Procurement: It Pays to Sweat Over the Small Stuff
Don’t overlook the smaller investments when it comes to getting the best for your business.
When it comes to spending your hard-earned cash, you naturally want to know you’re getting the best possible quality. You wouldn’t knowingly buy a counterfeit pair of running shoes. If you did, the chances are your feet would suffer. When it comes to investing in products and services that help bolster business performance, you want to know that investment will pay off in the same way a robust pair of running shoes will help you beat your personal best.
Usually when business decision makers agonise over investments, they’re thinking about big expenditure. Smaller investments are often overlooked but these can easily build up. Investing in the right product or service, no matter how small, can have a big impact.
- Is cheaper ever really better?
Third party products can be a tempting option when it comes to replenishing smaller items like sundries and supplies. But those ‘less important’ items could be integral to your business operations, and this is why buying original matters.
Take printer consumables, for example. Contrary to common misconceptions, third party compatibles can end up costing you more in the long run despite their lower price tag. In an independent report on OKI Original printer consumables versus three third party compatibles, Keypoint Intelligence Buyers Lab found that the third-party cartridges produced lower average page yields (up to 50% less) and suffered from reliability and image quality issues whereas the performance of OKI’s printers were described as ‘almost flawless’.
We’ve all found ourselves in a mad rush trying to print urgent materials at the last minute. Now imagine your document being messy and illegible where crisp, sharp text or clear and colourful graphics should be. This can often be the reality of buying third party compatibles. When it comes to getting the best possible quality and performance from your printer, it makes complete sense to buy original consumables specifically designed and crafted to work with your device.
- In search of authenticity
It can be easy to fall into the trap of ordering consumables that you believe to be original, which instead turn out to be carefully forged counterfeits. The problem with scouring the internet for the best deal is that you don’t often know who you’re buying from or whether they’re reputable.
From bogus branding and packaging to misleading product descriptions, there are a number of tactics dishonest sellers can take to dupe buyers into ordering counterfeit goods. Because OKI wants end customers to get the best possible performance and quality from their devices, we’ve developed a simple set of guidelines to help determine whether your consumables are the real deal.
The OKI online authentication tool can verify a product’s authenticity within seconds while genuine product packaging will be adorned with a shiny OKI hologram logo which should display the numbers 18 and 81 in the holographic window.
You might not have expected the world of printer consumables to be so complex, but it needn’t be if you ensure you’re always using the original products produced by your printer’s manufacturer. When it comes to procurement, whether you’re sourcing printer consumables or other supplies, it really does pay to focus on the small things. In doing so, you’ll ensure you’re supplying your business with the quality it deserves.
