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Archive for May, 2009

When Should I Consider Upgrading My Copier?

May 29th, 2009

As good as your copier may be, there will always be a time and a place when it needs to be replaced.  Keeping the old copier does not always make the most financial sense.  For one thing copiers do wear out, they are mechanical, and there is a point like with cars where a replacement can make more sense than a repair.  There are also times where it makes sense because the toner and supplies costs are so high replacement makes sense from a mere supplies cost standpoint.   No matter how much memory, or what hard drive you add, your printer will only go as fast as the rated speed (at best)…  if this is not fast enough, you may need a replacement. 

There are other business concerns which may be making it necessary to make a change. 

  • If you have a Black and White copier, but need color copies
  • If you do a lot of volume, but only have a low volume machine
  • If you need to scan and you copier does not scan
  • If you need to have a document management system and you do not now
  • Your think your current copier is a piece of crap and you want something that doesn’t jam, etc…

If you are at this point, we’d love to work with you to help you get the next copier to actually meet your business needs.

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Another Dirty Little Secret ~ “Other Consumables”

May 26th, 2009

Have you seen spec sheets that say “$.09 per Print*” with the * telling you that was a “toner only” price?  If you are working with a Black and White copier, that will be close, but if you are working with a Color copier or printer, well …  that’s another story entirely.  You see, with a color printer or copier, toner is not the only consumable.  There are imaging units, transfer belts, fusers, waste toner bottles etc.  Now, with imaging units, both Ricoh and Kyocera have tried (unsuccessfully) to convince us our underperformance is due to “humidity level variance” in Colorado.  Now, they recommend not having a color laser by a front door because this is a place of great humidity variance.    I personally think this is bogus and I often get stuck fighting with manufacturers who like to give excuses for the poor performance rather than resolution.  We actually have had some customers who only got 1,000 pages on a 50,000 page rated imaging unit and the manufacturer at first was not going to cover it under a normal warranty because it was “a consumable item.”

This becomes a huge deal when you are trying to accurately assess potential costs of a color printer.  Even if you use the rated yield, how are going to ensure you are actually getting that yield?  Who is responsible for keeping the spreadsheet of all 13 consumable items?  There are definately other methods of purchasing a printer, but if you are going to be the one footing the bill for the consumables, maybe it would be wise to not “just trust” the manufacturer.  We have a quick 5 minute presentation to the right of this page (look for the big maroon box.

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Paper Jams — How to Avoid a Costly Service Call

May 24th, 2009

Do you have a copie that has been jamming more lately?  If you do, you know how frustrating paper jams are.  Paper jams are one of the most common reasons people will even go out and buy a new copier.  Before you spend $10k on a new copier, maybe we can help with the paper issues that’s giving you this desire!

Here are a few things to check if you get a lot of paper jams.

1) What paper do you use?  If you are using the cheapest copy paper, try a brand name paper which may cost $5 to $10 more a case and see if the problem goes away.  If it does, the paper was the issue.  Cheap paper feels slick and thin.  There’s no real texture to the page and because of this, the rollers have trouble gripping the page and this is the source for probably 50% of paper jam issues.

2) How long has the paper been in the machine?  Even if you buy the better paper, if it has been in the machine for weeks or months, it can still collect a lot of humidity.  When you open a ream, you should try and keep the rest of the ream that is unused in a ziplock bag.  Only load paper for the maximum of 1 week.

3) Did you set the paper sizes and weights correctly in the driver?  If you tell the copier a page is 11″ and it’s actually 14″ it will jam because it will have paper covering the sensors after the 11″ that it expects.   If you have copy paper selected, but you are putting in 60lb cardstock, the fuser grabs too tight and a jam is pretty much a guarantee.

If you have checked out these 3 items and you’re still getting jams, it’s probably time to take a look at the machine itself.  You will want to have the pick up rollers looked at to make sure they still have some “tread” left.  You could also have other issues like the mylar strip being seperated or the fuser rollers being worn.  You could also have sensor issues creating a “false paper jam.”  Service techs trained on your machine are best at determining what specific issue you are facing with your copier.

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MPS – Managed Print Services — What is it, what isn’t it?

May 22nd, 2009

Many copier companies are pushing Managed Print Services (MPS) these days.  You have probably had your rep stop by and pitch the advantages of having all of your devices under one plan.  So, you have had the Fleet Management talk, but do you know what you are actually signing up for?  This blog post deals with what “should” happen with a Fleet Management assesment and what should not happen…

What should happen … Appropriate steps to have your Print Fleet managed well…

1) Agree — Agreement is needed first.  If you are not ready to make some changes if they make sense, you are not ready for Managed Print Services.

2) Assess — What does this mean?  A physical walk through should be done ALONG WITH a meter reading of all of the devices on the network.  This would include figuring out layout, device types and costs associated with all of the devices.  It would also look at expiration dates of contracts so if there is a bad contract, it can be purged as quickly as possible.

3) Analyze — Someone needs to take the time and do the work to see what everything is costing.  Beware of reps who will pad their numbers to make their plans look attractive.  We have many customers who were sold a plan by a competitor who promised lower costs, but the actual costs INCREASED after they signed the contract.  Color yields should be analyzed at 20% coverage, black and white at 5% coverage (unless pages were pulled from the printer which would let you know this should be higher or lower)

4) Attack — What should be done after the assessments is to attack the bleeders first and get costs under control as quickly as possible.  Most companies can save $200 or $300 a month by attacking 2 or 3 problem printing / copying devices right away.

5) Audit — Once there is a plan of attack that is executed, there should be periodic audits performed so that the promises made can be substantiated.  The savings promised needs to be realized or you got a bad deal.

If you would like to have a free Printer/Copier Assessment, give us a call and we’ll get busy on it right away!

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Why I Actually Like Working With Xerox ~

May 22nd, 2009

 

This blog is going to be a little bit of a lovefest.  I apologize in advance.  As you read through the posts you will see that I will write the good, the bad, and the ugly with my experiences with a manufacturer.  On this post, I want to commend Xerox for their servicing of equipment under warranty.

We have one customer who has a Phaser 7760 and they have had to get this printer replaced twice.  Of course, a competitor would use this as an example of poor quality.  The problem is this is a very unusual event, in our vast experience with Xerox.  I have sold Xerox color devices to over 100 customers in the past 2 years.  2 of them have had this experience.  The amazing part is Xerox has been fixing it for free, replacing the printers as needed and just going about their business.  We don’t have to call our local reps to have them intervene like we do with other manufacturers. 

Just as a pointer to people buying a color device…  if warranty and customer service matters to you, Xerox as of right now (this stuff always changes) is awesome to work with!

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What Does Color Do for You? —

May 16th, 2009

We have all been using color printers for years.  Have you ever stopped to ask why we do this?  We all have a “gut feel” that color documents work better for marketing, but what proof is there?  Maybe you don’t have a color copier, or even a color printer at your office so you are thinking you should get color in your next copier.  What are some of the reasons color is worth getting?  Xerox published a document called the 20 benefits of using color in business documents, and I thought I would look at it and highlight some of the keys.

  • When doing newsletters or pamphlets, a decision to read is made in 2.5 seconds.  Color improves the look and professionalism of a newsletter, therefore increasing its chance of being read.
  • Color Increases the attention span and recall of a reader by 82%
  • Telephone listings printed in color can increase responses by 44%.  I saw this one and I thought that was because color was standing out.  If the whole phone book were color and black and white were 1 ad, you could probably argue not using color increases responses.  It seems that the human eye is excellent at catching incongruity…  so I take this one with a grain of salt…
  • 55% of people will pick up a full color mail piece first.  Again, I would argue this is because most people don’t print full color because it’s more expensive…  This is still good to know because your Black and Whites are probably hitting the trash before they are even opened.
  • Color reduces errors by 80% … That is good to know because this could affect a lot of the internal business processes.  The less people are making mistakes, the better.
  • Color helps to sell 80% more …  now that is powerful.  In fact, I put those words in color to prove the point that people do pay attention to color when it is there for a reason.
  • Color helps increase brand recognition by 80%.  This is important if you are in a situation where a consumer has options and you want to be remembered.

So, there are a lot of reasons to be using color.  The key is to make sure the costs of color are making it worthwhile to use it.  You can pay so much for a useful tool that it becomes cost prohibitive. Make sure to check out the Dirty Little Secrets page before running out to buy a color copier!

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New Lexmark Multi-Functions… A Review

May 6th, 2009
Copier for Sale in Denver

Copier for Sale in Denver

So, it seems these small letter/legal copiers keep getting better and better!  We have the Lexmark X466 in our office and it has been surprisingly robust and efficient.  Here is a 4 in 1 unit for lower volumes (2,000 a month or less) that costs between $1,000 and $1,500.  What features do you get?

Duplex print

Duplex Scan

40 Pages per Minute

Color Touch Screen Interface

Print, Copy, Scan and Fax

Scan to E-mail

This device would work for about 1/4 of the small offices in Denver.  However, there are sales reps paid good money to make sure you spend $6,000 or $8,000 to do things the way you always did them…  Schedule an appointment with us to see this little copier crank out the paper and scan to folders easier than that $8,000 copier you have now does!  This is NOT for high volume applications.  (Over 3,000 pages per month!)  Call us for any copier needs in Denver!

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