If the only printers or scanners you've purchased until now have been desktop units from the local Staples, then buying a floor-standing copier/printer/multifunction unit is a very big jump. These devices are major purchases for any business, whether you're from a small company that is starting to expand or a single department in a larger firm.
Since all companies have to pay attention to the bottom line -- especially small businesses living close to that line -- then cost is one of the first things to pay attention to when beginning your research.
Sticker Shock
The first thing you may want to do is to resign yourself to the fact that you're going to have serious sticker shock. The jump from, say, a networkable desktop laser printer to a serious floor-model copier/printer is one of several thousand dollars.
And not without reason. Desktop laser printers (and the more expensive inkjet printers) have increased in speed and the ability to produce high-quality documents. Some of the higher-end models have acquired some fairly sophisticated features, such as the ability to connect to a network, to do double-sided printing, or to pull from different paper trays depending on what type of paper the job demands. As a result, when companies decide they need to go to the next step -- because of the number of employees using the systems, because they generate a great many documents, or because they'd rather have their staff sending their jobs to a single centralized unit rather than to multiple personal devices -- they are looking at serious technology and serious money.
Figuring Out the Bill
Vendors know this, and so many business-level multifunctions are sold as base units with a variety of options. This means that the starting price may seem reasonable -- but then you start adding on the features you need, and the dollars begin to add up. For example, the unit may begin as a simple copier. But you want a copier/printer, and so you need a print controller and enough memory to handle the print jobs. If you want to be able to queue up jobs, so that several employees can send reports to the printer at the same time, then you will need a hard drive for the unit. How about a sorter? An automatic stapler? An automatic document feeder? These are often additional options rather than standard features.
As a result, trying to figure out exactly how much a device costs can be an exercise in frustration. It is nearly impossible to do an on-the-spot comparison between two or more units. For example, if you are adding printing capacity to a basic copier, one model may include a 6GB hard drive with the cost of the print controller, while another may demand that you purchase the hard drive separately. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the first model is less expensive -- for example, if you need a 10GB hard drive, you may be able to purchase a 10GB drive for the second model for less than it would take to get an additional drive for the first. And what if you don't want a hard drive in the first place?
It can get very tricky.
Useful Hints and Tricks
Here are some tips for pricing out your company's purchase:
- Find somebody who is experienced in this kind of purchase and pick his or her brain before venturing into the fray. If you can bring your expert along on the sales calls, so much the better.
- Talk to several different company representatives about what you want to do with your new purchase, and let them explain the features thoroughly, along with a rundown of the prices. Sit down with your staff and decide exactly which features you'd like, which features you don't need, and which features you absolutely can't do without. And then call back, and get final price quotes.
- Pay attention to consumables and other service issues. When you're comparison shopping, don't neglect the life of the toner/ink and drum/developer. These costs can mount up if you're just running a small desktop laser printer, but they can really hit the ceiling when you're dealing with a large floor unit.
- If you think you'll need a particular feature in a year or so, find out how much it will cost to include it now vs. adding it on later. Many units are sold in pre-configured models that offer considerable discounts over the cost of purchasing each feature separately.
- Once you've narrowed down your choices, think about buying a report from a digital imaging consulting firm. While they are never inexpensive, a report from a reliable third-party company can give you some objective advice on how to proceed.
