Despite the inroads
that email has made into the paper-based office, printing volumes never
seem to decline. On the contrary, printing often forms a much larger
part of the overall running-costs of an office than you might realise.
Choice of the right -or wrong- printing solution can have a drastic
effect on that budget.
Choice of printers must
satisfy four basic requirements:
Suitability for print
jobs.
Running costs.
Network compatibility.
Physical siting within
office.
After my saying that many network-software packages are unwieldy and overweight for
the smaller business, here I'd say the opposite: Think BIG. An
enterprise-class printer, whilst having higher purchase cost, will
easily offset that initial expenditure by way of its vastly lower
running-costs.
The usual mistake is to gravitate towards home-user solutions. Inkjets
-the mainstay of the home user- look attractive thanks to their very
low purchase price, plus the ability to print in colour. Their main
drawback is their extremely high -staggeringly high- running costs. For
example, you may be surprised to discover that printing photos in A4 is
costing you a pound a page. The ink cartridge itself is the main cost,
thanks to its high price and short life. While inkjets do have their
uses, they are a very poor choice for volume printing.
Laser printers are the preferred tool for large-volume printing. Buyers
are often dissuaded from taking the laser route when they see that not
only the printer but also its cartridges are considerably more
expensive than their inkjet equivalents. What is not apparent from
these raw figures -and the key difference- is that one fill of laser
toner will last many times the number of pages you'll get out of an
inkjet refill. In fact, if your printing requirements are more than a
few pages a day, the laser will pay for itself in very short order. The
need for occasional printing in colour used to weigh in favour of the
inkjet, but these days the price differential between mono and colour
lasers has greatly reduced, making the laser an all-round best
option.
Your printout sends messages to clients about the nature of your
business, and your professionalism, or lack of it. In this context it's
no use making-up the fanciest logos and graphics you can think of if
the printout can be smudged with a damp thumb, instantly giving the
game away that you're using a cheap 'n cheerful printer. A plaintext
letter without graphics, but printed on a professional printer,
unsmudgeable, will cut a good impression.
An area where the inkjet does score is in the occasional need to print
drawings and the like in A3 size, an A3 laser printer being a very
bulky and costly piece of kit. (Although see later, hire may be an
option here)
The majority of
office printing-work does not require colour. The requirements are for
a sharp, professional, water-fast printout, combined with high speed, freedom
from niggling troubles, and low per-page cost. These requirements are best
met by a laser printer.
Spending large
amounts of money on individual colour inkjet printers is probably not a
good investment.
Multi-function units:
Lately there has been a trend towards "All-In-One" units
which not only print, but also scan, copy and fax. Experience
with these proves once again that old adage, that while you may very
well get less than you paid for, you seldom get more than you paid for.
Thus, if you're paying the price of a cheap printer for a unit that
performs the work of four machines... don't expect too much from it,
and then you won't be disappointed. Basically, the only MFU that I
would consider to be robust and reliable enough for business use is the
filing-cabinet sized kind which serves as a central unit for the whole
office. If you're not in the market for a machine of this class, then
think twice about MFUs. For a small office, a conventional (laser)
printer is probably a better idea.
Enterprise-grade MFUs will invariably be of laser or similar
technology. Smaller MFUs come in inkjet or laser variants, and it
should need no elaboration on the fact that the inkjet variety are in
any case poorly suited-to bulk printing. Budget MFUs are also
notorious for badly written driver-software which makes the computer
unstable, or which 'takes over' the computer to the extent that it
cannot be used for any other purpose whilst the MFU is printing. (Or sometimes, even when it's not...) The
enterprise-grade MFUs are less prone to these problems, but even so any
purchase should be evaluated for possible issues of this kind.
Networking:
Whilst standard printers can be 'shared' between computers using
Windows Networking, it soon becomes apparent that this arrangement has
its drawbacks. Not least is the need for the computer
'hosting' the printer to be left powered-on all of the time. A more
perplexing problem relates to the complex and oft-misunderstood way in
which Microsoft Windows handles user's accounts and access-rights. With
shared printers, a trivial change in user-logon, or change in the user's
access-rights can give rise to all kinds of unexpected
printing-problems.
For this reason, any office of more than two or three users would be
better to think in terms of printers designed specifically for network
use. These connect directly to a network point, without any intervening
computer. This approach avoids most of the the annoying glitches
experienced with 'shared' printers. A slight drawback is the
need for an additional network socket for the printer. Against this,
independence from the users' computers and a generally more
predictable behaviour are the benefits.
So- to summarise, for bulk printing, the Laser is king. If you've more
than one or two computers, then think in terms of a laser which can be
directly networked rather than 'sharing' it from an attached computer.
Multi-function units might seem an attractive buy, but beware the
shortcomings of budget examples. If your funds won't reach to
enterprise-class units, than a straightforward laser printer is a
better choice.
Hire or Buy:
If the initial cost of a good printer seems prohibitive, or you just
prefer to have a no-worries solution, then there are firms which
specialise in the hire of business-class printers and MFUs.
Typically these contracts are based on a cost per page, with
consumables -including toner- provided as part of the deal. You supply
the paper and the computer, but keeping the printer working is the
hire-company's worry. Cost is typically 0.5p to one penny per mono
page, and 5p to 10p colour. I hardly need add that the colour page-cost
compares extremely favourably with the typical pound-per-page of inkjet
photo-printing. In fact, while you could achieve somewhat lower
per-page costs by buying direct, given the need for printer support in
any case, the hire option is a very attractive one.
To summarise:
Try to envisage the
type
and quantity of printout which will be required. This determines the
printer technology to choose.
If printers need to
be shared, check their
networkability. Preferably, use direct
network-connection methods.
Plan the siting
of printers within the building so that users can access them easily.
Before purchasing, Do
a full costing of your printing hardware requirements, and most especially
don't forget to take consumables into account.
Don't allow trivial
gimmicks to sway your purchasing decisions. Look for solid performance,
and good
after-sales support.