The Datamax Thinking Blog

If cost is your only consideration when buying a copier, you're probably hurting your business.

How much does a copier cost? Where can I buy a color laser printer? What's the cheaper copier near me? Cost and price often dominate how businesses think about their office equipment – how can I pay the least amount possible?

While being fiscally prudent is always a good idea, focusing on price – and ONLY price – gets businesses into trouble. 

Value is more important.

If you've ever asked yourself why your prints don't match your screen color, then you need to understand color calibration.

If there’s one thing that drives creative-types crazy it’s when their prints don’t match what they see on their screen—especially when they are on a deadline! So why does this happen?

Before we dive in to some solutions, it’s important to understand how color works, specifically in the digital sense. 

Buy one device and save money? Sometimes, but it doesn't always work that way.

Many small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) strive for efficiency by placing their print/copy/scan devices in one, central office location. A location that is easily accessed by employees and with a bevy of paper and supplies at their fingertips. While this may seem like a good idea in theory, it’s worth evaluating whether or not grabbing a print job from the digital copier has become an excuse to take a lap around the office and socialize.

IT changes quickly and becomes outdated – that includes your digital copiers and printers.

Some things get better with age – a good red wine, a vintage car, a great marriage. Other things don't age, they just get old – white wine turns to vinegar, a Ford Escort is always just going to be a Ford Escort, some relationships don't last.

How many digital copiers and/or printers does your office really need? Ask yourself a few of these questions to find out.

Granted, this title is a little silly. It's a bit like the question “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?”

The answer is, of course, the world may never know.

Or, another light bulb joke:

How many copier sales people does it take to screw in a light bulb?

5.

One to hold the light bulb, the other four to turn the ladder.

Most businesses don't know what they don't know when it comes to printing and copying.

Getting the right mix of office equipment is hard for companies. I've been writing recently about the value of assessments and how they help drive good business decisions when it comes to technology selection.

As the year winds down and another is soon to begin, now is a perfect time for thinking about your plans for next year. Do you ever sit down and think about how you could be doing things better, how you could be printing for less?

Only taking the time to plan will get your office in the shape you need it to be to do the best you can for your customers.

Do You Have Any Clue What You Need? Digital Copiers, Document Management, and Managed Networks

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

If you've spent any time on our website, you know we place a high value on assessments – we offer one on just about every page!

If you need to print confidential documents securely, pull printing can be your answer.

How often have you walked past a copier or printer's output tray and cringed to notice a confidential document sitting in plain view there?

When your business deals daily with documents that contain confidential or protected personal information (like law offices and medical professionals who need to be HIPAA compliant), you need a way to keep the documents that you need to print secure. Pull printing (often called follow me printing or secure print release) is one way to ensure that only the right people have access to those documents. 

uniFLOW Online (SaaS) provides the benefits of device authentication, secure follow me printing, secure mobile printing, full cost control with online reporting, and more — right from the cloud.

For many organizations, printing continues to be an enormous cost issue that remains entirely untracked and uncontrolled.  Pretty amazing since managing print output has been such a hot topic for so long.  Well, consider granting us an indulgence (and a bit of your precious time) and give us another try with another approach.

We believe finding a solution that provides practical insight into your print environment is essential. 

Rather than guessing at your document output and printing needs, your managed service partner will identify the right mix of office equipment to meet your ACTUAL printing and output needs.

Managed Print Services in a nutshell:

You pay for a set number of prints and copies per month (and a pre-determined fee for anything over that set number) from equipment managed by your partner.