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Is Your In-House Printing Costing You A Mint?

What does your printing really cost you? Estimates of the annual cost of in-house printing vary from around 1% to 4%+ of turnover. Of course this will vary depending on the type of business involved but most managers are shocked when this statistics are disclosed to them.

Many companies still do not know how much their in-house printing costs are per annum. Without this information it is impossible to determine if the company is using the correct combination of different printers to fulfil their requirements.

In most companies printers will have been purchased on an ad hoc basis without any strategic plan on how best to manage the print process. Printers are cheap and having one on most desks saves time and effort! If a print/copy bottleneck arises in some part of the organisation the quick solution is to purchase a desktop printer/copier and relieve the problem, after all they are not expensive but the replacement cartridges are.

In any business there typically will be photocopiers, fax machines, desk top printers and maybe larger capacity printers. This results in a multiplicity of makes, most with differing capacities and probably few of the exact same models which necessitates having to procure and stock a variety of toner/cartridges and ribbons. There will maintenance agreements in place with the different suppliers. Small machines are fine for small jobs but struggle when required to do longer print runs and the cost per copy will be highest with the smaller machines.

The problem in establishing the annual costs has been the difficulty in accessing the various elements that make up the total cost, the cost of the printers depreciated over 5 years, the cost of maintenance, electricity costs, the cost of paper and the cost of replacement toners/ink cartridges which can be dearer than the original desktop printer. This excludes the cost of handling problems with printers like breakdowns, ordering and replenishing stocks of cartridges. New technology is revolutionising the inhouse function with improved colour and multi function machines.

New developments are being incorporated into the latest versions of printers and these can make a dramatic reduction in printing costs. Multifunction devices are becoming more popular, being networked into the IT infrastructure, concentrating volume through lower number of printers, allowing companies to purchase higher end machines that deliver better quality at improved cost per unit.

Colour is becoming more popular and many businesses are looking at having to replace a lot of print engines but should they follow the same path as previously or take control of the situation and develop a plan to manage the whole process across the company which will result in excellent quality at competitive costs.

How can you control a cost if you do not know how that cost is made up? Who causes the cost to be incurred in the first instance and is the volumes across the company reasonable? What about waste when someone prints out a document on their desktop, reads it and then consigns it to the waste bin rather than reading on the screen is this waste and if so how can you control/eliminate it.

If facilities are too convenient they sometimes are abused, if that same person had to walk to a printer sited some distance from their desk they would think before requesting a printout. There are a whole range of new printers coming on to the market than can handle several functions-copying, printing, faxing in mono or colour and can be networked to desktop computers. There is also software available that will trace who commissioned each print/copy job, the size of each job and the time the job was produced.

Are you really in control of your costs this is what most companies who are NOT cost conscious do;
The company does not maintain records of it's annual print requirement
There is no breakdown between black & white and colour requirements
They don't know the cost per page printed
Nobody is sure how quickly the demand for colour printing is growing throughout the organisation
A study of print requirements has not been carried out, by department, by function.
Printers are purchased as individual items to fulfil a need without reference to an overall company plan.

If any of these apply to you, and indeed you care about costs eating away at your bottom line, think about how you could change some of these behaviours. In addition, you could also look at the following list to check out some positive actions you could implement right now. If you have the time, know how and inclination to save money on your in-house printing, follow these tips;
Make sure the inventory of printers is up to date
Ascertain how much paper was purchased in the last year
How many ink and laser cartridges were purchased last year
Ascertain how many prints were produced by each printer, distinguish between B & W and colour
Look at the demand across the organisation to determine the most appropriate combination of printers
Determine if some of this requirement could be more economically outsourced
Conversely determine if currently outsourced print could be brought back inhouse with the right equipment

Many people know this cost is eating away at their profits, but seem either unable or unwilling to face up to the problem.

At Cost Control & Management Services, this is our business. We have saved companies thousands of Euro annually. We have done this many time before, so we know what we are doing. This enables you to save costs while allowing you to get on with your normal business. We will create the plan to save you money, which will involve both some smart use of the technology, some company policies in relation to print, and we can independently negotiate good deals with your suppliers, ensuring optimum customer service, at competitive prices. For more information on whether this solution would help you control your costs in printing, or any area of you business call us on.

About the team at Cost Control.

Cost Control Management Systems, are a team of experts, with over 200 successful cost reduction projects between them. The team, are quickly able to spot if there is money saving potential, in any of the cost categories, that your company may feel they are overspending on. Either fill in our web form at http://www.costcontrol.ie or call us now on.

posted by gcpdt @ 8:57 AM 0 comments

Caribbean Food - A Little History

The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians were the first inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. These first inhabitants occupied the present day islands of British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their daily diet consisted of vegetables and fruits such as papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino started the process of cooking meat and fish in large clay pots.

The Arawaks are the first people known to make a grate of thin green wood strips on which they slowly cooked meat, allowing it to be enhanced by the flavor of the wood. This grate was called a barbacoa, and the word we know today as barbeque is taken from this early Indian cooking method.

The Carib Indians added more spice to their food with hot pepper sauces, and also added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are said to have made the first pepper pot stew. No recipes exist since every time the Indians made the dish, they would always add new ingredients. The Carib had a big impact on early Caribbean history, and the Caribbean sea was named after this tribe.

Then the Caribbean became a crossroads for the world . . .

Once the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the region, the slaves diet consisted mostly of food the slave owners did not want to eat. So the slaves had to be inventive, and they blended their traditional African foods with staples found on the islands. The Africans introduced okra, callaloo, fish cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding and souse, mangos, and the list goes on.

Most present day Caribbean island locals eat a present diet that is reflective of the main ingredients of original early African dishes, and includes cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.

African men were hunters in their homeland, and often away from home for long periods of time. They would cook spicy pork over hot coals, and this tradition was refined by the early slaves in Jamaica. The technique is known today as jerk cooking , and the secret involves a slow meat cooking process. Jamaica is famous for jerk chicken and pork, and youll find jerk all over the island.

After slavery was abolished, the Europeans went to India and China for labor, and more cooking styles were introduced. Much of the Indian cooking culture remains alive and well in the Caribbean of today with the introduction of curried meats and curry powder. Indians call it kari podi, and we have come to know this pungent flavor as curry.

The Chinese introduced rice, which is always a staple in home cooked island meals. The Chinese also introduced mustard, and the early Portuguese sailors introduced the popular codfish.

Most visitors to the Caribbean have no idea that the fruit trees and fruits so familiar to the islands were introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits brought from Spain include orange, lime, ginger, plantains, figs, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds and coconuts.

Even the Polynesian islands play an important role in Caribbean cooking. Most of us remember the movie Mutiny on the Bounty, but do not know that particular ship carried breadfruit, which was loaded on board from the islands of Tahiti and Timor. In the movie the crew took over the ship, forced the captain into a small boat to fend on his own, and they threw the breadfruit, which they considered strange fruit overboard. Another ship was more successful in bringing breadfruit from Polynesia to Jamaica and the St Vincent and the Grenadines. Breadfruit is a staple diet in the current day Caribbean

America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili pepper to the Caribbean. In fact these particular foods had never been seen in Asia, Europe or Africa, so America actually introduced these foods the rest of the world via the Caribbean.

So it's no wonder Caribbean cooking is so rich and creative with the flavors of Africa, India, and China, along with Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, French and British influences. Food served in the Caribbean islands have been influenced by the cultures of the world, but each island adds its own special flavor and cooking technique.

Linda Thompkins is a Caribbean travel consultant and owner of Travel 2 the Caribbean online agency. Linda and her husband reside in Indianapolis, Indiana and have traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean.

Travel 2 the Caribbean has been in business for seven years and offers secure online booking, and travel agent booking.

caribbean.com">http://www.travel2thecaribbean.com

posted by gcpdt @ 5:32 AM 0 comments