Choosing a new office printer/photocopier can be like navigating a mine field, it can be very difficult and time consuming if you don’t know what your business needs. To make the process easier, we have thought of 8 key questions to ask when procuring a new print solution and we guarantee you will make the right decision.
- Volume and Paper Trays?
It is essential to assess the volume of printing that you require each month, as this is a major pricing factor and your device must be able to withstand all of your printing/copying needs in order to keep up with the pace of your business. Where space and budget allow, it may be better to have two lower specification devices to share the workload, so that there is less likelihood of being left without any device at all if one malfunctions. The more advanced models have plenty of nifty features that will save you time and therefore also money, which can drastically increase the efficiency of your company. Also, the more paper trays a device has, the less often it needs to be refilled. The downside of this is that the trays increase the footprint of the device, which may make it harder to find a space for it.
- Speed?
Speed is closely related to volume in the sense that the more documents that need to be printed, the quicker the device needs to work in order to avoid queues building up for the machine.
- Mono or Colour?
While most mono devices these days only carry a small difference in upfront cost compared to colour devices, there is a significant difference in the savings you would make on your print costs compared to printing in colour on a desktop printer.
- Paper Size?
If printing requirements often extend to the use of larger paper sizes (A3 upwards), then there are devices that can manage this. If, on the other hand, most of the printing is done on A4, then an A4 only device would be a more cost effective and space saving choice.
- Scanning?
Print solutions are essentially combined scanner, printer, photocopiers these days and can be very useful for companies that receive a lot of paper documentation, which they need to convert to digital form. You also have the ability to scan to multiple destinations in multiple formats, so it is always handy to know whether you need to scan documents into certain software packages or not.
- Finishing options, such as Stapling and/or Hole Punching?
Stapling is a common feature for devices that support high volumes and is also a great time saving option that helps to produce ready-made documents. Also, if your business creates significant amounts of documents for ring binders, then hole punching can be a substantial time saving option to have on your device as well. While this may increase the upfront cost, it can save a lot of time spent manually stapling or punching documents and will encourage people to put their documents straight into binders, rather than leaving them about the office or piled into unorganized stacks.
- Aftersales Support / Service Contract?
As well as choosing the right device with the right features, it is extremely important to ensure that there will be support available if there are ever any problems with the device, but also to understand how/when they will provide consumables for your device (Is this Manual or Automated?).
- Any Hidden Costs?
When you sign up for a service, you should have all the facts at your fingertips to know what the cost will be, and for which reason the cost might increase or change the terms. You should always look out for things such as admin fees, annual service cost increases and matching contract lengths for both service and lease contracts.
Don’t hesitate to contact STORM to find out more about prices and finance options on 01908 272729 or email sales@stormofficesolutions.com.
