Digital Printing-Toner - Cut Sheet (Color)

As we approach 2006, this is an opportune time to assess how well your in-plant is serving its constituencies, and to lay out strategies for helping your enterprise achieve its objectives. By Frank Steenburgh Across the board, the printing industry has experienced tough times over the past several years. This has largely been driven by the impact of the Internet and the availability of an array of alternatives to print as a business communications medium. As would be expected in a period of tumultuous change, the industry continues to experience significant consolidation. In the commercial printing segment alone, according to PIA, the number

Close analysis shows the real cost of your new multifunction device may lie in the toner—especially when the vendor estimates lower toner coverage on a page than you'll actually get. By Kathy Tadlock A recent marketing campaign by a vendor selling cross-over multifunction equipment brings to light some marketing tactics that make fair comparisons among multifunction machines difficult. In a tight and competitive multifunction market, this vendor has taken a different approach that does not bring all costs out in the open. The print vendor quotes a low price of $4,000 for a 45-image-per-minute multifunction printer with duplexing, scanning/copying capabilities and a finisher. The

The in-plant manager must be the one to initiate the process of consolidating copier/RFD contracts. By Carol Brzozowski Renegotiating copier contracts is not a solo project. In-plant managers will quickly find they need the help of the Information Technology (IT) and purchasing departments. But it's important that the in-plant manager spearheads the effort. "IT people may know networking, but beyond that, they typically don't have any interest in this," says Chuck Fahnestock, copy coordinator at Wright State University. "Vending people may be adept at handling coin-operated and public walk-up machines, but they probably don't want to do anything more than contract with somebody

Creating a centralized copier management program will save your organization money while boosting your in-plant's credibility. By Carol Brzozowski Before Kris Davis took over the copier management program at West Virginia University five years ago, six different vendors were providing 80 copiers for departments on the Morgantown campus. Each vendor pushed machines with capabilities departments didn't need, pricing varied between customers and the multiple invoices were an accounting imbroglio. The situation was, quite frankly, not in the school's best interest. So Davis and his team took action. "We consolidated everything we had, when we wrote a new request for proposal, into one vendor with

Before buying any printing device, calculate the total cost of ownership. You may be surprised at what you find. By Dennis Walthers If you are considering the purchase of a new printer, take a few minutes and research the total cost of ownership. The TCO varies by printer technology. While technologies like ink-jet have a low initial cost and are well suited for day-to-day correspondence, they are not intended for the business that needs to print 10,000 color pages per month. Printer technology has changed rapidly in the past 20 years and even more so just in the last 10 years. Affordable color printing

Printing and Mailing Services at the University of St. Thomas recently consolidated its many copier leases into a single competitive-bid deal for 147 multifunction devices. Find out how you can do this too—and save your organization money. By John Barron Things had gotten out of hand at the University of St. Thomas. By the beginning of 2005, we were juggling a series of copier leases with different ending dates and with numerous vendors. Our university was clearly not getting the best deal. To rectify this, I assembled a project team to determine our requirements and select the capabilities we needed. From there

Users of monochrome devices say speed, quality and service are among their chief considerations when looking for equipment. By Gretchen A. Peck While many in-plants cite color printing as an emerging opportunity, black-and-white output is still their bread and butter. Many, if not the majority, of their digital jobs are monochromatic. And since the speed of the printer largely determines how much work the in-plant can produce, this has become a very important criterion; it's typically the first specification a prospective buyer wants to know. At Greenville, Texas-based L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, the in-plant uses an assortment of Konica-Minolta black-and-white systems

The latest color copiers offer higher speeds and resolutions, along with other enticing options, to boost your in-plant's productivity. By Kristen E. Monte In-plants clearly love color copiers. According to In-Plant Graphics' 2004 Market Statistics report, more in-plants (71 percent) use copiers to output color than any other device. This appreciation of color copiers isn't lost on those who sell this equipment. "The in-plant market is very important to the color copier vendor, especially those vendors offering speeds of 30 ppm or greater," says Steve Rhorer, director of product marketing for Toshiba America Business Solutions. "Most of the recent color product introductions offer

Digital color printing is on the rise at in-plants. To help, equipment vendors are making their devices more user-friendly than ever. By Vince De Franco When it comes to digital color printing, in-plants are among the leaders. Some 30 percent of color devices in the 24- to 59-ppm category reside at in-plants, according to an InfoTrends/CAP Ventures research study. Not only that, 20 percent of all production color devices in excess of 60 ppm are at in-plants. This has made suppliers of digital color printing equipment take note. They have responded by making this equipment more user-friendly than ever. Vendors have broadened the choice

How to form a good relationship with your office equipment service technician. By Eric Engel Do you want a technician who will do only what is required? Or do you want who will go the extra mile, doing everything in his power to keep your machine running as well as it can? Technicians may not have complete control over your hourly rate, but most techs have the freedom to turn an extra seven minutes into a full hour—or not. Techs also usually control when they will arrive at a call (and thus whether you will have more or less down time) and sometimes