Crazy About Copiers

Printing Cost. . . A Hidden Expense

Did you know that printing cost is one of the biggest hidden expenses in a company’s budget?  All those different desk top printers that sit on individual’s desk cost the company money that is not tracked.  With today’s economy the system to help track the budget on each printer has become more important.

Copiers have been easy to track the volume and the company cost since your service company charges per click.  Now with print management systems your company can do the same with all your printers.  The print management system is seamless in the company’s everyday workflow.  The employees are not required to take anymore steps in their daily process.  Everything with these systems is done behind the scenes.

Next time you install another desktop printer think of the cost that it is adding to the company, and how tracking your cost can help your company.

Why should you deal with an authorized dealer?

     Change is a constant!  That seems very true in the current copier industry.  Independent dealers are being bought by the larger manufacturer.  This is starting to cause a problem for the customer.  Are they still dealing with an authorized dealer who can provide them with the correct support for their copiers?

      An authorized dealer has all the support needed from the manufacturer to give the customer good service.  They are able to buy the parts that are necessary to fix the machine if it is having a problem.  The company technicians are able to go through constant training on the latest technology with the current machines.  An authorized dealer is provided with full support from the manufacturer.  If a machine is having problems and the certified technicians from the independent dealer cannot fix the problem a technician from the manufacturer will fly into the client’s location and fix the machine. 

     As a customer what type of service would you like?  After you make an investment into a copier you are not going to want to turn around and spend more money because your dealer cannot fix your machine.  An authorized dealer can help protect the consumer when they make a purchase.  Make sure you ask your dealer if they are authorized for the machine that they are selling you.

Going Green With Your Copiers

I loved this blog post by David Murphy on June 4, 2008 on "Simple things your company or organization can do to save electricity:"  I have posted them below - pass them on to your co-workers!

1. Power down: Copiers consume the most energy of all types of office equipment and use power even when sitting idle. Turn copiers and printers off at night and on the weekends.

2. Print duplex: Electricity is not only used to create documents, but also for the production of the paper on which it is printed. Set your printer and copier to automatically default to making two-sided copies.

3. Re-use: Reduce paper usage by printing on the back side of used paper. Many schools set a paper box beside the copier for discarded copies so the the next person can use the back side of the paper.

4. Preview before you print: Cases of paper end up in the dumpster due to documents not printing as the user expected. Use your "print preview" to reduce the number of unwanted prints.

5. Sleep to save: Copiers and printers are on all day but only used for a small part of the day. Use the "stand-by" and "sleep" modes available on the device.

6. Don't print it: How many times do you print an email or memo to read it and then just throw it out. Save electricity and paper and just read it from the monitor, you can always print it later if you need to.

7. Get the right size: A mid-volume (20 to 44 copies per minute) copier in a low-volume office can use 70% more energy per page than an efficient low-volume (under 20 copies per minute) copier.

8. Strategic placement: Place printers and MFPs strategically around the office so several people or groups can use the same printer.

9. Get out of the heat: Buying more office equipment raises energy consumption and also makes work areas hotter and this requires more power for cooling. Put printing devices in areas with natural ventilation and good airflow to reduce the need for air-conditioning.

10. Energy Star: Look for the Energy Star logo when buying office equipment. The logo ensures that the device has automatic power-management features and therefor a better use of energy.

The Importance of Doing Business with an Independant Dealer!

Yesterday's post of a flyer, "Do you know who is servicing your copier", is a marketing piece that my company sent out last summer. The intention of this marketing awareness flyer was to educate local businesses that many of the larger independent dealerships are selling out to the Big Guys!

When your company decides to purchase a copier you need to investigate the size of the independent dealer and choose one that is not focused on selling out.  Last summers shakeup of TML copiers being bought by Global and then Global being absorbed by Xerox, changed overnight the product offerings of these companies and their ability to service their clients existing equipment.

Before you sign on the dotted line - ask your rep if the owner is involved in the business and could you meet him/her to gauge their sincere interest in the community and remaining in the industry. A company the size of 8-12 million is your best bet. Make sure that the owner has worked on both sides of the fence  - Service and Sales. An owner of a copier company who was once a service technician is your best bet, as they understand the importance of keeping machines running. An owner who is strictly sales oriented will be less concerned and more likely to oversell you on equipment.

Do You Know Who Is Servicing Your Copier?

Copier firmware upgrades - Does your dealer install these on a regular basis?

In todays digital market manufacturers release firmware upgrades for dealers to install on customers equipment to fix bugs and improve copier performance. These firmware upgrades by manufacturers keep copiers at optimum performance.

• What is firmware?
• Firmware is software that runs a copier - an operating system like Windows is to a PC.
• Why do you need the latest version?
• Software can provide patches to fix bugs and improve the overall performance of the copier.
• Software can also provide additional features that may be available, that were not previously.

It is important that the servicing dealer you choose supplies its technicians with laptops. While on a routine service call a technician can simply go on-line to the manufacturers site and download the software right into the copier. This ensures optimal equipment performance.

Print Management for your entire printer fleet!

If your office has multiple printers you may want to assess the benefits of putting them all on a cost-per-copy program similar to how copiers are often done. 

Can You Answer These Questions? 

• How many printers, copiers, MFPs do you have?
• Are they being properly used?  Too much?  Too little?
• How often are they in need of service?
• How often are the printers out of toner?
• How old are they?
• What is your current meter read submission process?
• How much time does it take?
• How much IT time is spent supporting printing devices?
• How much money is tied up in your supply inventory?

Don't know?
      You could have a Print problem that hurting your bottom line. Click here for more information.

Smelling is Believing

Changing the Copy Toner – that dreaded chore we all try to avoid, thinking the next person who walks up to the copier will take care of it.  Sound familiar? Well, I am in the copier industry as a Director of Marketing and tend to brainstorm wacky ideas. One such thought is why not have Aromatherapy Toner.. the technology is there ..heat transfer would activate scents etc – can you imagine pleasant scents wafting from copy rooms? Changing Copy Toner could actually be fun,… a pick your scent of the week task.

Well interestingly enough our Director of Sales found an article in Road and Track and passed it along to me … here it is in a nutshell:

“ ….. Kumho now has a tire that smells. How does it work? Rolling friction produces heat that releases aroma from oil that is mixed into the raw rubber. Since the scent is infused in the tire rubber, the smell should last the life of the tire. Depending on the success of the lavender scent, Kumho might introduce other odors such as orange and jasmine. The ECSTADX is targeted primarily toward mid and full-size sedans owned by female drivers..…” – Article by Calvin Kim of Road and Track

Sounds intriguing, right? (Lavender is an odd choice thought – it’s been shown to relax and calm the nerves and even aid in sleep – Kumho may want to re-think using a scent that also functions as a sleep aid!) 

My question is this: why are manufacturers who have a plethora of research data at their fingertips not thinking outside the box and exploring these opportunities?

Erasable Paper by Xerox

Wall Street Journal Cites Xerox's Experiments in Erasable Paper as Environmental Breakthrough

In its annual search for breakthrough technologies, The Wall Street Journal cited Xerox Corporation's experimental erasable paper as a top innovation in the environment category. It was one of 30 technologies selected from more than 800 entries in fields ranging from medical/biotech to network security and semiconductors. Xerox's technology prints temporary documents that erase themselves, allowing the paper to be used again and again and reducing excessive paper dependency in the workplace. The experimental erasable paper uses light to image the paper, which automatically erases hours or days after the page is printed. Erasable paper allows reuse of the same sheet of paper, reducing paper waste. Editors of The Wall Street Journal selected the technology as an innovation that "breaks with conventional processes and goes beyond marginal improvements in products and services." Despite our reliance on computers to share and process information, there is still a strong dependence on printed pages for reading and absorbing content. Xerox estimates up to two of every five pages printed in offices are for "daily" use -- printed for a single viewing then discarded within hours. With this new technology, people would be able to print "temporary" documents (emails and web pages) and reuse the paper rather than discarding it. The ability to re-image a sheet of paper has enormous environmental implications since re-use is much preferred to recycling. For example, it takes about 202,000 Joules to manufacture one sheet of virgin paper. Even to recycle that sheet takes 114,000 Joules. To re-image every pixel on Xerox erasable paper takes only about 200 Joules, so every re-use can save an enormous amount of energy. At 30 to 100 re-uses per sheet this amounts to a very large savings in energy. Currently there are about 2.5 trillion pages printed worldwide. The experimental erasable paper system is still a laboratory demonstration, but it exemplifies how Xerox is applying innovative thinking in the area of the environment. And it complements the recently announced High Yield Business Paper, a first-of-its-kind paper for digital printing that uses half as many trees as traditional paper, while lowering the cost to mail printed material.

Copier Firmware Upgrades - Does your Servicing Dealer Perform These?

In today's digital market, manufacturers are continually releasing upgrades to customer's office equipment. Digital copiers run off of an operating system similar to Windows on a PC. Manufacturers release patches and upgrades on a daily, monthly, and quarterly basis, depending on the make and model.

The process to install the upgrades or patches is simple - a technician uses a service support tool, found on their laptop, that they get from the manufacturer. The technician takes this information and uses a crossover cable or thumb drive to install the upgrades on the customer's equipment.

The benefit to the customer, is that their machine will work at optimum performance and may in fact acquire additional features that were previously not available prior to the upgrades. Always choose a dealer that equips its technicians with laptops. A dealership that is willing to invest in its technicians will provide its customers with the technology that is needed to keep their equipment performing at optimal levels.