We don’t need to tell you that when it
comes time to invest
in a decent Photocopier, you need to be making a smart decision. As with
everything in life, decisions are made much easier when they’re based on
knowledge and that’s what you’ll get here. Knowledge of the core features
first, because those are what we consider essentials
for any thriving office environment.
The advanced
Photocopier features are when things take a turn because that’s the part where
the MFP is tailored to suit the needs of your
business. Not the commissions of a sales rep. Jazz things up as much as you like, it still
doesn’t mean you need them.
One of the largest downfalls when buying a Photocopier
is paying for features that make no difference to your bottom line. The bottom
line is all that matters, well asides from an easy to use user interface, because
if your staff can’t use it, it’s worthless.
Here’s some core features that every smart Photocopier
should have. Even the very basics matter so let’s start there.
- A paper size guide
Photocopiers for businesses will print to a
multitude of paper sizes to cope with various administration duties. Even the
most basic of commercial Photocopiers should have a size guide under the lid.
- The tray (or trays)
When looking at the specs of Photocopiers,
don’t mistake the trays for paper cassettes. The trays are there for collecting
the printed documents and they need to be strong enough to support the weight
of the paper they’ll be handling. This is where the design matters because if
the trays are just hanging over the edge with little to support them other than
hinges, the weight of the paper is more likely to damage them. You’ll find the
majority of Photocopiers designed for busy offices use top loading paper trays.
You can see this design in the video for
the Taskalfa
2551ci Photocopier on our Youtube Channel here where the Photocopier uses reverse
document processing.
- Paper cassettes
The cassettes are where the paper is
stored. It’s best to have one suited to the amount of prints your office will
be producing. If you have a high print output, the paper cassette should be
able to store enough paper to cope with the load. Otherwise, your staff will
become frustrated with the amount of times they need to restock the paper. High
capacity is very useful and will save operational downtime.
- Control panel
Most of the newer MFP models use touch screens now
but older models have control panels on them doing the same thing, just with
less functionality. Modern Photocopiers intended for commercial use enhance
productivity by having access to software directly from the touch screen panel.
This is where the choice of paper is selected, whether to print in colour or
not, or if duplex printing is required or to send a PDF copy to a document
storage portal you have in the cloud.
All the settings for the print
output is done on the control panel. The most efficient are the LCD touch
panels as those directly access the software platform powering the Photocopier.
- Toner
Every office needs to be using toner for
print. Otherwise, the costs will be through the roof. There’s no two ways about
it. For colour Photocopiers, there’s four colours of toner you need to change
periodically. Black will need changing the most, but the others; yellow,
magenta, and cyan will need replacing too.
When you’re investing in a colour Photocopier,
the toner yield matters so look in the brochure or ask a sales rep about the
toner yield for any model you’re considering. The higher the toner yield, the
less you need to replace them, which equates to less cost for consumables. Toner
yield can be anything from 8’000 to 12’000 pages. Higher is better!
Advanced Photocopier features to streamline document
management
The above are the core functions you can
expect from any decent Photocopier, but there are further options that could
cut your administration cost and time down even further. Whether you need them
or not, you or your admin manager will be able to determine that. Here’s a list
of some of the most beneficial advanced Photocopier features that could assist your office.
- Document management
All of the major brand name MFPs will have
a variety of software to do just about anything you can imagine to help with
document management. Take
Ricoh for example. Their product page shows they have cloud solutions for
document management, document capture and distribution, print output management
software, and device management software to help manage a fleet of printers
from the one networked computer.
There are many software options to add more
functionality to Photocopiers, but whether they’ll be any good for your office
or not, only you, your tech people, or staff can decide that.
Due to the complex nature of document
management software, we’d advise you contact us for advice on
software solutions.
- Document collation
If you don’t know what this is, formaxprinting.com
has a super easy to see diagram of this in action. Essentially, if you need to
print documents in a specific sequence, you need this feature. Otherwise, the
documents will be printed individually and the users will need to sort the
pages into the sequence, which will be near impossible if the pages aren’t
numbered.
Printing multiples of any document with
more than one page is best done with a Photocopier with a collating function.
It’s just easier for users and will shave time by eliminating the collating of documents
because it’ll be automated and anything a business can automate -usually
reduces operational costs.
- Stapling, hole punch, or binding
This is best used, and usually only
available on Photocopiers with a collating function because unless you’re
printing more than one document, there’s nothing more to staple together. For
this reason, if you are considering a MFP with a collating function, you’ll
want to consider the finish. Staple the pages together, bind them, or use a
hole punch so they can be stored in a ring binder.
- Glossy printing
Anything colour will always look best in a
glossy print. This is handy for sales brochures and marketing materials, but
not for everyday printing as you need glossy paper to print to, and those
sheets are too expensive for everyday use. If you’re considering a Photocopier
with glossy printing, you’ll want a bypass tray to store your more expensive
paper. Furthermore, you may want to lock that feature for pertinent use only.
- Secure print
There are business solutions to secure Photocopiers
from unauthorised printing, helping to reduce the cost. With the ease of
printing over networks, employees will always have the temptation to just print
anything out whenever it suits, including personal documents.
With commercial Photocopiers having the
advantage of multiple users per machine, it’s best to restrict access to
certain more expensive print options, and only allow black copies only across
the organisation. This way, access to colour copy, glossy print or anything
likely to increase your cost, you can restrict user access, or set pin
permissions only. That could require your staff to request permission from IT
to print to glossy paper, or to your company letterheads. Whatever you want to
control, pin access lets you do that.
The Photocopier is only the hardware. The
best functionality comes from the drivers and software installed on the Photocopiers.
Get expert advice on only the best
print solutions tailored to your business needs - contact our team here, or call
us on 020 8901 4700.
