Right Sizing Your Printer Fleet

Many organisations have a sense that their print environment is not quite right, and are interested in setting about right sizing their printer fleet. Devices accumulate over time, usage patterns change, and yet printing rarely receives the same structured review as other parts of the IT estate. It simply evolves in the background, often untouched for years.

Several years on from COVID, a lot of organisations have now reached a steady hybrid working model. This makes it an appropriate moment to reassess print infrastructure. What made sense when everyone was office-based, or when offices were largely empty, may no longer reflect how people actually work today, or how they are likely to work in the future.

Done properly, right-sizing a printer fleet is about aligning devices to real working patterns, improving reliability, and creating a print environment that is easier to manage and easier to use. In our experience, customers always see significant cost reductions after right-sizing.

What right-sizing a printer fleet really means

Right-sizing is not simply about reducing the number of devices, its about finding the right mix of devices to suit an organisation’s needs and usage patterns. Many places will find that their print environments tend to develop organically without strategic intent. For example, a printer is introduced to solve a local or department-specific challenge and then the device is retained forevermore. Over time, these individual decisions compound, leaving a fleet that no longer reflects how the organisation operates as a whole.

A properly right-sized fleet takes a broader view. It considers where people actually work, how frequently they are on-site, how much printing versus scanning is taking place, and how devices are shared across teams. The aim is not minimalism, but balance. The right devices, in the right locations, supporting the right workloads.

In many organisations, this kind of ongoing alignment is delivered as part of a broader Managed Print Services approach, where print environments are actively monitored and adjusted over time, rather than left to drift.

The hidden cost of an oversized print environment

The most visible cost of an oversized fleet is financial. More devices mean higher consumables spend, increased maintenance, and greater energy use. However, the less obvious costs are often more significant.

Underutilised devices still require support and attention. Multiple device models across different brands create inconsistent user experiences and complicate troubleshooting. IT teams spend time resolving recurring issues without clear visibility into why they occur, and without meaningful reporting in place, waste often goes unnoticed.

When we work with new customers and help them compile real usage data, during the review process they’re always surprised. Devices assumed to be critical may see minimal use, while others carry disproportional workloads. The issue is rarely overuse or underuse in isolation, but imbalance.

Why fewer devices can deliver better service

When considering print and in particularly end-user experience, its very easy to think that “more is more”, and as such the common misconception is that fewer printers will automatically result in worse service. In modern print environments, from what we’ve seen with our customers, this isn’t the case.

Today’s multifunction devices are built to handle higher workloads reliably. When supported by shared queues and secure print release, users are no longer dependent on a single physical device. If one printer is unavailable, jobs can be released at another nearby location without disruption.

This approach improves resilience and reduces reliance on individual machines. From a user perspective, it often feels more flexible rather than more restrictive. In other words, the  user experience improves even as costs and the overall footprint becomes more streamlined.

How to approach right-sizing a printer fleet

A structured approach to right-sizing a printer fleet usually starts with understanding how devices are actively used today, rather than how they were intended to be used. This involves examining print and scan volumes, peak usage periods, device location, and overall utilisation.

Armed with a clearer picture, organisations can now assess whether the current mix of devices reflects those patterns, or whether legacy devices and long-standing exceptions are distorting the environment.

From here, organisations can begin the process of right-sizing, however it is best that these changes are introduced incrementally with a clear plan and intent. Clear communication with all end-users is key, and beginning the process with a pilot limited to a smaller number of devices allows room for flexible adjustment, which is often far more effective than broad sweeping changes. In other words, right-sizing needs to be thought of as a measured process, as opposed to a one-off exercise.

Managing change without user pushback

Right-sizing does not need to be disruptive, but it does require thoughtful change management.

Clear communication to all users plays a central role. Users need to understand why changes are being made and how the new setup will support them. Piloting adjustments in one area before rolling them out more broadly can help build trust and reduce resistance.

It is also important to recognise that exceptions sometimes make sense. Senior leadership, HR, or specific operational roles may have genuine requirements. A well-designed fleet can accommodate these needs without undermining the overall model, provided exceptions are deliberate and justified.

When it makes sense to review your printer fleet

There are certain moments when reviewing a print environment is particularly valuable. Office moves, changes in working patterns, rising costs without clear explanation, increasing reliance on scanning, or an approaching contract renewal all create natural opportunities to reassess.

Even where no immediate changes are made, a structured review often brings clarity. It highlights where the environment supports the organisation well, and where it no longer does.

For organisations without the time or internal resources to carry out this assessment themselves, a structured Managed Print Services fleet review can provide the insight needed. If you would like an independent view of how your current print environment is performing, we’d be happy to support with a short review which will give clear, practical insight and help determine whether change is actually needed.

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