Find the right Office Photocopier for your Business

Finding the right office photocopier for your business could be compared to being just as important as recruiting the right people. Much like the employees, a photocopier’s main role is to multi-task; taking on a variety of different jobs at any given time.

An office photocopier needs to be efficient, reliable, cost-effective and have an array of skills to call upon, when tackling all manner of day-to-day business functions. Get it wrong and it could cost you time, a lot of money and certainly some unnecessary stress.

There are so many different devices to choose from that you may not always know which the most suited to your business type. So how do you go about finding the right piece of equipment that meets your growing needs?

Review your Requirements

Here at Midshire we understand the need for a piece of office equipment that can do so much more than just print documents. Not only do most workers need the ability to photocopy, fax and scan, but as new technologies have developed, such as touch screens and smart devices, the requirement to access the internet and connect with cloud storage is becoming more and more important.

Choosing the right machine for your needs means employees no longer waste time going to different devices to get what they need. This can increase worker productivity, reduce electricity consumption and therefore reduce your overall business running costs.

You must determine a number of things before you can confidently choose an office photocopier. These include:

• The size of your business – you don’t want to purchase a machine that is not able to cope with the print demands of a growing workforce.

• The volume of copies you will be doing on a monthly / yearly basis – try not to underestimate this, as you may end up with a machine not built for the job. Use your current bills to find out how many copies you produce on average.

• Whether you will be printing in colour or just black and white? If you need a lot of colour some machines are definitely more cost effective than others

• The basic functions you need the printer to do – print, copy, scan, fax. Do you need all functions or just a couple?

• The paper you are going to be printing on – A4 / A3 / A5 / envelopes? Make sure the printer you choose can print on all of the media and paper sizes you need. Remember to check with all departments.

• Do you need additional functionality? Stapling, folding and hole-punching are usually available as optional finishing units.

Even after you’ve answered all of the above, you may still need a bit of help. Midshire has a highly knowledgeable team on hand who can help you choose the right photocopier.

Budgeting for your new office photocopier

When budgeting for a new office photocopier, there are a number of contributing factors that need to be considered.

Firstly, is the obvious cost of the actual equipment. Multifunctional devices are very useful for cutting costs. When you tally the costs of having to buy a fax machine, scanner, printer and a photocopier, it is easy to see that a single multifunctional device requires much less capital. Not only this, but its capabilities are far greater so are therefore more cost-effective than buying several machines separately.

Rather than purchasing a machine outright, it is often more economical to lease. When you lease a photocopier, you spread the cost of the device over a 3 or 5 year period.

Secondly, is the cost of service and supplies. By going down the Managed Print Service route, in a cost-per-copy agreement, service and supplies are included! A Midshire Managed Print Service means we look after your device, including engineer call outs and regular maintenance, so you aren’t hit with unexpected charges when something goes wrong.

Plan for Growth

Is your business growing? If you have plans to grow your work force within the period of your photocopier contract, then it would be worth looking at this when choosing your new photocopier. You may need to consider a device with a higher print speed or even multiple devices to help cope with the added work-load on your office photocopiers.

Consider the environment

Many new devices are more environmentally friendly than past models. If you are mindful about the environment, then you may want to look at the credentials of your new device. The most obvious feature of energy efficient devices is the Energy Star sticker on the front. Other features include sleep mode, duplex printing as standard and short start up times all help reduce the device’s impact on the environment and don’t forget, this also lowers your energy consumption, lowering your energy bills.

Let Midshire help

Once you have considered all the above aspects of choosing a new office photocopier, you should be in a better position to choose the ideal device for your business.

Midshire works with six technology partners to offer the widest selection of office printers; everything from small desktop printers to free-standing photocopiers and wide-format devices. Let Midshire help you make the right decision for your business, contact the team today.