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Multifunctional Machines – the Simple Solution

sizes paper — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:54:26 +0000

Anyone who has ever worked in an office will attest to the clutter that can be created by having multiple machines operating in an area with limited space. The wires alone are enough to drive anyone crazy, and the amount of space that some machines take up can make any office feel a bit cramped. In addition to the clutter created by multiple machines, there are also problems associated with having to deal with various manufacturers, suppliers, and technicians.

For a small business, or a business looking to maximize its limited space, the best solution to this problem is to consider the addition of a multifunctional machine. Besides taking up less space in an office, multifunctional machines are more cost-effective. With one purchase, an office can be easily equipped with everything from a fax machine and a printer, to a scanner and a personal copier.

The variety of models available, combined with the variety of uses that are required of a multifunctional machine make it important for any consumer to consider several aspects of the device before purchasing any multifunctional machine.

The main factor to consider in making any purchase of a multifunctional machine is in fact the number of functions that a machine can perform. Some devices have dual functions, serving as both a copier and a printer, while others also include faxing and scanning functions and capabilities in addition to the basic copying and printing functions.

The features of each multifunctional machine also need to be considered. Most multifunctional machines offer two types of printing options. Some use a basic black and white printing engine, while others make use of color printing technology in the form of an inkjet engine. The color is a more viable option for a home or a small office in need of quality and not quantity. The black and white option is more beneficial for offices with a high printing demand.

The final option to consider before making the addition of a multifunctional machine to a business or office is the quality with which original documents are scanned. Scanners in multifunctional machines come with either a flatbed design or a sheetfed design. Machines with the flatbed design are more flexible in terms of use, as they have the ability to scan everything from books and documents to business cards and tattered documents. Sheetfed scanners are typically designed to handle individual sheets of paper, loaded one at a time.

Today’s offices, be they large or small, require a variety of devices to help employees accomplish a variety of daily tasks. The development of multifunctional machines now makes it possible for office managers to satisfy the multiple needs of their office with the purchase and addition of one, all-in-one, multifunctional machine.

Assessing Your Office Printing Needs

sizes paper — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:55:20 +0000

Every business needs to have printing facilities to be able to function. Look around any office environment and you are sure to find a printer and a copier – essential equipment for day to day operation. But how do you determine what printing and copying equipment you actually need in your office? What are the most economical systems for your needs? Which office copier will handle your copy volume demand without coughing it’s mechanics across the office floor? On many occasions office printing and copying equipment is selected by opinion, without much consideration of the facts.

When considering replacing the office printing and copying equipment, a more informed approach will help select the correct equipment to suit your needs. Draw up a check-list for your requirements and ask others to check that your have listed the facilities that they need – as well as ensuring that you haven’t included benefits that your office will not need. Do you need larger paper sizes, colour or black and white images, networked into the office workstations or computer server, etc?

If you already have a copier installed, then check the monthly counter readings from the machine to give you information on how many copies are being produced each month or annually. Calculate how much copy paper your company consumes, between the copier counter and the copy paper consumption, you should be able to work out an average number of copies produced per month.

Do you have a number of individual office printers scattered about your offices? If so, then these are also adding to your print and copy requirements – as well as adding to the running costs of your printing facilities. If these are inkjet printers, then the cost of each page produced is probably disproportionately high compared to other printing methods. Laser printers, although cheaper to run than inkjets, will also have a relatively high cost per page. Having determined your copy and print volume requirements and the facilities needed from an office copier/printer, then you’re better equipped for starting your search for the most appropriate machine for your office. You may wish to consider including a networked copier / printer / fax / scanner in your considerations, giving a central point at which the office requirement for printing and copying is centralised – creating a cost saving return across all users (this technology is commonly called a Business Hub).

To assist with your decision making process, many office equipment specialists are now able to perform an analysis of the costs of operating your existing office print and copy facilities through bespoke software technology. This service will give you the information to make informed choices to obtain the most advantageous copying and printing equipment to cover your everyday needs – and it is normally done without cost or obligation. If you need assistance in calculating the number of copies/prints each of your office machines is producing, they can install print auditing software onto your system for you. This will generate a detailed report and costings of your present printing volumes. Business By Technology (Manchester and Coventry) offers this service free of charge and without obligation.

In the longer term, this same software technology can be installed onto your office system to provide a constant feedback of office print and copy usage, along with relevant costs. A good example for this software function is that before you had telephone call handling systems (PBX’s), nobody knew where their call volume went. Once the PBX’s came along, the phone company could break down your calls on the billing. So you could analyse that a salesman with a high call volume would be expected, yet the guy in the warehouse with unusually high call volume would be questionable. Apply this situation to a company’s printing and copying consumption and you can see where the usage and wastage is occurring.

Many companies have saved significant amounts of money simply by applying this software to their office systems. In some cases, they have even discovered use of costly printing facilities that they didn’t even know they had!

Establishing the Paperless Office

sizes paper — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:03:56 +0000

The paperless office has been talked about for a long time, yet never seems to even start to become a reality in almost any sector of business. Look around any office environment and you would be forgiven for thinking that the opposite of the paperless office is evolving, with ever increasing stacks of printed reports and greater need for filing and document storage than ever before. Most companies, and their individual employees, still hold the opinion that copies of documents still need to be retained ‘on file’ to see and read and a continued mind-set of mistrust of digital storage prevails. This is assisted by many government departments inflicting legal requirements for specific accounting and administrative documents being retained and available for inspection for periods of up to six years beyond their production.
All of this document production and storage is occurring in a time when almost everything we generate comes from a digital system, eg. word processing, accounting systems, digital copiers, etc. – and most of these documents are already stored in digital file format on the system that created them originally (Word files, spreadsheets, photographs, accounting systems, etc). Yet there is still a great reluctance to take the final step and commit these paper files into a concise digital filing system and reduce the amount of environmentally damaging paper consumed, as well as reducing the expense committed to vast amounts of wasted space given over to document storage. Much of the resistance to change stems from old and somewhat flawed technology being made available before it’s limitations were determined. Those who tried digital document storage in its infancy had poor experiences, with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and poor scanning facilities producing less than accurate results in the stored documents; bad characters, poor formatting, etc. The previously poor experiences, coupled with localised, instead of centralised, file access has created a resistance to change that still prevails today.
Try the exercise of breaking down the requirements for a digital, therefore paperless, document storage and management system. The majority of businesses will store correspondence, reports and other items produced on a computer-based word/presentation/numeric software program, accounting and auditing documents produced by a computer-based system, email and fax documents transmitted on most occasions via a computer or digital software – and all of these have one thing in common: they are already stored in digital format on the system that was used to create them. Additionally, photographs are either transferred from a digital camera/phone/download/email attachment or scanned (with very good results) into a digital format onto the company’s computer network, so these too are already stored in a digital format. Other documentation, generally received from external sources (customers, suppliers, etc.), will not have an existing digital file format in your business’s computer – these can be scanned into the system and digitally stored with great accuracy using the advanced software that is now available, and retrieved with accuracy when needed for further reference. So almost 100% of the documentation that your business uses every day can be stored in a digital document storage and retrieval system; eliminating the need for stacks and files of papers; cutting the need for expensive storage space; reducing wasted employee time searching for those elusive mis-filed documents.
So why are businesses resisting the paperless office? In addition to any previous poor experiences with early technology, the primary reason seems to be a lack of coordinated facilities. Most companies have a networked computer system, many have digital copier and printer systems and most have scanning facilities. However, the file storage systems are fragmented and often personalised, the copier/printer facilities are not correctly networked and scanning facilities are sometimes inadequate and localised. The resistance towards introducing and operating a paperless document storage and retrieval system is often down to a simple lack of coordination within the business itself, coupled with a lack of responsibility – is it the overburdened IT manager’s job, the office manager’s job, the director responsible for admin’s job, or the ‘Mr Nobody’ who gets lumbered with those tasks no one else has time or incentive to undertake? Yet a great deal of wasted time and money continues to drain from the business resources while this task remains unaddressed.
A straightforward approach to addressing the introduction of a paperless office can have the whole process introduced in little time with comparatively small set up costs, quickly recouped by the savings generated from reduced paper consumption, reduced storage space and wasted employee time. In terms of personnel, one person should be appointed the task of overseeing the implementation of the system and ensuring that the (probably existing) equipment facilities are correctly networked together into the central business computer network. A reliable and efficient document storage and retrieval software system should be sourced and installed onto the business’s network and set up ready for use by everyone who handles documents as a part of their daily routine. Having created this hardware and software environment, the task of transferring/installing existing files and documents (historical documents already stored elsewhere) should be undertaken prior to the central document filing and retrieval system becoming ‘live’ (although this could be done retrospectively over a period of time if necessary). The final stage is to roll out the system to all employees from a predetermined date, allowing for any training/instruction being implemented beforehand.
The software for digital document storage and retrieval is the key to it’s success. Scanning, Archive and Retrieval systems have been viewed by some businesses as a ‘dark art’ or at least with some doubt and suspicion in the past, where poor experiences of older and less stable systems have caused problems with document retrieval. By combining the facilities of the office digital copier/printer/scanner systems (often referred to as Business Hubs due to their networking capabilities), with the networked computer system a good quality software digital document and retrieval program will allow you to store and find that illusive “needle in a haystack”. A quality system will incorporate fast scanning speeds, excellent search and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tolerance, automatic document indexing, fast search and retrieval facility with efficient and easy to use Boolean search commands (Google style searching). One such system is PowerRetrieve, available through Business By Technology Ltd., Manchester and Coventry, along with fully trained and experienced consultants and IT advisors.
Three definable supplier areas are clear for the introduction of a paperless office environment: the networked computer system, the digital office copiers/printers/scanners, and the document storage and retrieval software. Each of these areas have their own specialist advisors who can be called upon for advice and assistance, but some supplier companies, primarily from the office copier/printer sector, now have specialist trained IT advisors who can coordinate the introduction of a paperless office system from inception to completion. A specialist IT advisor from one of these companies is of great assistance when working alongside the internal person charged with responsibility for introducing the paperless office system, from the early planning stages through to final implementation. The paperless office is within the grasp of every business, however large or small, it can create a more efficient working environment and immediately recognisable cost savings from implementation.

Your All-In-One Printer Copier Choices Must Be Wise

sizes paper — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:55:46 +0000

The PC printer has evolved from a singularly print functionality to an all in one printer copier. The modern all in one printer copier, slightly bigger than a regular printer, utilizes an integrated scanner with the capability to take the image in the paper fed to it, store it digitally and print it. Once the digital image is converted into the format it uses (formats may differ with the software used) it can be stored.

The advantage of an all in one printer copier is in the printer’s capability to print copies from direct images of the scanned copy without running the usual application from the PC to print the document. The employee can thus free his computer from printing copies and engages his PC to another task such as the preparation of another document while the copier prints copies of the first document. This is due to the scanner and printer functioning independently of each other.

The multitasking function of a PC is also improved by an all in one printer copier because of the scanner’s capability to generate a digital image of the scanned object. The digital image, usually in the JPEG format can be stored by a PC and later on retrieved for printing as well as other uses like picture combinations and other art work using photo editors.

As most all in one printer copier makes use of ink jets, after sales support in terms of stability and availability of supplies need to be considered. Another consideration is the estimated volume ofprinting and copying jobs that will be demanded. As an all in one printer copier is only recommended for use in a single PC its durability in handling high speed copying and the volume it can handle will not be as fast and as many as the bigger multifunctional copier that is used over a network of PCs.

In considering buying an all in one printer copier, alternative sources of supplies for its consumables such as ink and paper may be evaluated. Another consideration is the ease with which your PC can switch from another printer to yourall in one printer copier. Some PC use a switch to use two or more printers like it uses a dot matrix printer to inexpensively print drafts when there is time to do them then switch to another printer for the final copy. Some printers do not allow the ease by which Windows switches your default printer. HP for example requires you to load its own printer interface and overrides Windows’ setting the default printer. Most consumers see it as a scheme to use only HP printers and inks and are turned off by the lack of choice considering that HP is on the high end of the printer’s market.

How to buy a copier guide

sizes paper — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:36:36 +0000

Buying a copier for your office can become a daunting task with the huge variety of options available. To make the buying process easier, it is better to understand your budget, the copying requirements etc . It may also be worthwhile to explore if there any tax saving options available for your business.

For a SOHO business, the convenience of copying in house as compared to visiting a copy shop may be the key reason for buying a copier. For an SME, the considerations can be the cost of copying in house vs externally as also the time factor. With the advent of the multifunction copier, it is now possible to have a laser printer, copier, fax and scanner all in one! This can help with managing space in your office. If you require large volume of copying and printing, then there are machines custom designed to do this economically

Below are a few features you must consider before you make the final decision :

Duplexing

This is the capability to print on both sides. It’s worth paying a little more for this feature as it saves money in the long run.

Black And White Or Color Copier?

If you plan to use your copier for producing marketing collaterals, it is worthwhile investing in a color copier.

Copier Versatility

Make sure the copier can handle a variety of paper sizes and weights. You may also need to copy transparencies and index cards. If you need to copy from books, then go for a flatbed copier.

Copier Paper Capacity

As a business person, you can save time by giving a decent size copy run instead of copying one paper at a time. Look for a copier with a paper capacity which matches your requirement. You may also want a copier with a automatic document feeder that holds at least 20 sheets.

Copier Maintenance

Buy copiers which is low on maintenance. It is better to invest a little more into a high performance copier with low maintenance than a cheap copier with a high maintenance