Every day, employees still lose time to aging printers, IT teams spend hours troubleshooting connectivity issues, and finance departments absorb the burden of unexpected repair bills. These are all symptoms of outdated print infrastructure, and the true cost is often higher than businesses realise.
Beyond the obvious spend on toner and paper, hidden expenses can quietly add up to thousands of dollars per device each year. Energy waste, lost productivity and reactive maintenance form a costly cycle that drains resources.
However, strategic print modernisation not only removes these inefficiencies but also boosts uptime and overall performance. In this article, we’ll look at how to uncover these hidden cost drains and implement smarter print solutions that deliver real savings and efficiency.
According to EnergyAustralia, Australian businesses consume 154,439 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year at a cost of around $20.2 billion, with office equipment being a notable contributor to commercial energy usage.
Legacy devices without energy-efficient features can drain energy in several ways. They often don’t have automatic sleep modes, so they keep using full power even when idle. They use older, less efficient heating elements to fuse toner, which need more electricity. And they may not have power management features that adjust energy use based on how the device is being used.
For example, an older printer might consume upwards of 800 watts during operation and 50-100 watts in standby mode, compared to modern devices like the Kyocera ECOSYS PA4500x Mono Printer that uses 605.5 watts in print mode, 8.4 watts in standby mode, and just 0.5 watts in sleep mode. This significantly lowers the environmental footprint compared to older, less efficient printers. The model also features long-life components that contribute to overall energy savings and reduced waste over its lifetime. Over the course of a year, this difference can translate to hundreds of dollars per device in additional electricity costs.
Aging equipment becomes increasingly unreliable, creating a cascade of costly disruptions. Emergency repair call-outs triggered by sudden hardware failures add unexpected expenses, while frequent breakdowns force employees into time-consuming workarounds that reduce overall productivity.
The true cost extends beyond the repair bill itself. When printers fail at critical moments, businesses face a cascade of additional expenses: from employee queues and rush parts orders to overtime costs and project delays that multiply the financial impact.
A single device failure can easily cost an organisation several thousand dollars when accounting for lost productivity, emergency service fees and expedited parts delivery. Meanwhile, frequent minor breakdowns create a constant drain on operational efficiency, with employees spending valuable time on workarounds rather than core business activities.
Outdated devices often require proprietary consumables that become more expensive as manufacturers phase out older models. Inefficient printing mechanisms waste toner and paper, leading to a measurable increase in per-page costs. Additionally, they may fail to transfer toner efficiently from the cartridge to the paper, leading to excess toner being collected in the waste toner container instead of creating a printed image. Improper software calibration or hardware faults can also cause misfeeds, jams or duplicate pages, all of which waste paper.
Even moderate inefficiency can raise your printing costs by nearly 10%. Left unchecked, larger-scale issues like misprints, redundant jobs and persistent misfeeds can drive costs up by as much as 20% in poorly managed environments.
With outdated print infrastructure, your IT team's valuable time is often consumed by constant troubleshooting, including managing driver conflicts, coordinating repairs, and addressing connectivity issues. These tasks typically require immediate attention, pulling technicians away from planned projects to handle urgent print-related problems.
The reactive nature of supporting aging equipment means IT staff spend their days "firefighting" rather than focusing on strategic technology initiatives that could improve overall business operations.
These inefficiencies extend far beyond the IT department, affecting employee productivity, sustainability goals, and budget predictability. With many Australian businesses committed to reducing their environmental footprint in line with national climate targets, energy-hungry legacy equipment and wasteful printing practices directly undermine these efforts while creating unpredictable expenses that complicate financial planning.
Rather than continuing the cycle of reactive fixes, modern print solutions transform infrastructure from a cost centre into a strategic business enabler through comprehensive managed print services designed for today's business environment.
The cost of maintaining outdated print infrastructure only increases over time, making strategic modernisation both a financial imperative and an opportunity for operational improvement. Understanding the true total cost of your current print environment, including hidden expenses like energy consumption, productivity losses and IT resource allocation, is the first step toward making informed decisions.
Printing is typically the third-highest business expense after rent and payroll, but it's often overlooked or calculated using only the sticker price. Download our Guide to Calculating Total Printing Costs to learn how to correctly assess your device's total cost of ownership and avoid unnecessary expenses.
KYOCERA Document Solutions supports Australian and New Zealand businesses on their digital transformation journey with innovative products and software solutions.