5 questions to ask BEFORE buying a new printer

5 questions to ask BEFORE buying a new printer was a google alert I received the other day. I took a peek to see what someone else had to say about printers or MFP's. Headlining the article was

Essential home-office equipment for the accounting and finance professional

The article was targeted for Accountants and Finance Professionals

Here's the 5 points that he spoke about, I'll follow with rebuttal:

Here are some key questions to ask yourself:

1)  Is most of your printing producing monochrome (black & white) output? If so, an inexpensive mono laser printer might be the best choice. These are available in the $100 range, and have great looking output as well as fast print speed. Black and white printers.

These $100 printers will cost a small fortune to keep them running, it's estimated

that a $100 laser printer can have a monochrome per page cost as high as 5 cents a page depending upon the make and model of the unit. Plus the fact, that if the system does break the cost to fix will be more than the printer, and off to the municipal landfill goes another printer.

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 2/5/2012

There's been a few interesting developments this week such as customized cost per page billing, major delays in getting equipment due to the hard drive shortage, a major recall of printers and MFPs from KonicaMInolta and the resignation on Canon.jp CE0.  You can read more on this in the forums and the blog.

Look, I've added BLI reports for FREE, get the full report, these are limited to what I found and they are in the Competition Lounge & Street Pricing II forums

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-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Add Value to You Web SIte"

More often your potential customers and current customers are using the web to do research long before you get a phone call.   They'll do much of the leg work on what they need or what they would like by searching google, reading blogs or going to web sites such as yours.  What's the problem with most web sites in the office equipment industry? There's no interaction for the for the potential new customer or the existing customer. Let's face it, your customer or potential customer will call you when they have questions that can't be answered by your web site, however if another site answers that question you may be losing opportunities.

Web sites need to have current information and something that they can interact with on a daily basis. There are some very nice office equipment web sites out there, and they incorporate a current blog, current press releases via feedzilla and there are those that have interactive polls along with widgets that can help a customer decide on what product would be best for them. Office equipment dealers that have web sites with these attributes will stand the best chance of having the customer call them and they are either ready to order or have some additional questions for the rep to answer.

I found a neat widget from the folks at Pahoda Imaging that will enhance your web site.  Best all of the widget is free.   You can get three different widgets that you can put on your blog and web site, these widgets will allow your customers to compare features and TCO for different manufacturers and models. 

1. Compare HP, Lexmark, and Xerox Printers
2.Compare HP, Lexmark, and Ricoh Printers
3.Compare HP, Lexmark, and Kyocera Printers

Keep in mind that these text link say printers however they also have MFP's in the links also.  What I like best is the ability have something that is quick, reliable and something that will help my customers understand that we are leaders in our market place and have the resources to educate them on the total cost of operation. I'm sure these widgets can be customized also, so you if you support Ricoh, Lexmark and Kyocera you'll be able to have a widget for that also (this may not be free).

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh A4 MFP or Canon A4 MFP "That is the Question"

It doesn't happen that often....that you'll have two major manufacturing going to market with the same type of devices within a month or two of each other.  Canon is set to launch their  Black A4 MFP on or around 11/7/2011 and Ricoh is set to launch their Black A4 MFP in November also. 

The Canon 1700 series will have six different models ranging in speed from 32 pages per minute to 52 pages per minute.  These six models will be the 1750/1750if, 1740/1740if, and the 1730/if.  The if version comes with  standard PCL 5e/6 and PostScript 3 drivers, the ability to create searchable PDFs, along with a fax module. Color Send, is included with the imageRUNNER 1700 but you'll have to pay more for the better featured Universal Send.

The BIG deal with the Canon, it seems Canon 1700 will be the first to follow the A3 model cost per page in an A4 device.  For those of you that are not familiar with this, the A3 model cost per page model is when you do not have an AIO (All in cartridge) that houses the toner, the drum, the cleaning blade and the waste toner hopper.  The Canon 1700 will have a separate toner and drum cartridge that should support a low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).  I haven't seen the cost per page yet, however I'm hoping this is the case.

The market is ripe for the picking if the cost per page is in line with Canon A3 MFP devices.  I don't think the imageRUNNER 1750 (52 ppm) will have the same cost per page as it's bigger brother Canon A4 MFP's that are 50 pages per minute.  I thinking it may be close, and if it is I see Canon with the ability to capture and take away clicks from the likes of Ricoh, Toshiba, HP, Sharp Konica Minolta, Kyocera and Xerox.

Some initial drawbacks for the Canon imageRUNNER if would be Postscript emulation, a non color GUI (Graphical User Interface) and only one paper tray and one by-pass tray is standard. 

Make no bones about it this system will be a force to be reckoned with, especially if TCO comes into play.

Right, this is a blog and I can't get too lengthy, so off we go with Ricoh....

Is there a better printer or copier that would do this type of work?

Here's an email I got from one of my Blog readers.  Special thanx to that person and I hope we've helped and a Certified P4P Hotel Member should have contacted you by now.
Art,

I read your advice on total cost of a Ricoh Aficio SP 430DN. do you have any suggestion of a longer term lower cost solution. I have real estate agents that we produce marketing materials for in color. Our current color printer(HP3600n) is way under powered for what we need. I like the Ricoh because of the low cost of consumables, realize that once you hit 50,000 prints there are quite a few components that need to be replaced.

We are printing newsletters on legal paper from Word, two sided in color, then we fold them with a machine. The goal it to send a print job of 1500 newsletters and let it rip. 25-30 prints per minute will do, speed is not the main goal, reliability and low cost per print is.

Is there a better printer or copier that would do this type of work? We're trying to keep the initial outlay at $1000 or less. I'm ok with a used machine if the copy count is low. I'm a pretty technically skilled end user and refill my own print cartridges and can change out drums myself. I'm looking at buying two machines (two offices) and purchasing bulk toner to refill the cartridges.

Your suggestions?
You posed this: "The goal is to send a print job of 1,500 newsletters and let it rip".

Me:  How often will you do this per month or per year? (I had an answer a day later that the volume was going to be 15,000 - 20,000 color pages per month)

This will give me a better idea of what to recommend.

There's a funny thing about color printers and it's from all of the manufacturer’s not just one of them. When a manufacturer states a cost per page most times (95%), it does not include certain parts that need to be replaced in order to maintain optimum print quality, thus the low cost of consumables is not that low any more. These items are usually the transfer belt (imaging belt) and fuser (fixes the toner on the paper). Plus another not so well know fact is the page coverage for printers is rated at 4% coverage, which means if you condensed all of the image area into a square it can't cover more than 4% of the total area (for color printers this gets raised to 16% since there are four colors). I doubt that you are only printing 16% coverage on the page and probably more likely it's 40% (you could email me a sample page for verification).

Another not so good thing about color printers is most manufacturers over state how long the consumables will last. Printing onto thicker stock, envelopes, thin stock, printing less than 5 pages at a time, heat, humidity all take their toll. It's very rare that I see a printer get the manufacturer’s suggested yield for transfer belts, drums, fusers and developers.

Service usually is not included, meaning if the printer breaks and needs a part you'll need to pay extra for this, again this drives up your cost per page. So, where the Ricoh 430DN is .0976 (I don't believe this is correct, however that's what Ricoh states, I think it's more like .15 cents per page when you factor in service, parts and premature consumables) per page is does not include parts, nor service, nor premature failure of the parts I just mentioned.

What I'm getting at is your printing 1,500 pages and the cost per page of the new Ricoh is .15 cents that means on average you’ll spend $225 per month in consumables, service, parts and maintenance. Plus the cost of the printer, let's say you bought it for $1,000, amortized over 36 months means another $30 per month in the hardware cost. You add the consumables and the hardware and you're spending $255 per month. Odds are the printer won't last 5 years either and you'll have to buy another, and that adds another increase to your costs~

I'd like to see you get a color copier/printer that will last for years and years! These systems can be leased for 5 years for $83 (MPC 2030) per month and you can buy a cost per page agreement. The cost per page agreement means that the dealer will charge you .09 cents per page for color and bill you for 1,500 pages each and every month for a total of $135. Included in the $135 is all consumables, all parts, labor, maintenance and service, and basically you could put as much toner on the page as you want. So for $218 you have maintenance, service and parts included!! Not a bad deal.

My point, color printers are sold so you'll keep buying the consumables, it's a never ending cycle. Color copiers by far are the best choice as long as you have the volume. The more you print on a color copier the cheaper it becomes.

If you're in need of an expert to help you in making a total cost of ownership decision, I have Certified Print4Pay Hotel members that can consult and lead you in the right direction.
You posed:

I'm a pretty technically skilled end user and refill my own print cartridges and can change out drums myself. I'm looking at buying two machines (two offices) and purchasing bulk toner to refill the cartridges.

My response:

I'm not being rude, but if your volume is the 1,500 pages per month, you need to concentrate on your core business which is selling and not jerking about with refilling, replacing, and ordering of cartridges, you'll make more in one extra sale per year.

-=Good Selling=-

Considering buying a Colour laser printer?

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel member SalesSericeGuy  from Nova Scotia, Canada for this MOST EXCELLENT THREAD!

SalesServiceGuy been a valued member of the P4P Hotel forums for quite a few years!

Hopefully this will wake up a lot buyers!

Cost Per Page - Toner only

Let’s assume we are going to calculate the price per page for a colour laser printer called ABC.

ABC claims that their laser printer offers 7,200 prints based on the printer industry average 5% page coverage of their coloured toner. If the cartridge costs $199.95, this manufacturer will claim that their cost per page for toner is $199.95/7,200 or 2.77¢ per page for a single colour. This number is multiplied by four (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) and becomes 11.08¢ page cost for 20% toner coverage. On the Toshiba e-STUDIO colour copier, assume a list price of $139.95 for colour and $99.95 for black and white (price may vary). The same toner coverage based on the copier industry average of 6% is 3.7¢. For every page printed on the Toshiba, the customer saves almost 300% per page on toner alone!!

Did you know that many laser printer manufacturers base their page coverage on a page that is 8 x 10 inches in size and not 8.5 x 11? The reason for the smaller size is to allot for margins or non-printable areas on many laser printers. For most copier manufacturers selling colour laser devices, they base their coverage on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. Using the same example as above, ask the colour laser printer vendor if the toner coverage is based on an 8 x 10 inch area or 8.5 x 11 inch area. In our example, if the print area was only 8X10, the percentage coverage falls to 7200 prints at 4.27% on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. This increases the cost for toner on the laser printer to 12.97¢.

Cost Per Page - Consumables

Toner pricing is the only cost per page some laser printer vendors want to discuss because it makes their device sound very affordable. What usually are not discussed are the additional items associated with a colour laser printer which can add significantly to the cost per page.

Fuser cleaning roller Fuser kit Transfer Rollers Imaging Unit

Oil bottle Waste toner kit Belt Cleaner Drum(s)

Transfer belt(s) Photo Conductor kit Supply Start Up kit Developer (each colour)

Some of these items are pricey (eg: a Supply start up kit of four required toners can cost $1,000.00 or more). Other Customer Replaceable Consumables (CRC’s) can add 10¢ or more onto the cost of a page coming out of a laser printer. These costs can actually double (or more) depending on what you are printing and what type of paper you are printing on to. The true costs can be difficult to calculate but the costs are real and add significantly to the cost per page. Unlike the service contract on a copier where your costs are very predictable, colour printers can vary greatly.

A significant cost concern when purchasing a colour printer with many experienced colour printers users is the industry approach to fixing an image quality problem. The typical solution will be to switch out the suspected consumable item with a new one, which the customer will have to pay for. This is a VERY EXPENSIVE WAY TO MAINTAIN QUALITY ON A COLOUR PRINTER.

Yield Clarification

Many printer manufacturers will claim that a user consumable item such as a fuser will have a life expectancy of 60,000 prints. The sales representative will base all of their cost per page calculations on this life expectancy. Rarely is the customer informed that, “If you print more than 5% toner coverage on the page, the fuser life is decreased. Other consumable items have their life expectancy shortened as well when more than 5% toner is printed on the page”. Additionally, if you print on other paper stocks or media like transparencies, the fuser life will be reduced. Thicker paper, larger paper (legal or 11 x 17) or even letter paper fed in landscape (sideways) can reduce the life of major consumables such as drums, developers and fusers. When a user reduces the life expectancy on a consumable they are significantly increasing the cost per page.

Speed

A frequently overlooked fact about laser printers is their speed. Many laser printers today claim to have 15, 20 even 35 pages per minute printing speeds. Printers typically must print the same page over and over again to achieve their maximum speed. This speed is only ever achieved when a user requests multiple prints of the same page. Today’s colour copiers are document printers and will offer you a completed set of your document printed at the maximum speed of the colour copier. It is clear to see which one of these technologies would be more productive.

Service

While it is common in the copier industry for customers to expect the vendor to deliver, unpack, install and integrate the copier/ printer into the existing LAN, the same is not true in the printer industry. Most printers are shipped in the box to your location. You must unpack and set up the printer yourself. If you do not want to integrate the printer into the LAN yourself, you must purchase an optional installation fee. (approx.. $150.00 -$350.00 for two PCs only). If you do not want to service the printer yourself you must purchase an optional on site next day service contract (approx.$600.00 -$800.00 or more per year). If you expect the same kind of four hour on site service that your copier vendor provides then you must purchase a Premium priced service package. (approx $700.00-$1,700.00 or more per year). This all adds up and should be included in your cost comparisons. These extended warranties or “Care Paks” are in addition to any Customer Replaceable Consumables (CRC’s) you must purchase.

Quick Points

Many of these issues should be clarified by anyone considering a colour laser printer.

Speed of printing heavier stocks How is printer repaired when consumable replacement fails

Duplexing speeds Finishing options (staple, hole punch, booklet making)

Heaviest stock to duplex - automatically or manually Maximum paper size

Ease of access to remove paper stoppages Maximum paper thickness

Maximum paper capacities Remote access and control of printer

Longest job that can be printed unattended Calibration and consistency technologies

Speed of RIP Time to print each page

Page printer or document printer Number of pages printable from driver

Job logs and charge back Network traffic created (spooling of jobs)

Dept. Codes/ Print Limitations

Total Cost of Ownership

In the final analysis before purchasing a laser printer, one needs to do a careful analysis of the true costs of printing a document. Many studies have shown that printing documents is the third largest expense in many companies, right behind Human Resources and rent. Many companies underestimate their actual printing costs by 50%. While the initial low acquisition cost of some colour laser printers may seem appealing, one soon learns that the running cost of a laser printer far exceeds it’s purchase price over the life of the printer’s useful service.

Note from Art:  SSG, thanx for a great post! BTW you read more of what Derrick posts on the Print4Pay Hotel forums which is the only Global social site for Imaging Professionals (2,300 members) in the World!

Need to lease or buy a new multifunctional copier? Call a P4P Hotel solutions expert at p4pcafe
-=Good Selling=-

HP LaserJet Pro CM1415 Color "What's the Total Cost of Operation"

31 years of selling laser printers to commercial accounts, well...I've pretty much seen and heard it all. Over those years I've had many clients who did not purchase a laser printer from me, because they thought my printer was too expensive!

What peeves me the most is when I'm trying to communicate (help) the cost per page of a device or the total cost of ownership of the device. Many accounts will opt for the small inexpensive printers where the manufacturer states "with a maximum duty cycle of 30,000 pages per month" (Duty cycle: the maximum possible number of pages that can be printed per month) I ask you, what the heck does Duty Cycle really mean? Does it mean, I can print 40,000 pages each and every month on this device that only cost me $449 for the printer? I'll give credit when credit is due, HP actual states a recommended print volume for the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415 Color which reads "HP recommends that the number of printed pages per month be within the stated range for optimum device performance, based on factors including supplies replacement intervals and device life over an extended warranty period."  The recommended range is 300 to 1,500 pages per month, however there is no reference made to them all 1,500 pages can be color. Most systems have some type of limit as to how mamy color pages can be produced each month.

I was just nice to HP and now I'm gonna slam em, is there really any need for this?  Monthly duty cycle

Up to 30,000 pages, and they back this up with this explanation! "Duty cycle is defined as the maximum number of pages per month of imaged output. This value provides a comparison of product robustness in relation to other HP LaserJet or HP Color LaserJet devices, and enables appropriate deployment of printers and MFPs to satisfy the demands of connected individuals or groups." I've been doing this for 31 years and can't figure out what they mean except for the fact is that you're telling me I can do up to 30,000 pages a month.

Let me show you what happens if you would print 30,000 pages per month on the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415 Color.

I have this neat software package that can actually give the cost per page of most printers and multifunctional products and why shouldn't I. I'm the darn expert. Some software programs may vary in the price per page.

So, this really cool HP LaserJet Pro CM1415 Colorsells for $449. It  has a neat print speed of 8 pages per minute for color and 12 pages per minute for black. The black toner cartridge cost for this device is $69.67 with a yield of 2,000 pages. Mind you that the 2,000 page yield is based on probably 5% coverage of the page. There are three color cartridges, Cyan, and Magenta are $61.00.63 each and Yellow is $66.28 each. The estimated yield for the color cartridges is 1,300 pages based on 20% coverage.

Now, you may ask what is 20% color coverage of the page, pretty much if you condensed all of the color print area to one area, it means it can't cover more than 20% of the page. Take a trip here to see color page coverage examples

Back to the color cost per page (we're just gonna focus on the color cost per page), divide the cost of all four cartridges by the yield, and then add em up and you have a color cost per page of .1798. Ok, I gonna print me my  maximum volume of 30,000 color pages (remember there's no statement on if they can all be color), so, how much is that gonna cost me? It's gonna cost you $5,394 each and every month, and if you maintain that volume for 36 months, you'll be out a whopping $194,184! WHOA, NOW THAT'S A REALLY BIG NUMBER! Plus it's about $90,000 cheaper than the Xerox Phaser 6125!

How about if you print all your docs with 40% coverage (go back to the page coverage link for an example). Get a load of this number, simple math it's twice the cost. $388,476 for the total cost of operation and that's about .36 cents per page.

Just for giggles the cost at 100% coverage the Total Cost of Operation runs up to $971,028 and a cost per page for just under ONE DOLLAR. Believe it or NOT!  When compared to the Xerox Phaser 6125 the HP device will save you a cool $500,000 (enough for a nice yatch).

Hey, I understand that most users don't print all their pages at 40%, and I understand (because I'm in the business) that this printer will might choke a few times before it prints 40,000 pages in one month, however how does the end user know this? Most of the disclaimers are vague (I appluad HP for at least posted a recommended volume), well maybe it can do 40,000 pages per month, but at 18 pages per minute that would take almost 66 hours to complete. Point is there should be some type of real measuring stick for these types of devices. Like there's no way on Earth that this system will print 30,000 color pages per month every month.

In closing, if you're thinking about doing on 30,000 color pages per month, with 20% coverage on the page, opt for the SAVING MONEY, and call a Print4Pay Hotel member to save you some real cash. Here's a neat link (P4P Cafe) to get a quote on a Really Nice MFP so you can get that Really Expensive Ride to Romulus!!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Printers, Copiers "Whats The Total Cost of Operation"

In 31 years of selling copiers to commerical accounts, well...I've pretty much seen it all. Over those years I've had many cleints who did not purchase a copier or a multifunctional unit from me.

Now, what peeves me the most is when I'm trying to communicate (help) the cost per page of a device or the total cost of ownership of the device. Many accounts will opt for the small MFP's where the manufacturer states "the up to 8,000-page-per-month duty cycle" (Duty cycle: the maximum possible number of pages that can be printed per month) I ask you, what the heck does Duty Cycle really mean? Does it mean, crap I can due up to 8,000 pages per month on this device that only cost me $199?

Let me show you what happens if you would print 8,000 pages per month on that device. The first device I looked at was an HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf (oh boy, it has Pro in the model name, it's just got have excellent reliabilty and I can print like a PRO).

I have this neat software package that can actually give the cost per page of most printers and multifunctional products and why shouldn't I. I'm the darn expert. Some software programs may vary in the price per page.

So, this neat HP Pro M1212nf sells for $199. While it has a nifty 35 page document feeder and a 150 sheet paper tray, the toner cartridge cost for this device is $67.99 with a yeild of 1,600 pages. Mind you that the 1,600 pages is based on probably 5% coverage of the page.

Now, you may ask what is 5% coverage of the page, pretty much if you condensed all of the black print area to one area, it means it can't cover more than 5% of the page. Pretty much a letter document with no pictures or logos. I ask you who the heck prints at 5% coverage?

Back to the cost per page, divide the cost of the cartridge by the yield and you have a cost per page of .0425. Ok, well, I wanna print my 8,000 pages per month, how much is that gonna cost me? It's gonna cost you $340 each and every month, and if you maintain that volume for 36 months, you'll be out a whopping $12,240!! Whoa, almost the price of a car!

How about if you print all your docs with 10% coverage or print legal size documents. Get a load of this number, simple math it's twice the cost. $24,480 for the total cost of operation and .0850 per page. That's the price of a decent car!

Wanna see more? At 15% coverge which has a bunch of text and a few pictures the Total Cost of Operation runs up to $36,720 and a cost per page over 12 cents. Now, that's a really nice number for a really nice car!

Hey, I understand that most users don't print all thier pages at 15%, and I understand (because I'm in the business) that this machine will probably blow a gasket before it prints 8,000 pages in one month, however how does the end user know this? There's no disclaimers, well maybe it can do 8,000 pages per month, but at 19 pages per minute that would take 421 minutes. Point is there needs to be some type of real measuring stick for these types of devices.

In closing, if you're thinking about doing on 8,000 pages per month, with 15% coverage on the page, opt for the really nice car, and call a Print4Pay Hotel member to save you some real cash. Here's a neat link (P4P Cafe) to get a quote on a Really Nice MFP so you can get that Really Nice Car!

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh 430DN Color Printer "What's the TCO"?

I posted this on the Print4Pay Cafe Blog, it's another Blog that I do, however it's geared towards the end users for printers, color printers, fax, mulituctional copiers, and scanners.

Take a trip here for Ricoh 430DN Color Printer "What's the TCO"?

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Wars "Bizhub C35 Scores Direct Hit"

With monochrome pages on A3 devices declining by 40% and color increasing by 30%, it's not an attractive model anymore. But the news is different with A4 devices, while monochrome pages are decreasing by 10%, color pages printed on A4 devices will increase by 50%. Konica Minolta referred to a forecast from a market-research firm.

Thus, the birth of the "mini" KonicaMinolta bizhub C35 A4 (not capable of scanning, printing or copying onto 11x17 size paper) which allows users to produce monochrome and color pages at a rate of 31 pages per minute.

What's to like?

Speed 31 pages per minute in monochrome or color
Full Color Display
120,000 page Monthly Duty Cycle
Reversing Doc Feeder that will 50 pages
Auto Duplex
PC Fax
Fax Forwarding
Price

I could go on and on with speeds, feeds and features, if you want see for yourself access the bizhub35 brochure. 

Total Cost of Operation

What I'd really like to focus on is the TCO (Total Cost of Operation). How much does it cost to make a copy of print with this system?

The system requires 4 cartridges of toner be in the machine at all times. Color toner cartridges will cost you $110 each with a yield of 4,600 pages, thus the cost per page for each color cartridge is .0239.  The black toner cartridge has a cost of $45 and the yield is 5,200 pages, thus the cost per page for black is .0087.  Your total toner cost is .0804 which is not that bad for a system with a purchase price of about $3,500.  Keep in mind that printing or copying pages with heavy coverage will increase your costs. 

You'll also need to figure in Imaging Kits.  There are three color imaging kits that will cost $230 each with a yield of 30,000 pages, thus the cost per page for a color imaging kit is .00766. The black imaging kit is $130 and also has a yield of 30,000 pages, thus the cost per page for the black imaging unit is .0043.  Your total imaging kit cost per page is then .0271.

When adding the toner cartridges and the imaging kits we have a total of .1141 (11 cents).  There's two additional consumable items that will be needed.  One is a fuser kit and the the other is a transfer belt, as of right now I've not been able to find a cost and yield for these.  I'm thinking that the total cost per page for this device would come in around .13 cents per page and that would not include any repairs that would be needed. 

This system fills a much needed gap in the color MFP market, between the SOHO and mid market levels and may also generate additional placements for those in the Managed Print Services.

Whats Not to Like?

No Finsihing Capabilities (stapling or hole punch)
High Cost Per Page
Monthly Duty Cycle of 120,000 pages (I don't think so, if you every did 120,000 pages in a month on this device you'd spend over $15,000 in consumables)
Print & Copy Resolution is 600x600 dpi

Even with some of the "not to like" this system should be a winner for reps that need something above the SOHO model and less expensive than the smallest A3 (will copy or print to 11x17) model.

Information was gathered from KM's web site and information posted on the forums of the Print4Pay Hotel.  If you're not a member, consider joining the largest social network of copier/mfp professionals in the world.

=Good Selling=

Copier Sales "Position Yourself as an Expert"

Do you feel that you are the one of the best at selling MFP's? Do you consult more to the end user and then let the customer buy from you? Are you consistently producing print assessment reports for customers that have and instant ROI?

If so, you need to add this weapon to your arsenal. In your territory look up the 10 largest CPA firms. Once you have them, be prepared to make the calls to success!

CPA firms are in the business of making money as are all of us, they have many business clients that have trusted their services for years and years. What we want to do is to add value to the CPA's service's that they provide to their business clients, by added a new service for their customers. A customized Print Assessment Report for their clients.

Positioning yourself as an expert in the field of print assessments, meaning you are offering your services to the CPA firm for their clients, the CPA firm can either bill out this service or include it as an additional service that they offer for their clients. Your goal is to sell your knowledge and nothing else. Have copies of Print Assessments that you have completed to show the accounting firm what the typical report entails, here you are breaking the mold from the common copier salesperson and establishing yourself as the expert. You can even offer a FREE print assessment to the accounting firm to show them your expertise and your creative ideas for print assessment and print migration.

You can start by telling them about the high cost of printing to multiple devices and that you specialize in provided a detailed print assessment cost of what they are spending and a solution to save their clients money and or productivity. Your fees can be as much as $150 per hour plus expenses for your work.

All of the information needed is at your finger tips, companies like Ricoh offer a COG (customer opportunity generator), this software program gives you real life per page cost for about 95% of all the print devices that are on the market. For the other 5% you can do your research on the Internet.

In reference to all of the print device software that is on the market..... they are ok, however nothing is better than visiting every single print device, generating a report and then interviewing the end user for their needs. Interview can uncover tremendous savings and opportunities for all.

If you would like a copy of my print assessment report please log in to the Print4Pay Hotel and become a member www.p4photel.com/eve. I'll have the document posted in the Industry Proposals and Quotes forum (you'll need to purchase a Premium Membership for $15.00)

-=Good Selling=-

Laser Printers & Total Cost of Operation

While at home today, trying to recoup from a bad cold, I ran across this document on the internet thats shows the total cost of consumables for many different printers. This document is from a reliable source and in my eyes would be accurate, as always if something seems to go to be true, it usually is. So, make you sure you double check what you are reading.

I'm posting this on the Print4Pay Hotel Message Boards for downloading, if you are not a member please click Print4Pay Hotel and register for the brand of MPS's that you sell.

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"Copy Machine Sales" Copier Manufacturers Confuse Me

Question: How do copier companies make money? Answer: By putting ink or toner on paper. Very simple right?

In a recent press release by Xerox, "more than 70 percent of Xerox total revenue comes from sales of supplies and services -- also known as "post-sale."


A recent press release by Ricoh in Europe made this statement: Chief executive Nigel Palmer revealed that printers now account for about half of Ricoh’s revenue and he told resellers that a move towards selling them should be a priority.“If you are not already doing it, please do it quickly. Within two years, three quarters of sales will be printers,” he said.





The Big Lie?


I have an issue here, I keep reading all of the hype about "Going Green" saving paper, do more scanning, print two sided more often and the latest craze is "Print Management Solutions"

Hey, if you're in the business of putting ink or toner on paper then why are manufacturers such as Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, KonicaMinolta, Sharp, Kyocera, Oce and Toshiba pushing scanning solutions such as Document Management Software? Scanning documents and not copying them should decrease paper usage, save trees, save oil, and other resources right??? Well, not entirely true from what I've heard, in fact scanning solutions may actually increase the amount of paper you use! Fact is most people who need to review a document will print it first and then make notes or markups on the document.


Most of these pages will be printed to low cost printers that are located next to the user and have a higher cost per page than multifunctional copiers and almost all of the low end printers use AIO cartridges (All in One, toner, drum, developer unit), its estimated that half of these end up in the landfills. So, if we're using more paper, more ink and toner, and more cartridges how the heck are we "Going Green" and how are we saving resources?


I have a current customer that scans every document they receive, they then index and archive the documents. Before they started scanning their monthly volume of copies and prints was about 25,000 pages. One year later, their volume is now 34,000 pages per month!





"Going Green"


Here's a thought, most manufacturers have reclamation facilities that will accept spent cartridges. You can ship the empties back at no charge, why not implement some type of credit to the end user for returning all of the spent cartridges, the drum kits, and fuser kits. Once at the reclamation center, they can be rebuilt or recycled! Manufacturers may be able to capture more of these cartridge's and decrease the amount going to landfills.

Remember the first two statements? 70% of Xerox revenue if from supplies and service, Ricoh states that three quarters of sales will be printers.

Scanned documents migrate to lower end printers with a high cost per page. Whats the answer, Print Management software can re-direct print jobs to more efficient printers that have a lower TCO, and paper will never go away!





-=Good Selling=-