Click vs. ORC

[TWinqvist]

What would you prefer click charge per page or operator rechangeable components? I'm courious how all of you are seeing this battle between two business models.

I'm going with ORC, having opportunity to change the parts myself to decrease the downtime and service calls is good for business.

 

[Craig]

What's the difference??? It all works out the same in the end, you need to charge so much per print to pay for the ORC.... that's a "click" charge. If you are concerned with quality you will be changing your ORC's just as often as if you had metered service plans, if not you may stretch them out a little longer. Or you may find that an ORC fails faster than normal and you are spending the $'s for the part sooner than you planned. But with the metered service plan I may change my ORC'c a little faster to keep my print quality up without concern for the cost.

I think in the end it's a wash, I know that I have $5,000 in toner on my shelf (4 each color) $200 in fuser oil, $480 in developer, not to mention charge corotrons and waste toner bottles, 2nd BTB's and such, which I didn't have to present AR with a invoice. Plus I don't have to stretch things out to keep the machine operating if cash flow slows. But I am also presenting myself with the opportunity to be paying for stuff I may not be using.... so flip a coin, but for me it's easier to pay $.049 chunks then to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for parts.

 

[TWinqvist]

Amen!

You got the point as usual, Graig. Is there any other point of view, anybody?

I think it's all because of my backround with Indigo operator. When we had Indigo (-98 to -05) there were no "click" charged machines in Finland, because the "click" charge was too expensive something like 0,15 €/SRA3, if I remember correctly. We calculated that if we were able to print 8 hours/day the cost per SRA3 was 0,08 €. Okay if you compare these prices to current costs, you'll see the difference of price developing over the years.

One point is that when the holidays come, in Finland we have holiday season 3 months from July to August, when basicly nothing happens in the industry and presses are just waiting. And you still have to print like 70 000 sheets/month because you have done a contract with dealer of certain print volume that you have to print monthly. Dealer gives you time to pay by moving "clicks" to next month, but then you have to print like 100 000 sheets/month to get even. What if you only pay the parts you're using and maintaining your own press, because the service guy is on vacation?

It would be lot easier to explain in Finnish!

 

[Aimee Dennis]

This is a great question and a better debate. For people like us who are web-printers by trade, we are used to purchasing our consumables and buying a service contract. I prefer this method because it is much easier for me to factor in the cost of the consumables into the estimates than "click charges and base fees". Our company and myself are more than capable of managing our inventory and I believe that we should at least have the option of choosing which plan fits us best. Click charges seem to be more of an "office" solution rather than a "Production" solution.
I am not one who believes this averages out in the end. Especially when you print primarily color but when you call for service you get credited at a Black and White click rate - NOT cool. Anyway. Interesting debate and I will continue to watch this post as well as encourage a few I know to watch and post to this topic as well.
Aimee

 

[Craig]

Aimee,
In the end it really is the same. If in a months time to make 30000 clicks, and you put $1,500 of consumables in that equates to $0.05/click. The only benefit you have is to be able to stretch out your consumable to get as much life out of them as you can. That can backfire too when quality drops, or you may need to prematurely replace your developers making your cost per copy increase that month. It all boils down to whether you want to make lump sum payments or little at a time. Once in a while you may be ahead and once in a while you may not.

I have not been credited for BW when I print colors, especially when the tech is doing color test prints, that would only happen once with me.

That's why we have choices in life though, you do what makes you comfortable!