Best Multifunction Printer

Overview:

How to Choose the Best Multifunction Printer for your Business

Midshire has a team of print experts who are on hand to help guide you through our large range of multifunction printers. But before you get in touch with a dealer, it’s good to do your own homework and see what you think the best multifunction printer is for your business.

There is a huge number of features that may help you choose the best multifunction printer for your business, before making the decision you will probably want to consider the following:

Speed

Generally defined by the number of pages printed per minute (ppm), deciding the speed of the MFP you need is a good place to start when choosing the best multifunction printer for your business. Typically, most businesses chose MFPs that print between 25 and 50ppm for A4. If you have just a couple of people using the device you would look for around the 25ppm mark, whereas busy offices may need 50ppm or a couple of 30-40ppm devices to manage busy work loads. Machines that have higher print speeds are more appropriate to businesses that have huge print requirements, and have specific departments for printing.

Paper Capacity

It can be time consuming and incredibly frustrating if you have to continually add paper to your multifunction printer. If you find that you are going through paper quickly, it is a good idea to add additional paper trays to your device. Additionally, paper trays can hold different media, so if you have the need for A4 and A3 paper, you could have two separate trays for those, additional paper trays could be used for letter headed paper, or paper of different thicknesses, so you don’t have to empty the entire tray, every time you want to print on a special paper.

Finishing Tools

Many businesses add additional finishing tools to their multifunction printer, which removes the need for users to finish documents by hand. These can include: staplers, hole-punches and booklet makers. These built in tools can make a huge contribution to office workflows and save your employees lots of time, so they are definitely worth considering when looking for the best multifunction printer for your business.

Print Quality

Print quality plays an important role in choosing the best multifunction printer for a business. If you are just printing invoices or word documents, then you could probably opt for a device that offers resolution of up-to 1200dpi. However, if you are printing marketing materials such as brochures and posters, or business documents that require a certain level of quality, then less than 2,400dpi would not be appropriate.

Usability

Ensuring your staff can easily use the new equipment is essential when choosing your next multifunction printer. The majority of manufacturers are opting for latest touch screen technology that mirrors tablets when designing their user interface, which more and more people are getting used to using. It is important that all staff are offered training on the device so they can familiarise themselves with its functions. Midshire provides comprehensive training on all multifunction printers, from the smallest desktop MFP right up to large digital presses, so you can be sure that everyone will be able to use the device to its full capability.

Security

Many companies are completely unaware that their office multifunction device has a hard-drive that stores an image of every print, scan and copy made. Some high end photocopiers and MFPs are able to offer enhanced security functions and encryption, protecting the data from getting into the wrong hands. Obviously if you are a company that is dealing with lots of confidential information, the best multifunction device for you would be one that offers the highest security functions, with data encryption as standard.

Price

As you can see from the above variations, printers can vary in price massively, from just a few hundred pounds right up to tens of thousands of pounds. Therefore, you need to match your requirements with your budget. This can be a balancing act between functionality, features and specification and matching this with your budget. The cost of funding new equipment can be aided through photocopier leasing, an easy way to spread payments and making it more affordable.

Purchase or Lease the Best Multifunction Printer

Most companies chose to spread the cost of their multifunction printers over 3 to 5 years by putting their device on an equipment lease. By spreading the capital, you will find you may be able to afford a printer that is of higher specification than you initially considered. There are also tax relief benefits available when choosing the lease option.