Mid-Volume Copiers & Multifunctionals
February 1, 2008
-
While color copiers are the sexy product that salespeople will want you to buy, black-and-white copiers are still the mainstay of most offices and far less expensive to operate.
-
Take monthly duty cycles with a grain of salt. Use them for comparison purposes only, but don’t expect to get the full page count month in and month out.
-
All prices given are list prices (suggested retail price); the reality is that you should be able to buy these products for 25% or more off, if you negotiate
-
While there used to be big gaps in quality and reliability between vendors, those gaps have narrowed.
-
Cost per page is determined by negotiation with your vendor. That cost may be far more important than the sticker price. Make sure you hammer down guarantees before you sign on the dotted line.
-
Service is another area that has to be negotiated before you sign a contract. Make sure you have an agreement on how fast the vendor will respond on-site to a copier problem.
-
In many cases, it is less expensive to buy the added functions (printing, scanning, and/or faxing) in a prepackaged configuration, rather than to add these functions at a later time.
-
While not all buyers need advanced accounting and security features, most vendors are now offering increasingly sophisticated solutions in these areas.
-
If you want printing, be aware that some vendors offer it as standard, while others charge over $1,000 for the same functionality. In many cases, this disguises the true price of the machine.
-
PostScript printing is a must if you use illustration or page layout programs. For other office uses PC or host-based printing is fine.
-
Faxing might be a nice extra, but scanning to email is becoming a far more convenient and efficient solution for document distribution.
Want to read more articles like this one? Join iGuide today!