What should growing teams look for in an all in one office printing setup?

I have a colleague currently transitioning the back office where she works from a very small, cluttered room containing a 2014 scanner (flatbed), 2 desktop printers (1 of which is notoriously finicky and requires periodic wrestling with the driver), a dedicated fax machine, and a dedicated copier that consistently jams every 3rd copy. She says there are 5 machines in total. The setup is utterly chaotic, but after she finally got all of it replaced with a single multifunction printer she said it was as if someone had flipped a switch and turned on the lights in the room. (It has not, by any means, solved all of her printing problems, but they are no longer problems in and of themselves).

It was like having the lights turned on for her in the back office when her team switched to a single multifunction device. It wasn’t the particular functionality of the printer that was so wonderful, it was the end to the chaos of five machines doing different things in a very small space.

The story of my colleague and her office of five was all too real and recently went through the process of purchasing a printing solution for their office. And yes, like many growing businesses they were buying blind to the true needs of their office and as a result are having a real world painful experience as a result. Hopefully this article will go some way in ensuring that this does not happen to you and your team.

More functions doesn’t automatically mean more value

Most people understand that an MFP has many functions. In fact the famous Swiss Army Knife has 40 functions or more! However, all the functions on a MFP are published in great detail on the spec sheets and web pages. It would be wise to map out the current process your team uses to complete a task or complete work in general. Identify the bottle necks in your current process. Are there steps in your current process that get stuck? For example, you scan an invoice and then email the scanned invoice to a third party. Are you adding value by doing this task or is it a boring tedious task that is currently taking up valuable time. Why not look at the processes that your team use currently and have a team meeting to discuss the issues found. After that you can start to examine all the functions of an MFP in great detail. Scanning invoices on behalf of suppliers or customers for example is a common process that many businesses complete. If you have a lot of contracts, receipts or documents of documents of a compliance nature then scanning these document quickly and efficiently and then sending to document management tools such as SharePoint, Google Drive or other document management tools could save you hours of work each week.

In contrast, the list of features for a particular multi-function printer needs to be correlated with the specific issues your employees are having with their current processes and how these could be alleviated by having a particular function, such as the ability to scan to email on the fly for example. This would clearly be an absolute boon to a team of people occasionally required to process contracts but would be of little use to someone dealing with large numbers of invoices that need to be manually emailed from their email client. The same holds true for people printing very large numbers of pages to distribute to customers or clients and the amount of time it takes to print large numbers of pages for distribution. For example, printing out 100 copies of a 50 page document would take an inordinate amount of time to print when relying on a single printer for example.

Once there are more than a few people in the office the calculations change dramatically for the amount of features that are supported by a solution. For the small number of people that there are in the initial stages of a growing business a solution with a number of features may cost too much for it to be cost effective. However for a business with a number of people the additional features of a multifunction are of great sense and can save a business a lot of money in the long run. The volume of work that needs to be done is obviously a large consideration when working out whether a multifunction is for you but also the nature of the work that is being done and the typical workflow in the office as well.

How fast is it and how much will it work?

Another thing that is frequently misused in advertisements of office printers is the so-called PPM – pages per minute. A high PPM rating apparently is very good for a multifunction device. The truth is quite different. An example: a machine rated with 40 PPM might need only three minutes to print a long document. In contrast to this, a 25 PPM machine might take as long as five minutes to print the very same document. For a team printing a lot of long documents, such a difference of two minutes per document can result in a lot of wasted time in the long run – in the end even hours a year. So for such a team, a machine rated with 25 PPM is clearly better than a 40 PPM machine, even though the features page would suggest the opposite.

The second important number that you should be paying close attention to is the monthly duty cycle of the printer given in pages. A common mistake when buying a multifunction printer for the office is to buy a printer for the number of people in the office. In reality the number of people in the office is far less important than the number of devices that the printer will be used. If you’re buying a printer for an office where people print a lot of documents and you plan on using the printer a lot yourself then it’s very important to make sure the printer you buy is rated to handle the volume you intend to give it. A common rule of thumb for printer duty cycle is to multiply the number of people in the office by 500. If one person in the office prints 500 pages per month then a printer rated for 20,000 pages a month would be able to handle the printing of 40 people. The problem is that most people do not print 500 pages per month. When you push a printer outside of its rated duty cycle you can expect to start to have problems with the printer. These problems could range from random paper jams and weird error messages to the printer just randomly stopping working. If you plan on printing a lot then it’s very important to make sure that the printer you buy is rated for the volume of printing that you intend to give it. Speaking with a repair person to find out how much maintenance a printer will require at a certain

True Cost of Business Printers.

The cost of a printing device is usually of no relevance in the business context. The question is: how much did the device cost to run in the first 3 years as opposed to another device on the market? In the example above the cheaper printing device ran at $3,000 as opposed to $1,000 for the more expensive device. 

  What’s the cost per page for both black-and-white and colour prints?

  Does the vendor offer a managed print service or cost-per-copy contract?

  How available are replacement parts and consumables locally?

  What does the warranty actually cover, and for how long?

This means that the cost of a printer is only a small portion of the actual cost of printing. A larger portion is comprised of the cost of the consumables (such as toner) that need to be replaced from time to time. The cost of these consumables can vary greatly from one model to another, but it is generally true that the more expensive a printer is to purchase initially, the more expensive the proprietary consumables will be. It is therefore wise to search out a higher quality printer with a good yield of ink and a managed cost of ownership.

Some questions worth asking before committing:

• What’s the cost per page for both black-and-white and colour prints?
• Does the vendor offer a managed print service or cost-per-copy contract?
• How available are replacement parts and consumables locally?
• What does the warranty actually cover, and for how long?

Managed print services (MPS) or Managed Print Services Agreements (MPSA’s) that charge a fixed rate per printed page and handle all maintenance are generally best for businesses who print extremely large volumes of documents. These setups are great as the cost is generally very predictable for the business (which Accountants love).

Scanning deserves more respect than it gets

When it comes to the scanning functions of multifunction printers, many people pay little attention to them and consider only the printing. However, a high-quality scanner can save businesses a lot of time. Companies dealing with contracts, receipts, HR documents and a variety of other paper documents on a regular basis need to scan these documents. They need to be scanned quickly and then saved to online storage spaces such as SharePoint, Google Drive or other document management systems. A fast and high-quality scanner with a good duplexer (for scanning on both sides of the paper at once) can save a business hours of work every week.

For a business comprised primarily of contracts, receipts, HR documents and compliance papers scanning large amounts of paper work can be done quickly in a few minutes a day. It’s a huge time saver if you can use a fast duplex document feeder and then check that the scanner software is compatible with your preferred document management system. It may be your current document management system or your online storage such as SharePoint, Google Drive or Dropbox. Businesses in South Australia can look at what a quality photocopier adelaide provider can offer in terms of scanning specs and software compatibility.

Businesses in South Australia that are looking to purchase serious multifunction printing solutions would be advised to look at the specifications of the scanning part of the device and also the software that the multifunction can be integrated with to ensure that the printer you are purchasing is the best for your business. Speak to a professional photocopier adelaide service provider today.

Setup and support: the part people regret ignoring

A fantastic multifunctional device, that is to be left to gather dust, because of poor local service, is useless.

I don’t wish to go into to much detail but there are several things that you should ask your supplier before you spend your hard earned cash. First of all you need to ask about the service that they provide. The response time for any service calls would be a great place to start. You would also need to ask if the supplier sends out there own technicians or if they use third party contractors. Also you need to ask if the supplier sends people out to your location or if you need to send your people to the suppliers location. Once you have determined that the supplier can provide a good service for your location then you need to ask about the training that the supplier provides for your staff. You would think that this would go without saying but unfortunately there are many suppliers that do not provide any training at all. The way in which the supplier carries out the training is also very important. If the supplier is going to carry out on site training then you need to ask where the supplier is located in relation to your location. If the supplier is going to carry out off site training then you need to ask about the cost of travel for the staff. You also need to find out how long the training will take and how many people from you staff will need to attend. It is also very important to find out if the supplier will be able to provide any additional support after the training has taken place. Many suppliers provide on going support for there products. Give your staff a great device and provide them with a great set of instructions on how to use it and they will love you for it. Don’t give them a great device and leave them to struggle and you will receive the opposite reaction. I know of many devices that have been purchased by businesses that have never been taken out of the box due to the inadequate training provided to the staff. Don’t let this happen to you.

It ultimately comes down to understanding the specific needs of the printer to be used in your office. The amount of print jobs, recognition of unnecessary features, scanning options and adequate support for any problems that may arise, are just a few things to consider. Your ideal printer should be a virtually invisible piece of technology.