Hi everyone. I do IT for a small marketing firm (about 35-40 people),
and we are looking to replace an old printer/copier/fax with a new
machine, and I was wondering what machines have worked well for others
recently.
Here's some info about our setup:
-We are on a gigabit internal network
-Microsoft Server 2007 domain architecture
-Three or four smaller printers on the network as well, of assorted
Dell types
-The printer we are replacing is a Kyocera Mita M2030
-We currently go through about 4000 copies a month
-For the machine being replaced, we have a contract with United
Business Machines for parts/labor/supply
What we need in a new machine:
-We'd obviously like to maintain all of our current functionality
-Needs good quality color scanning capability
-Ability to automatically staple/holepunch is a plus
Any suggestions for what machines might be fitting? Also, does anyone
know of other printer service companies in the Seattle area?
My experience of similar came down to a radically different solution to
this problem.
We actually got in te team leaders and had a discussion about what their
printing needs were. It boiled down to this
ADMIN - needed lots of basic copying and basic printing. They got a
physical standalone A4 copier because largely scanning/copying was too
slow. And they got an 'office' classs A4 monochrime printer, because
that fitted THEIR needs, 2 binner (letterheads and plain, plus
envelopes/labels manually)..a workgroup LaserJet fitted that bill. In
addition for a time we had a pre-printed fanfold application running
throiugh a cheap but ruigged dot matrix for bill runs etc.
TECH. Here we needed the ability to OCCASIONALLY churn out REAMS of
program listings and other black and white A4 stuff. Otherwise we didn't
need much at all. One high output single bin A4 laser fitted that.
SALES. The bastards were always writing letters,and quotes, and had zero
patience or discipline. Frankly we almost went to one cheap inkjet per
machine, and indeed some of the more incompetent ended up that way -
they couldn't handle the walk of 5 feet to a workgroup printer. However
mostly we used small low outpout printers one to about every 5 people.
MARKETING. Well of course they have to be different from everybody else.
For a start They could ONLY work n Macintosh kit 'Quark on a PC? Darling
you HAVE to be JOKING, I am NOT working on a PC, I need POSTCRIPT, and
HOW do you expect ME to proof an A4 brochure that will be printed on A2
folded on anything LESS than a 1600dpi 4 color laser printer? And I
CAN'T POSSIBLY survive without an a2 scanner either, how AM I going to
get artistic material into the software without one? My attitude of 'in
which case mate, piss off because I am not convinced that marketing ever
did anything useful anyway' fell on deaf ears..In the end that meant a
BIG ****-off scanner and a big ****-off postcript laser.
In short, the requiremenst for each area were radically different, and
the cost of a suite of smaller machines arranged strategically was
actually less than trying to find ONE machine to do everything and, at
least, if one went wrong it didn't bugger up the whole company.
And they did go wrong. Sales printer. It runs out of paper. Someone
walks over. Their job hasn't appeared, but the printer appears idle.
They go back and try again..and again..
Eventually someone puts new paper in and 27 jobs in triplicate empty the
bin again.
TECH. NM, the local geek, decides that he can't live without the
COMPLETE hard bound copy of every online manual ever made, and at the
press of a button, sets in motion a chain of events that will result in
the destruction of an acre of scandinavian woodland. Well at least its
only the one printer he has commandeered, because he has been fiddling
with the print server anyway, and now the printer is spitting out pages
of raw postscript, two words to a page, instead of the documents he wanted.
Meanwhile Admin, who alone actually show some discipline, because they
live and die by the printed page, have sailed serenely on, churning out
bills and cheques, and threats of litigation, on their dull but
efficient printers, filling them up regularly, and only occasionally
pausing to more that 'that one is running out of ink: Better get a new
cartridge' etc.
In a company of 70 people, one size does not fit all. And a printer that
belongs to everyone belongs to no one, and no one takes responsibility
for it, and likewise its a single point of failure.
FAR better to add one cheap printer per 5 people, and get 14 of the
darned things. Chances are that is a lot less than you will spend on one
printer that fails to serve everyones needs and in any case is probably
only $100 per desktop..what did the PC on everyones desk cost? And the
software?
Nah. Printers are relatively cheap. Get decent hard working ones, and
lots of em.
