Having been in an office equipment business for 30 years there are certain questions about copier machines, multi-functional printers and faxes that I hear over and over again. Let’s examine several of the questions along with the answers that I’d provide based on helping thousands of companies with their copier needs.
Question #1 – Should we lease a copier machine or does it make more sense to purchase a copier? Inherently speaking there is no right or wrong answer to the question. Whether you choose to lease a copier machine or purchase a copier depends on your company’s specific situation and your personal preference. For more information regarding leasing vs. purchasing you can download our free guide that goes into details about the reasons to help you determine the best option for your company. The copier leasing guide can be downloaded on our website.
Question #2 – Do we really need a color copier? Today we live in a vibrant visual world where your documents and presentation materials need to make an immediate visual impact to earn the attention of your customers and prospects. Whereas most offices do print a large majority of documents that do not require color there is also a need within most companies to print higher impact, color materials for presentations, marketing materials and even spreadsheets and power point meeting materials. In most cases a color copy machine is the most cost effective means of printing your color documents. Because color copiers have a low, fixed cost per page that includes all supplies you can produce your color documents without having to worry about burning through expensive ink cartridges.
Question #3 – Should we purchase a service contract for our copier? Often I’ve had potential customers state that if the copier machine they’re looking to purchase is of a high quality then there shouldn’t be a need for much service, therefore they feel that they don’t need to add the cost of a copier service agreement. A copier service agreement is not the same as an extended warranty on a cell phone or refrigerator. Copier machines are more like automobiles, in that even if there is never a mechanical malfunction of any kind there is frequent maintenance needed to replace parts and supplies that depreciate as the machine is used. The following copier parts and supplies will need to be replaced regardless of the mechanical performance; Toner cartridges, drum units, developer units, feed rollers, transfer belts, fuser units, waste toner collection units and more. All of these parts and supplies are covered under a copier maintenance agreement and all of these supplies need to be regularly replaced regardless of reliability or performance.
Question #4 – Can we control the amount of color copies made by each employee? – Everyone knows that making color copies isn’t cheap and it’s a good idea to make sure that employees aren’t making more color copies than necessary. There are a lot of ways to track and limit the amount of color copies and color prints that are produced by a company’s employees. I encourage most companies to make their default copy and print settings black and white so that employees need to manually select color output in order to produce color documents. This eliminates unnecessary costs to reproduce color on documents where color isn’t needed. Another great way to control color copy costs is to use Account Tracking. Almost every color copy machine has the ability to use Account Tracking that will monitor the color print usage of each employee. Furthermore, Account Tracking allows you to assign limits for each employee of how many color copies or color prints can be made each month. There is even an option to give certain employees permissions allowing them to print in color while restricting other employees from printing in color. If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact us.
