How to Calculate the ROI of a Managed Print Services Plan

If you’re considering switching to a Managed Print Services (MPS) plan for your business, you’re probably asking one key question: What’s the return on investment?

While print costs may seem small compared to other business expenses, they often go unnoticed and unmanaged, leading to thousands of dollars in avoidable waste every year. MPS can help bring those costs under control, but to justify the switch, you need to understand the actual ROI of implementing a managed print strategy.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to calculate MPS ROI, what costs to track, and why it matters—especially if your business operates in a document-heavy industry like law, finance, healthcare, or education.

What Is Managed Print Services (MPS)?

Managed Print Services is a tailored solution that helps businesses gain control over their entire print environment. This includes:

• Assessing current print usage
• Consolidating devices
• Automating toner delivery
• Providing repair and maintenance
• Offering print usage reports
• Enabling cost-saving strategies

At Creative Office Solutions, we design custom MPS plans for businesses in Atlanta and surrounding areas—helping them reduce waste, improve uptime, and cut costs.

Why ROI Matters for Print Management

Before adopting any service model, decision-makers need to ensure the numbers make sense. Calculating ROI isn’t just about seeing if MPS saves money (it usually does)—it’s also about showing stakeholders the value in moving from a reactive to a proactive print environment.

By looking at hard numbers (costs, savings, efficiencies), you can justify investment, unlock budget, and ensure you’re not overspending on print without even realizing it.

Step 1: Calculate Your Current Print Costs

Before you can measure ROI, you need to understand your baseline costs. Here’s what you should track:

1. Equipment Costs

• Purchases of printers, copiers, and multifunction devices
• Leasing payments (if applicable)

2. Supply Costs

• Toner, ink, paper, and specialty media
  Emergency supply orders due to stockouts

3. Service & Maintenance

• Technician call-outs
• Service contracts
  Unexpected repair bills

4. IT & Admin Labor

• Time spent by staff resolving printer issues
• Time spent ordering supplies
  Time spent managing print vendors
  

5. Waste & Inefficiency

• Unnecessary prints or duplicates
• Print jobs abandoned at the device
• Redundant machines or underutilized devices

If you’ve never audited these areas, you’re not alone. Most businesses underestimate how much they’re spending on print. Our experts can help with a print environment assessment to gather the data you need to begin.

Step 2: Estimate Your Post-MPS Costs

Once you implement an MPS plan, several of those costs should decrease. A well-run MPS contract often includes:

• Device consolidation (fewer machines)
• Automated toner delivery
• Scheduled maintenance
• Performance monitoring
• Reporting and cost allocation
  

It’s also common to reduce paper usage, lower supply costs, and free up IT time that was spent fixing printers.

Let’s say your business currently spends $2,000/month on unmanaged print. With MPS, that might drop to $1,500/month while improving service and print quality. That’s a $500 monthly savings—or $6,000 annually—not to mention the hidden labor savings.

Step 3: Use the ROI Formula

Now that you have baseline costs and estimated MPS costs, use this formula:

ROI (%) = [(Savings – Investment) / Investment] x 100

Example:

• Current unmanaged cost: $2,000/month
  MPS cost: $1,500/month
• Monthly savings: $500
• Implementation cost: $1,200 (one-time)

Annual savings: $6,000
ROI = [($6,000 – $1,200) / $1,200] x 100 = 400%

A 400% ROI means that for every dollar you invested in MPS, you got four dollars back.

Bonus ROI Factors Often Overlooked

Employee Productivity

Employees no longer wait at malfunctioning printers or scramble to fix jams. A streamlined system means more work gets done, and IT teams can focus on strategic projects.

Device Lifespan

With proper maintenance, devices last longer and need fewer repairs. That alone can justify the service cost over time.

Environmental Impact

By reducing print waste, MPS also supports your sustainability goals—a bonus that’s attractive to clients and partners. See how toner recycling fits into this conversation in our post on recycling boxes for printer cartridges.

Industry Spotlight: Law Firms

Law firms print extensively—contracts, court documents, internal records—and often have multiple devices spread across offices. We recommend checking out our guide to top copiers for law firms if you want to combine MPS with the right equipment.

We also break down how MPS specifically helps legal teams in our article on managed print services for law firms.

Ready to Maximize Your Print ROI?

If you haven’t reviewed your print costs in the last year, you’re likely overspending—without realizing how much. At Creative Office Solutions, we specialize in helping businesses calculate, implement, and maximize their MPS ROI.

Our team will provide a personalized assessment, recommend device upgrades from our printer selection, and even help you explore high-volume or wide-format solutions for industry-specific needs.