To Click Charge or Not to Click Charge, that is the Question. By Doug Barrett
Click charges are the standard model for charging for output on digital print devices. The MGI Meteor Pro 8700 is one of the only devices on the market which does not subscribe to the click charge model of charging for operation. Without fail when we sit down with a prospective customer they get a glow when they hear there are no click charges. “I hate click charges,” is the most common statement made. As the discussion continues you sense a sign of confusion. The next question becomes, “How do I know what to charge?”
To me it comes down to a basic way of doing business which is the same way it is done with offset. You know your cost and you charge accordingly. We supply all of the tools necessary to calculate cost before you ever print a sheet. It is very easy to do and in a short amount of time using these tools will become unnecessary. This is because after you cost out a few jobs you get an accurate feel for what the cost will be. Once you have the machine we supply one invoice a month for everything related to operating costs of the 8700. Take the monthly copy count and divide that by the monthly invoice amount. There you have your actual average cost per copy. Do this every month and you have everything you need to know. We can supply reports that differentiate the maintenance items from the toner so that costs can be broken down any way you want to. It really isn’t scary or hard to do.
The problem with click charges is that the contracts related to them are very confusing and don’t actually cover everything. It is not uncommon to hear of huge surprise charges which weren’t discussed during the purchase process. With offset, you know what it costs you to run: the variable is ink usage, then there are the fixed costs, plates, blankets, rollers ,maintenance and labor. With the Meteor, you have variable toner usage, and fixed costs of drums, developer, maintenance kits and labor. Same concept different items. Click charges are built for worst case scenario cost wise and it is what you pay regardless of the work you do. With the Meteor, your cost is what it really is. Let’s say that you do 300,000 clicks a month. With click charges you always pay the same amount. With the Meteor if you do a lot of light coverage work your monthly bill will reflect that with lower cost. What really matters is the cost of ownership and profit potential. The MGI nearly always has the lowest cost of ownership. We always offer the highest profit potential. Based on it’s capabilties, the 8700 has potential which no other competitive machine has.
When explaining the cost structure of the Meteor Pro 8700 to a potential customer, we typically take some sample files from them and cost them out with the software we provide with the 8700. We always get the same kind of files, paint jobs (full coverage). We do the calculations and sometimes it scares people off. This is because we can have a job where it is 100% coverage or more on a 12 x 18 sheet and the cost per piece might be $.10 to $.13 while they have $.08 click charges on their device. This is a valid concern but the reality is the average coverage of digitally produced jobs is 35% not 100%. In that coverage range the Meteor is approximately $.05 cost per piece. Which means for average coverage, we are below most click charges. With the MGI, you pay what the actual cost is.
As a manufacturer, MGI made the decision to not use click charges as they did with Graphics Arts dealers selling these machines rather than copier dealers. MGI feels that the Graphic Arts community is the better market for their equipment to be sold in as they are more likely to utilize the capabilities that are designed into their machines. The sheet size, variety of substrates and lack of post finishing issues all lend themselves to Graphic Arts rather than an office environment. The Graphic Arts community is also more prepared for the actual cost of operation model versus the click charge. It is our job to help you understand how the cost works and what the value of our output is. After all, at the end of the day, it is about profit. Is the most important part of the formula the cost to a tenth of a cent or if you can postion yourself to command higher price for a product only you can produce? Take a look at the Meteor Pro 8700 and let us help you understand how the cost model works and what the profit potenetial is. We know you will be impressed.