Printing Requirements
I need a solution for printing requirements in a networked computing environment. A handful of employees require their own printers because they print confidential reports and letters, and every employee needs access to fast, high-quality text printing. They will be using Laser printers because they work great for business text and graphics. The accounting department uses some multipart forms to print invoices and purchase orders. What do you recommend for each of these printing needs? What configurations should I consider for specific departments and for general printing needs?
Analyze your printing and supply costs and look into 1 or 2 bigger workgroup multifunction machines. You may be able to save your company money in the long run. We have 21 Xerox Workcentre machines and they work great. Confidential prints can be handled by using the secure print feature. The accounting department should get a dedicated printer for invoices, checks , etc.
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Your suggestions for Printers was very helpful. I currently do not know how much is being printed at present, I still need to run the numbers.
Thanks for the feedback. I'd run a trial on one of the various solutions. There are few out there, but you could try Pcounter, PrintAudit or Papercut - most have trials but these are often the easier to set up initially.
It's important to get the colour vs mono statistics as these may effect the decision on devices.
It's important to get the colour vs mono statistics as these may effect the decision on devices.
If you do pursue a lease on several machines, make sure to get competitive quotes from Ricoh, Xerox, etc and use one quote to get the other to drop their prices. If you are in the MIdwest, prices for black prints should be around $.0059 and color around $.06. If you look for features like hole punches etc, you can save money by only putting hole punching ability on one machine... assuming you do not use that feature a lot.
Those prices seem in keeping with general prices I hear about in the UK.
Definitely only get stapling/hole punchers where needed - if a user selects hole punching but releases it on a device where there isn't one the job will still print but not be punched.
Put signs on the devices which have the extra features, easy to see labels work well :-)
Definitely only get stapling/hole punchers where needed - if a user selects hole punching but releases it on a device where there isn't one the job will still print but not be punched.
Put signs on the devices which have the extra features, easy to see labels work well :-)
I should clarify, when I say Midwest, I am referring to MIdwest USA (Ohio, Indiana etc) Sorry for the confusion :-)
The departmental printers should either be a copier/printer or a high performance laser. The local printers can be small lasers. Finally, to print on your multi-part stationery you require a dot-matrix printer.
For the lasers & copiers, look at Xerox and HP. For the small printers, the same brands again and also at Samsung. For dot-matrix printers, try Epson or Oki.
If you can give some more detailed specs (i.e. speed, colour/mono, number of trays, duplexing, paper size) we may be able to offer more specific suggestions.