Whenever it’s time for your business or organization to evaluate a new copier machine, you will be faced with a number of decisions that will impact your organization for the next 5 years or so. You might ask yourself:
- What brand of copier is the best?
- Which company provides the best service and support?
- Do I want a color copier?
- Should I purchase or lease a copier machine?
The questions are endless. One question that don’t receive enough consideration quite often is whether to add a finisher of finishing unit that can bring added value and productivity to your workplace. Let’s explore 5 different tasks that can be automated by adding a finisher to your business copier machine.
- Automatic stapling – the basic function that finishers add is that they provide the ability to automatically staple sets of documents. Not only is this convenient, it also can limit an organization’s liability when it comes to repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Additionally, automatic stapling units insert a flat, flush folded staple in documents that makes for much neater, more uniformed sets of stapled documents giving presentations and handouts a more polished, professional look.
- Automatic hole punch – the majority of finishers that you can add to a copier machine have the option to add a hole punch kit. These kits have the ability to punch 2 or 3 holes as documents are being produced, without slowing down the copy/print speed of the copier. Not only is this feature convenient and saves time, it also makes uniformed punch holes that align perfectly when being added to 3 ring binders. Many of us had the experience of manually punching holes in documents, only to realize that they don’t line up in a uniform fashion when putting them into binders.
- Multiple output trays to separate print jobs from incoming faxes – many multifunctional copier machines serve as both printers and fax machines. This can become challenging when incoming faxes are received on the same output tray as incoming print jobs. It’s easy to see how someone coming to pick up their print job from the copier machine can inadvertently pick up a fax that was received. This can create big problems when nobody is aware that an important fax was ever received. A finisher provides multiple out-trays and faxes can be routed to one tray and print jobs can be routed to another. This eliminates the potential challenge of having faxes and print jobs intermingled.
- Tri-folding mailings and marketing pieces – many companies print invoices, newsletters and other materials that need to be tri-folded/3 folded in order to be inserted into envelopes. Many finishers have the ability to add a tri-fold unit that will automatically fold up to 3 sheets of paper, so that they are printed and prepared to place directly into a business envelope. Not only does this feature save time but the folds are always crisp and aligned uniformly for more professional appearance.
- Booklet folding and saddle stitch stapling – many finishers have the ability to add a booklet kit which allows for the creation of booklets of up to 80 pages. With simple instructions given to the print driver a user can send up to 80 pages to the printer with instructions to paginate in the correct booklet page order. It addition they can automatically fold the pages into a booklet and automatically place a 2 point saddle stitch staple into the spine of the booklet. This feature allows small organizations to easily and cost effectively produce short runs of bulletins, booklets and multi-panel brochures.
Many companies make the knee jerk decision that they don’t need a finisher because they figure they “have a stapler on every desk and a manual hole punch machine in the copier room.” When you consider the points outlined above, and realize that a finisher with these options might only add $20.00 to $40.00 a month to the average copier machine lease , you might find that adding a finisher is the best option for your business. So contact us today and enjoy the benefits!
