Lexmark promises to take TotalCare of SME customers

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 04 October 2007 14:33

Your IT - Home IT

Fixed-price printing (just BYO paper) is the promise behind Lexmark's new TotalCare service.

The idea is that small and medium businesses can pay either a flat monthly fee or a single upfront payment for their printing, including hardware, toner supplies and maintenance.

Lexmark has previously offered this type of arrangement to its enterprise customers under the Managed Print Services banner.

"Lexmark TotalCare is a ground-breaking initiative for our partners and customers in Australia," said Eddie Noel, managing director for Lexmark ANZ. "While our resellers are hugely excited about TotalCare, it is our customers that stand to realise the greatest benefit. Lexmark TotalCare rewards our customers who commit to using our hardware, genuine supplies and warranty services, with substantial cost savings that are locked in over both the short and long term."

TotalCare includes a web site for customers to order printers, apply for finance and arrange for next business day service calls or the delivery of toner cartridges. Financing is provided through Capital Finance, which typically gives approval within four hours.

Customers can also choose the dealer that will handle their account: "we've made this very channel-friendly," said Champion.

SMB sales and marketing manager Tim Champion explained that the bundles cater for typical and higher levels of usage. For example, the T644n networked mono laser printer with five cartridges and three years service costs just over $A4400, or approximately 2c per page (based on 192,000 pages and the ISO page coverage model). By basing the cost on a certain number of cartridges rather than a fixed price per page, "you only pay for what you print on each page," Champion said.

TotalCare provides the flexibility to change the mix of colour and black cartridges, or to reallocate 'toner dollars' between printers.

"We've made [the bundle prices] exceptionally competitive," said Champion. TotalCare "can save organisations 20 to 40 percent on their print [costs]," he claimed.

The T644n lists at around $A2200, and its high-yield cartridges have a street price around $A400. This means the effective cost of the maintenance service is around $200 for the three years.