one team that already knows your setup and can resolve a print problem as quickly as any other IT issue.

For businesses that prefer to lease their print hardware rather than own it outright, this also connects naturally to IT Hardware Leasing, spreading the cost of devices over a predictable term and keeping capital free for the rest of the business.

Common questions before signing up

The most common worry is being locked into a long, inflexible contract. A good managed print services agreement is scoped to a sensible term with clear exit terms, and is reviewed as your needs change, not fixed for years.

The second common question is whether the business keeps control. It does. Managed print services take the work off your team, but you still set the policies, own the data, and decide how the fleet is used. You stay in charge of the decisions while the provider handles the day-to-day running.

Is Managed Print Right for Your Business?

Managed print is right for most businesses that print regularly, run more than a handful of devices, or cannot say what printing costs them. If toner runs out unexpectedly or nobody owns the print fleet, the case is strong.

Very small offices with a single low-use printer may not need a full agreement. But once printing spreads across multiple devices, sites, or busy periods, the cost savings and reduced hassle usually pay for the service several times over within the first year.

The businesses that gain the most tend to share a few traits: several devices from different brands, a receptionist or office manager who has quietly become the unofficial printer technician, and no clear figure for annual print spend. If that sounds familiar, managed print services are worth a look.

Signs you have outgrown ad hoc printing

Common signs include unknown print costs, frequent toner emergencies, a mix of mismatched devices, sensitive documents left in trays, and staff time lost to jams and faults. Any two of these together point to a fleet that needs managing.

A less obvious sign is the amount of time non-IT staff spend keeping printers going. When capable people are wrestling with paper jams and driver problems, the real cost is their lost time, not just the consumables.

How a print audit helps you decide

A short print audit answers the question quickly. It measures what you have, what it costs, and what a managed arrangement would save, so the decision rests on numbers rather than guesswork or a gut feeling.

The audit is usually low effort for the business and comes with no obligation. Even a firm that decides against a full agreement often walks away knowing its true print cost for the first time, which is useful information on its own.

From there the choice is straightforward. You can see the current cost, the proposed monthly figure, and the difference, and decide whether handing the fleet to a provider is worth it for your business. For most firms of any size, the numbers and the removed hassle make the case on their own.

Get Your Printing Under Control

Exodesk manages print fleets for businesses across Christchurch, Dunedin, and the wider South Island, cutting cost and taking the hassle off your team. We audit what you have, right-size the fleet, and run it for one predictable monthly cost.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help your business or connect with us on LinkedIn to stay updated with more insights.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are managed print services?

Managed print services are a subscription model in which an IT or print partner runs your printer and copier fleet end to end, billed monthly. The partner supplies devices, keeps them stocked and patched, protects each job, and reports on what every team prints. Businesses use this instead of owning equipment and chasing faults themselves.

How much do managed print services cost?

Managed print services are usually billed per page or per device as a single monthly fee, so cost scales with how much you actually print. Pricing depends on fleet size, print volume, and whether devices are supplied or your own. Most businesses find the flat rate lower than their previous ad hoc spending once waste is removed.

How do managed print services save money?

Cost savings come from consolidating the fleet, buying toner in bulk instead of at retail prices, and using usage tracking to cut needless printing. Fewer devices mean lower maintenance and purchase costs. Predictable monthly billing also removes the surprise expenses that break a budget.

Are managed print services secure?

Managed print services improve security through secure release printing, access controls, encrypted data, and patched device firmware. Documents only print when the sender authenticates at the machine, so nothing sits unattended in the tray. Retired devices have their storage securely wiped before disposal.

What is secure release printing?

Secure release printing holds a job in a queue until the person who sent it authenticates at the device with a card, PIN, or login. Sensitive documents never sit in the output tray for others to see or take. It is one of the most effective and simplest print security controls.

What is included in a managed print service?

A managed print service usually includes device supply and consolidation, automatic toner delivery, usage and cost tracking, print security, and ongoing support and maintenance. Everything to do with printing is covered by one agreement. The exact scope is tailored to the size and needs of the business.

How is managed print different from device as a service?

Device as a service covers computers, laptops, and endpoints on a subscription model, while managed print covers printers, copiers, and multifunction devices specifically. Both spread cost over a predictable monthly fee and include support. Many businesses run the two together under one managed IT arrangement.

Will managed print work with our existing printers?

Managed print can often work with compatible existing devices, though a provider will usually recommend consolidating older or mismatched units where it lowers cost. An initial audit assesses which machines are worth keeping. This avoids replacing hardware that still has useful life left.

Do small businesses need managed print services?

Small businesses with a single low-use printer may not need a full agreement, but the case grows quickly once printing spreads across several devices, sites, or busy periods. Unknown costs and frequent toner emergencies are clear signs. A short audit shows whether managed print would save money.

Where can I get managed print services in Christchurch or Dunedin?

Exodesk provides managed print services to businesses across Christchurch, Dunedin, and the wider South Island. Getting started begins with a local print audit that measures your current devices, volumes, and costs, followed by a proposed right-sized fleet and a monthly agreement. A local provider can install, support, and service the fleet on site without disrupting your daily work.