Thursday, August 12, 2010

Federal Government Aims to Save Printer Costs


Ever wonder where your tax dollars are going? Apparently the government feels like too many of them are going toward printers, and it plans to trim the fat. According to an article in the Federal Times, government printers are currently “wasting more than $300 million a year in taxpayer dollars.” The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are in charge of cutting costs through strategic sourcing, and they will focus on several important points.


First off, a lot of federal employees have personal printers on their desks. The GSA and OMB hope to eliminate many of those machines and get more workers connected to a single network printer. In addition, while the analysis of printer costs has traditionally centered around the price of the printer, the focus will now shift toward the recurring costs of consumables and maintenance. Other areas of emphasis will include getting agencies to work together to negotiate more affordable sales and services contracts with vendors, “printing on both sides, printing in black and white or in draft mode, and using fonts that save paper.”


So why did it take so long for the federal government to figure all this out? My guess is that it’s exactly what you’d expect. The government is a bureaucracy, and change can come slowly. Plus, with a consistent flow of tax revenue at their disposal, federal agencies may not feel the urgency to shop for compatible ink cartridges like individuals and private businesses who have to worry more about profits and the bottom line. Whatever the reality is, let’s hope the government starts spending our tax dollars more sensibly, while applying the printing lessons its constituents learned a long time ago.


Read More: cartridgenews.com

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