Copier Pioneer February 2, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers , add a commentThe Canon IRC2380i photocopier has been one of the most successful Canon photocopiers.
Released back in 2008, offering copying, printing, scanning and optional faxing functionality for the needs of small to medium-sized businesses and workgroups, the Canon imageRUNNER C2380i was an immediate success.
With productive printing and copying, high resolution scanning in both colour and black and white and exceptional reliability, the Canon IRC2380i photocopier has been enormously popular in lease deployments, due in large part to its exceptionally low service requirements.
But all great things must come to an end and with the announcement of the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2000 photocopier series spelled the inevitable demise of the Canon IRC2380i copier
Packed with features and impressive environmental credentials the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2020/30 copiers truly define the shape of things to come.
One major improvement just looking at the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2000 photocopier series is the better user interfaces.
There is now a higher resolution touch-screen screen, with a customizable display with large, highly visible icons. A ‘Quick Menu’ button enables simple access to frequently-performed user jobs and personalised workflows.
The new Canon imageRUNNER Advance platform provides seamless integration for Canon applications as well as other major third party applications.
Adobe Reader Extension capabilities and the option of sending compressed PDF files enable documents to be shared and reviewed electronically.
In terms of printing quality, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2000 photocopier series provides pioneering improvements. The oil-free PQ toner system produces vibrant, glossier colour as well as crisp black and white graphics.
Canon’s new Security and Cost-Control Pack (SCCP) on the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2000 photocopier series is able to promote greater cost awareness among employees and provides organisations and their administrators with all the tools to significantly reduce print costs.
Every time that an employee presents him/herself at a copier, total print costs and statistics such as colour usage can be displayed.
Even custom messages to encourage black and white, N-up (more than one page of a document being printed on a single page) and duplexing (automatic double-sided printing) can be displayed when employees login to the copiers.
For administrators, details of all costs are recorded enabling them to pull-up reports showing usage for each user or department.
As far as new security features are concerned, there are some other important changes on the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2000 photocopier series.
As well as controlled access via user ID and secure-print, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopier series offers an optional IPSec Board – which allows data to be transmitted across the network using the IP security protocol, ensuring that network traffic cannot be read by third parties.
As well as hard disk encryption, ‘i’ models in the Canon C2000 copier series provide removable flash drives which can be stored safely in separate locations if that’s required and also data erase options, so peace of mind as far as device security is concerned is absolutely guaranteed.
Being on the Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopier platform, the Canon C2000 copier series can effectively access the functionality of larger Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers, for example, fax and address books, acting as client machines in the client-server relationship.
All Canon copiers have been designed with sustainability in mind.
The Canon Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) system which measures C02 emissions at every stage of the copier production process, has been employed in the development of these devices and unique in the industry, the Canon C2000 copiers, as with other devices in the imageRUNNER Advance photocopier range, have been built using bio-plastic, part plant-derived organic plastics which significantly limits the need for petroleum-derived polymers.
These copiers easily comply with Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) standards and offer the lowest Total Energy Consumption (TEC) ratings in their class, with devices consuming just 1.5 watts in standby mode and are operational in 10 seconds from sleep.
As well as reducing demands in terms of energy consumption, the imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers require less space. Standard photocopier dimensions (that’s without the DADF) are 565*650*791, compared with 565*760*791 on the IRC 2380i photocopier.
The improvements which the Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopier platform has been able to bring to the small-medium sized workgroup/office – better access, better security and better environmental credentials are certainly important
To learn more about this Copier pioneer, please click here
Event Copier January 31, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers, Copier Rental , add a commentOrganisations and small businesses often rent a copier for their events or where temporary extra print and copy capacity is required for a specific project.
These events include trade shows, meetings, conventions, conferences, on-site litigation, and media production
The type and size of the copier is important. Do you need a desktop or a larger copier?
Each has its own set of benefits and disadvantages when you rent a copier.
A desktop copier is smaller and may be the best solution given the space you have available. Desktop copiers are also cheaper and easier to operate. They are not built to handle large amounts of printing or copying.
With full-size copiers, there are no such worries. Full-size copiers are more practical for large printing demands.
You need to consider whether you are printing in black and white or colour. Black and white printing will be less expensive, but you may not have a choice based on what needs to be printed.
There are cases where a quick print is needed so choose a copier that has a higher page per minute (ppm) speed.
When you rent a copier, you need to consider how long you will need the copier during the event. You can rent on daily, weekly or monthly rates.
Out of the three, monthly rates are the most cost-effective, but don’t overpay by selecting the wrong rental term.
It is also important to consider will the event call for thick manuscripts or documents? If so, you will need a built-in stapler.
Printing on both sides of the page will require a special type of printer.
If you need a large format printer (11×17 inches), please check to see if this equipment available to rent.
Check whether the copier can be delivered and picked up on weekends or in a rush situation.
Larger events tend to fall during the weekends to draw in more crowds. It is important to have a copier ready during those times or in cases where additional printers may be needed on the site for a specific project.
Read the terms carefully to see what is included.
Are you provided with copier toner, copier maintenance and replacement of defective parts when you rent a copier?
Know if the copier rental company is able to provide phone and onsite support and what hours they are available.
Settling for the cheapest rental price is not always recommended as companies will need to make up for the reduced prices in one way or another.
It is always important to do the research when you rent a copier so that you choose the most suitable equipment for your event or project.
To learn more about what to consider when renting a copier, please click here
Copier Revolution January 30, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers, Managed Print Services , add a commentTo many people, the terms ‘copier‘ and Multifunction Printer (MFP) are the same.
The equation in terminology, while a useful short-hand, masks a world of difference in technology and functionality.
Over the past decade or so, the Multifunction Printer (MFP) has really been at the leading-edge of imaging technology developments, the bearer of the latest innovations and the most significant technological advancements.
While many today continue to regard copiers and Multifunction Printers (MFPs) as one and the same thing, there should be no confusion that the technology involved has come a very long way, to the extent that very few printer devices today would offer solely conventional copying functionality alone.
Multifunction Printers (MFPs) have been quietly redefining what is possible through what was once a fairly cumbersome, single-function device.
When copiers began to be more widely available, they were huge trundling leviathans of machines, with just the one single function – copying. They were often slow, would usually only handle very limited paper sizes and weights and would struggle with any larger workloads
Canon was the first photocopiers manufacturer to introduce electrostatic colour copiers, launching the first mass-produced colour model in 1973.
The 1970’s and 80’s saw gradual improvements in the productivity and well as the reprographic quality of copiers and accompanying reductions in the actual size of copiers.
It was really in the mid to late nineties that copiers’ technology really began to take-off. As the world was finding its feet with personal computers and the internet, personal computer technology was beginning to filter through to copiers, so that more advanced user interfaces and operating systems could give copiers users access to a greater range of copying and printing options.
For the first time, copiers could be networked to employees’ computers, so that as well as copying at the device itself, employees could send prints jobs to the print servers or to the copiers themselves, effectively doubling the copier’s functionality.
In parallel with these developments were improvements to paper handling, so that copiers could accommodate various paper weights and a variety of paper sizes. And at the close of 2000, copiers also began to include an extended range of finishing options so that the conventional copier could not only print as well as copy but could print a variety of documents, providing stapling, hole-punching and various kinds of folding and finishing options.
Scanning also came to be a more regular feature on copiers, initially just black and white (monochrome) but increasingly, colour scanning has become prevalent among many more high-end copiers.
In the last ten years, the rate of technological change in copier/ multifunction printer (MFP) technology has been astonishing.
With more sophisticated on-board embedded platforms, employees have been given a much greater level of control over printer device output and have been empowered to create dynamic document workflows between employees and printer devices.
With the greater levels of integration between copiers and back-end systems, using Perl Data Language(PDL’s) and MEAP (Multifunctional Embedded Application Platform) connectors for example, and integration with commonly-used desktop software, using WYSIWYG(what you see is what you get) print publishing and previews for example, copiers and Multifunction Printers(MFPs) have effectively broken-down the boundaries between desktop computer and printer.
For example, documents may be previewed on printer devices before they progress further down the document workflow. What is known as Universal Send provides limitless possibilities for documents once they have been scanned in.
It allows employees to distribute documents scanned on the Canon imageRUNNER Multifunction Printers / copiers series to multiple network destinations, including E-mail, Internet Fax Addresses, Mail Boxes, Fax, Network Folders (SMB, FTP) and document management systems, in one simple operation.
It is now possible to scan directly to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP site), to Server Message Block (SMB) or to employees’ email accounts.
Canon’s CloudConnect feature connects Canon Multifunction Printers(MFPs) with leading cloud-based services, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Sharepoint, so that documents may be printed off at an Multifunction Printer(MFP)/copier from a mobile device and conversely scanned in at an Multifunction Printer(MFP)/copier to a mobile device, a technology which further expands the parameters of document workflows.
A major difference between a modern day copier/ Multifunction Printer (MFP) and predecessors is energy consumption.
The latest Canon imageRUNNER Advance copiers today consume up to 65% less energy than their equivalents only ten or fifteen years ago.
Very few modern print devices will not have had to meet some energy consumption standards, be that TEC energy consumption, Energy Star accreditation or Restriction of Hazardous Substances(RoHS)
Some copiers, again taking Canon’s imageRUNNER Advance series as an example, are made using recycled materials and bio plastics, to save on energy consumption and CO2 emissions during manufacturing.
Even though copiers today do so much more by way of performance, they typically cost much less to run, especially now that service access is given increasing consideration in copiers design.
To refer to a modern-day multifunction printer (MFP) as a copier is entirely acceptable. It is after all from the copier which the Multifunction Printer (MFP) originates and for many, though certainly not all, the primary function of a Multifunction Printer (MFP) remains copying.
If anyone thought for a second that what they understood to be a copier ten, fifteen or twenty years ago bears really anything but a notional resemblance with copiers/ Multifunction Printers (MFPs) today they would be mistaken.
Copiers or Multifunction Printers (MFPs), as they’re more often known today, provide a huge wealth of features and functionality, so that for many organisation they have effectively become an organisational hub for all their document management needs.
Providing for a multitude of document output requirements and offering scanning, printing, faxing and i-send functionality (enables emailing directly from the copier), today’s Multifunction Printer (MFP)/copier can make the conventional copier look antique.
For further information about copier leasing, the latest Canon copiers please click here.
Significant Savings on Printing Costs January 26, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers, Managed Print Services , add a commentCanon Europe recently commissioned a report into organisations’ and businesses’ print management activities, discovering that on average they are losing an estimated €17,000 per year, amounting to around €663 billion across Europe, mainly on account of poor or inadequate print management.
In the grip of the worst of the recession, back in August 2008, newspapers widely reported that in a desperate effort to stem the tide of some of these irrecoverable losses associated with poor print management, organisations as prominent as Citigroup Bank were imposing quite draconian rules on their employees’ printing, banning colour copying for internal meetings and removing photocopiers from any locations in which they weren’t seen as absolutely essential.
Without adopting such a strong-arm approach, what should companies more concerned about printing costs in the medium and longer term do to ensure they’re not pouring money down the drain and further contributing to environmental damage?
A print audit provides a unique insight into an organisation’s print operations and can provide an essential basis for advising on how print management could be improved going forward
We offer a free print audit to all new customers. Using the latest version of the industry-leading print audit software, Print Audit 6 and the expertise of our service engineers, we will visit your office and perform an in-depth and precise print audit completely free of charge.
By reconfiguring photocopiers, adjusting printing habits and adopting some other simple solutions – such as an automated client billing system or print user cards, a professional print audit can clear a path to simple ways to reduce printing costs and increase printing productivity.
Many companies are unaware of the significant per page differences in cost between different printing devices and photocopiers.
In some instances, the differences can be as much as 500 per cent.
Improving on this gap does not have to mean scrapping existing printer devices. Quite often, simple adjustments to print management can reduce printing costs in a company by as much as 75 per cent. A print audit provides the crucial first stepping-stone towards those savings.
Print Audit print management provides you with the power to see who is printing the most, which printer devices are being used for which print jobs, what exactly is being printed as well as other important information.
It allows office administrators to spot printing abuses, inefficiencies and printer device misplacement.
Print Audit print management also provides the possibility for recovering some or all of an organisation’s printing costs by automatically billing clients for the documents produced for them.
Print Audit print management also helps save on your own employee printing and to reduce environmental impact: print jobs may be directed to more appropriate/cost-effective photocopiers. It provides the necessary mechanisms to limit colour usage by user, computer printer, number of pages, applications and much, much more.
Print audit print management software can also help reduce paper wastage by ensuring employees use both sides of the paper when appropriate.
Office printing technology is advancing very rapidly. Only a few months ago, Canon and materials manufacturer, Toray’s achieved a breakthrough in producing the largest ever bio-based plastic part used in photocopiers.
Apart from materials science, Canon’s continuous research and development efforts mean fast and productive printing is increasingly becoming much better value.
For instance, Canon’s latest imageRUNNER Advance C9000 Pro photocopiers series, which offers ‘light production’ printing for corporate environments, central reprographics departments (CRD’s) as well as professional print operations achieves a staggering 40% reduction in energy consumption compared with the earlier Canon Laser Copier (CLC) – saving on both running costs and reducing an organisation’s environmental impact.
In Buyers Laboratory Inc’s (BLI) 2010 Outstanding Achievement Awards, the reprographics industry’s leading industry awards, Canon was awarded an unprecedented four Outstanding Achievement Awards, principally for its photocopiers’ peerless energy efficiency standards.
Among them, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C5035, an ideal printer for the medium-sized office environment, truly excelled, offering much lower energy consumption than the market average based on the Buyers Laboratory Inc’s(BLI’s) real-world testing methodology.
When an in depth print audit has been carried out, printer devices have been reconfigured and printing habits improved and it still appears an individual printer device’s performance could be letting a system down, choosing a more productive printer device with better energy efficiency could be the solution.
As well as following advice from industry recognised bodies, such as Buyers Laboratory Inc’s (BLI), Energy Star provides you with the assurance, where it can be provided, that photocopiers and other printer devices with its symbol have been tested against strict and rigorous criteria for energy consumption. At any given time, only 50% of devices within the categories they assess that are on the market should hold Energy Star accreditation. Please look for this accreditation.
With the economic climate as it has been, buying new photocopiers isn’t something many small and medium-sized companies have been able to afford.
However, many companies will be unwilling to pass-off the various cost and efficiency savings that investing in new office technology can bring.
In the past, much longer-term copier leasing agreements with more stringent approval criteria would have meant leasing photocopiers wouldn’t have been a possibility for many in this situation.
Since the beginning of the current recession, we have successfully responded to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses by offering shorter term copier leasing agreements even on the very latest printer devices, which makes copier leasing today a far more viable option.
We recommend copier leasing over upfront purchase, as a means of both minimising an organisation’s sunk costs and controlling cash-flow in the short and medium term.
Copier leasing rather than buying helps businesses plan ahead and spread expenditure in a more manageable way. In addition, copier leasing agreements can give you a simple ‘price per page’ which is paid along with the monthly lease amount and covers all toner, parts, call out costs and repairs – essentially, everything but the paper.
If you explore better print management options with a print audit and/or upgrade to more efficient copiers (with a photocopier leasing agreement, if that’s more cost-effective) you will be able to make significant savings on printing costs.
For more advice on printer management and on print audits, the latest photocopiers and copier leasing options, please click here.
Hidden potential of the humble copier January 24, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers , add a commentSome of the world’s most impressive paintings, novels and films were produced in the most impoverished of circumstances and it is often the case that limited funding gives the writer, the film-maker or the artist much greater artistic integrity.
It seems that for many creative employees in the world of business, struggling to reach consumers with their ever-dwindling marketing budgets, necessity has become the mother of invention.
In recent months, we’ve been hearing how increasing numbers of the office creative employees have discovered the hidden potential of the humble copier.
While for many, copiers long ago became a tired cliché of the office scenery, for those who have been paying closer attention, the growing range of features with which photocopiers are now equipped, have expanded functionality into completely new territories.
Copiers can handle all the copying and printing that can be thrown in their direction and more sophisticated on-board publishing software enables you to create truly eye-catching designs and the extensive array of finishing tools provide format options that would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.
Due to powerful capabilities of the copier, it is becoming the trusted aide of many an in-house marketer/PR (public relations) person. Some organisations have come to seriously re-think their overall promotional strategies.
You can economise on your marketing budgets and use your copier(s) to far more ambitious ends.
With tougher economic times seemingly here to stay, many organisations have had to make certain sacrifices to keep their costs more under control. One area of spending that has suffered disproportionately more than others is advertising and marketing, an expense many companies have come to regard as somehow peripheral to their essential costs.
While marketing and branding agencies have argued recession after recession that economic downturns are often the ideal opportunity to seize valuable market-share, most businesses simply do the obvious thing and slash their marketing budgets.
While organisations should do what they can to maintain existing marketing budgets or even invest in branding/marketing to a greater extent, the fact remains that many organisations, which can’t find sympathy with the banks or simply aren’t bringing in enough revenues to cover all their overheads, have had to sacrifice the prospect of potential new business just to stay afloat.
Advertising doesn’t have to involve the employment of an outside agency or for that matter, vast expense. For many organisations a fresh perspective on their marketing requirements and a radical re-evaluation of the tools at their disposal could make all the difference.
For those working within organisations who lease photocopiers, it may come as some surprise to learn that most of the latest copiers are equipped with various features that could be enormously helpful for the purposes of in-house marketing and public relations (PR).
The latest Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers for example include standards of colour production previously only available on professional production devices, with a new toner, drum and controller delivering crisp, vibrant colour prints.
For one-pagers, such as mail shots or postcards, Canon imageRUNNER Advance copiers are able to provide comparable standards of printing to what would be possible on some litho production printers.
Postcards, in particular, are an increasingly popular way for businesses with limited marketing budgets to reach their potential customers. Depending on the type of business, Business-to-Business (B-to-B) or Business-to-Consumer (B-to-C), they can be mailed, hand-delivered, inserted in magazines or company literature, left in office waiting rooms or with other businesses which share a similar customer base. A memorable postcard is a superb way to reach potential customers and Canon imageRUNNER copiers can provide this format at the highest ever standards and at pretty affordable prices too.
Besides what can be achieved with regular paper/card, today’s photocopiers or multifunction printers (MFP’s), as they are often known, provide a range of other capabilities to enhance any company’s communications powers. With wide media handling and extensive finishing tools as well, modern copiers are able to significantly increase a company’s internal marketing capabilities.
Taking the Canon imageRUNNER Advance copiers as an example, many of the latest copiers provide the ability to create entirely new types of documents. Gone are the days when the addition of staples to a document would excite office administrators.
Today’s copiers, such as those in the Canon imageRUNNER Advance series, offer users the ability to create impactful booklets as well as various other types of folded documents.
For many businesses that would usually have to outsource their quality stationary, promotional materials and brochure printing to third-party printers, this functionality is an enormous help. Particularly when the alternative involves riskily pre-ordering materials in large quantities, booklet/brochure printing using photocopiers, provides the ability for customers to place more conservative initial orders with third-party printers and respond with internal output, depending on requirements/demand.
In times of great economic uncertainty, this level of flexibility provides a much safer approach to company promotional and marketing materials.
C-folding and Z-folding may sound like descriptions of things we would do well to avoid but again these are short-hand for describing some very impressive tools available on modern photocopiers and which provide the potential for more sophisticated in-house marketing capability. For pamphlets, product/service overviews or menus, Z-folding on Canon imageRUNNER photocopiers offers the opportunity to create eye-catching fold-out materials in a wide range of media types. The option of C-fold finishing on Canon imageRUNNER copiers provides another possible format for company marketing materials.
Now that many copiers offer on-board document publishing suites as well, actually putting marketing materials together is much easier as well.
Canon’s iW360 printing/publishing software for instance allows you to combine documents and information from various sources and formats, preview them and also to edit, annotate and add headers or footers. What’s more, this functionality can be accessed via the device’s user interface, so producing professional-looking documents doesn’t have to take a great deal of time.
From the trundling juggernauts of old, modern copiers have evolved to become the ergonomic lynchpins of many offices around the world today. Most users are aware of the added functionality as far as scanning, faxing, printing and network integration are concerned but many don’t necessarily realise just how far media handling tools have come-on as well.
Combined with the more advanced printing technologies, these finishing tools have the power to handle a far greater proportion of an organisation’s promotional and marketing materials than would have been conceivable even ten years ago.
Now it is a straightforward possibility for organisations to use their copiers to print their own business cards, postcards, leaflets, pamphlets, reports, document presentations, catalogues, booklets and much more.
In times of great economic uncertainty where many business’ marketing budgets have been significantly curtailed, the features of modern-day photocopiers provide invaluable flexibility – the flexibility to avoid large bulk printing costs and the flexibility to adapt to conditions on much of an organisation’s marketing materials as the market takes its course.
For organisations whose marketing activities have not previously embraced such formats, today’s copiers provide a great opportunity to migrate towards more cost-effective and manageable in-house methods.
For more information on how copiers could help your company with marketing and promotional needs please click here to contact Office Technology
Giving mobile workers an edge January 20, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers , add a commentIn the last few years a new type of technology has emerged as the chief means by which employees and companies store and distribute their documents.
Cloud-computing is essentially a technology which enables Information Technology infrastructure and services to be accessed over the internet, in ‘real time’.
There is now a range of cloud-based applications and services but for typical employee and company’s document requirements; Google’s Google Docs and Microsoft SharePoint have become the most widely-used services.
These cloud-based services allow employees to store or pull documents from a ‘cloud’ or web-based service, accessible from any web-enabled device.
In a time in which many more employees are now travelling with their jobs or working from a number of locations and a time also of much more advanced computing technology, cloud-based services have effectively broken down the physical boundaries of the office.
These cloud-based services enable important documents to be accessed from anywhere and important information to be made available to employees from-the-cloud as well.
Cloud Connect allows Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers to be connected with leading cloud-based services.
It is software that enables a broad range of Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE office printers to access Google Docs and Microsoft SharePoint Online cloud-based services directly from the multifunction printer (MFP) panel.
The software is available as a free application that allows employees to scan and store paper-based documents directly to the cloud, as well as to print certain documents stored in the cloud to Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE office printers.
What tangible benefits could Cloud Connect possibly bring?
It enables users of Canon imageRUNNER Advance Canon photocopiers to connect directly with leading cloud services from their device interface.
It also means those Canon photocopiers can be accessed from cloud services, so wherever there is a link to the internet, files on either Google Docs or Microsoft SharePoint may be printed off at a CloudConnect-enabled Canon imageRUNNER Advance Canon photocopier/Multifunction printer (MFP).
This improvement in photocopiers’ technology really does give mobile workers an extra edge.
While previously, for someone working from home or travelling with their work, locating and sending important documents to a colleague in the office for example, might have required accessing a Personal Computer to find a file on the hard-drive or plugging in a USB (universal serial bus) card and then (only where there is internet access) sending files by email to the colleague to download and print.
A CloudConnect-enabled Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopier combined with a cloud service, such as Google Docs, enables a mobile worker to effectively “order” documents to be printed out at a chosen photocopier and from any web-enabled device; a conventional Personal Computer/laptop (with an internet connection) or an iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Tablet personal computer.
Looking at this from the angle of someone in an office location with a CloudConnect Canon photocopier available, rather than printing or sending a scanned document to a Personal Computer or a number of locations on a network, CloudConnect gives employees the ability to scan a document to a potentially universally-accessible cloud location, such as Google Docs or Microsoft SharePoint.
This means that documents, rather than being effectively ‘land-locked’ to a specific hard drive or internal intranet, are readily available to whoever is permitted to access them and at any and from any internet-enabled device.
Colleagues, who may be out of the office or in a meeting for example, can access these documents from their mobile device, wherever they happen to be and whenever it suits them.
Photocopiers/Multifunction printers(MFPs) are that crucial point in the office where digital information materializes into paper and conversely where media may be scanned-in and transformed into digital information.
CloudConnect is the way to fully-capitalise on that existing scanning and printing technology by making the photocopier/multifunction printer(MFP) or the information that is scanned into it, through a cloud-based service, universally accessible.
It makes Canon photocopiers far more readily accessible to mobile users than they’ve been in the past and the documents that are scanned into them, immediately and easily available for employees anywhere with a connection to the internet.
The technology will likely have a big impact on the way that Information Technology professionals organise company workflows in which Canon photocopiers are used.
To learn more about how to give your mobile workers an edge, please click here.
Improving your business January 18, 2012
Posted by admin in : Managed Print Services , add a commentOne of the most overlooked areas of waste in an office is printing.
According to IDC, 90% of businesses don’t know how many printers they have or if they are properly using them. Most organisations don’t know what they spend on printing – it’s just a cost of doing business.
So how do you get a handle on things?
First you need to understand what you have and how you use it.
Managed Print Services (MPS) is a system for streamlining costs related to printing and document workflow across your whole business. It helps reduce your suppliers, reduce and make the best use of your printers, and reduce the amount of paper and toner you use. This not only eliminates cost, but gives you the added bonus of making you more eco-friendly.
Managed Print Services (MPS) is not just about reducing costs. It’s also about efficiency and cutting down on waste. There are a few simple steps you can take right off the bat to minimize your office’s printing costs. Make double sided printing the default, eliminate printing of web pages, and forbid colour printing of emails.
The next step is to measure and control printing by user, department and device. This can save you up to 15% of your current printing costs. For a large business this could mean hundreds of thousands of Euros. For a small business, it could be the difference between profitability and being in the red.
Start the year off by taking a close look at how your office is printing.
You will see that you are wasting money with inefficient printing. You’ll probably be surprised at how much paper is being wasted as well. If you take the time to assess your office printing or an engage the help of an Managed Print Services(MPS) expert, that paper bin could be a basket full of cash.
Take time to implement an Managed Print Services(MPS) program and put that money to better use.
To learn more, please click here
Buying your next photocopier January 16, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers, Kyocera Printers , add a commentSo you are getting tired of running down to your local copy shop?
You get in your car and drive down to make a few copies, pay your 10¢(or more!) per copy then drive back to your office only to realise that you still need more copies made. What an inconvenience of time lost running back and forth.
Shopping the local photocopier dealers, you are shocked to learn that a new copier can cost from €2,000 to €25,000. Your next stop is the local office supply or superstore which offer the smaller Personal Copier at about €400 up to about €2,000.
There are four primary considerations when buying a copier;
1) How many copies you will be producing monthly – We can help you work this out, please click here
2) what printing functions do you require
3) space and printer size requirements
4) how soon you will outgrow the copier.
Have you noticed your budget is not in this short list?
Additional considerations include; the reliability of the photocopier, cost per copy, and how many copies the consumable parts yield (i.e. photocopier toner yield, number of pages per toner) and photocopier consumables replacement cost.
There are three basic classes of photocopiers.
The first is the PC (Personal Copier) class that are often sold in office supply and department stores.
The second and generally most preferable grade of machine is the standard Business class office multifunction printer.
Next, there is the Commercial Reprographic Grade printer that is primarily designed for high volume users who produce 50,000 to 100,000 copies monthly.
Most Personal Copier class printers are sold by your local office superstore or can be purchased on the internet. They are designed to produce a maximum of 500 to 1,500 copies monthly.
In buying the Personal Copier class copier; The convenience of a new small Personal Copier class printer may soon be over shadowed by the lack of functions, capacity(low monthly duty cycle i.e. it cannot handle a high volume of printing), high cost per copy, and lack of available on-site service(particularly when you need it, like right now to get that important report in the hands of your very important client or boss!).
Pluses and minuses of the Personal Copier; the pluses are 1) “instant warm-up” that means when you turn the machine on it is ready to make a copy within one minute, 2) operator replaceable drum / copy cartridges, and 3) low purchase price.
Now let’s get to the minuses, 1) relatively slow only 5- 20 copies per minute (CPM), 2) high cost per copy approx. 7¢ for black & white copies, 3) lack of available features(particularly document management) and paper sizes, and 4) lack of on-site service.
In event of any repairs needed, most of these copiers are not on-site serviceable (or only at best next-business-day) and are shipped off to “Repair Depots” resulting in a loss of your copier (possibly for some time) during the repair period.
Personal Copier class printers in general enjoy an excellent record for reliability and customer satisfaction.
* A note about how copy cost / toner yield is figured: Cost per copy / toner yield is figured on a percentage of how much toner is applied to an A4 size copy. If all the toner applied to your A4 size copy is condensed down to a solid block / field it would equal a percentage of the size of the copy. Thus this “toner field” is the quotient in which cost per copy / stated yield is based upon.
In regards to Personal Copier type printers, the “stated yield” or copy cost is generally based upon a 5% field per A4 sized copy. If the stated yield of the Drum Cartridge says 2,000 copies, average yield will be more like 1,200. Reason being, most documents copied run an average of 8%-15% field. And with copying any graphics you can easily be up to a 25% to 50% field. These photocopiers even for low volume users can rapidly become cost prohibitive to operate.
The standard Business class photocopier for most users is the best choice. This is the most common class of photocopier. Features and photocopier size will vary. They can range from a simple desktop model to a large stand alone machine. Business class photocopiers are generally recognized by a low cost per copy and the availability of “Full System” options. Average cost per copy is 1¢ (black and white copies).
Common functions include;
R/E (Reduction and Enlargement) and zoom lens in which the image size can be altered in 1% increases
Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), Document Feeders automatically load the original(s) to be copied onto the copyboard glass. The Document Feeder feeds only a single original at a time. The Auto Document Feeder will feed a stack of 20 to 50 originals automatically to the copy board glass for copying
Reversing Automatic Document Feeder (RADF) has basically the same function as the ADF except it has the ability to handle two sided originals. This feature will recirculate and flip over the originals allowing it to copy the second/back side of the original
Paper Sorter: This collating feature will allow you to make multiple copies of multiple originals, for example the ability to make books and manuscripts. The number of sorter bins/trays vary between 10 to 40, the most common is a 20 bin sorter.
Other functions may include Duplexing (automatic two sided copying), Image Editing, special Book Copying Mode, and multiple colours.
These printers are designed to produce from up to 50,000(and more!) copies monthly. New purchase prices can range from €2,000 to €15,000. These copiers are most often purchased outright or under a lease agreement which provides great flexibility to take advantage of the latest improvements in printing technology.
A Business class photocopier will give you years and hundreds of thousands of copies worth of service. This class of copier truly represents the best overall value.
The commercial grade copier will generally include many of the full system features and produce 50 plus copies per minute. Differences that separate this type of photocopier verses the business class copier are 1) monthly copy volume, 2) lower maintenance (generally required only every 100,000 copies) with service costing no more than business class copiers, and 3) low cost per copy.
The minus to this type of machine is the slightly larger size over business class. New purchase prices can range from €25,000 to €40,000. With low maintenance cost and low cost per copy, multifunction printers like these can become quite attractive.
To find out more about how to buy your next copier, please click here.
Recycling your photocopier and printer toners & cartridges January 10, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers, Managed Print Services , add a commentWhile we use smart phones, tablets and laptop Personal Computers to do our work, we still need to print documents.
Before you print it’s always a good idea to think about ways to minimize your costs. That usually boils down to paper and toner.
One of the easiest ways to reduce your paper use is by printing duplex (i.e. automatic double sided printing).
If your printer automatically removes blank pages, you save more.
What about the toner and ink that’s put on the paper? Toner is a powder used to create the printed text and images on the paper. In its early form it was simply carbon powder – pick up a charcoal briquette and you’ll get an idea of how messy that was.
Later the carbon was mixed with a polymer to improve the quality of the printout. Toner is actually melted and fused to the paper. This creates a somewhat permanent bond. Today toner is sealed in cartridges, but years ago you poured the powder from a plastic bottle into your printer. A bit of a mess!
What happens when you are out of toner and need a new cartridge? Getting rid of empty cartridges takes a toll on the environment.
Millions of inkjet and laser printer cartridges and photocopier toner bottles are used each year and almost 95% of them go into landfills.
Look at some statistics on the environmental impact of printer consumables:
- It takes about a gallon of oil to make a new laser cartridge.
- Almost 8 cartridges are thrown away per second in the United States alone.
- In North America, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in landfills.
- A laser cartridge thrown into a landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose.
- If the world’s discarded cartridges were stacked end-to-end, they would circle the earth over three times in one year.
That doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly and it’s very costly in pure economic terms. Rather than throwing away all those used cartridges, why not recycle them?
Canon has a referral partnership with eReco for the provision of Toner Bottle Recycling in order to support you in your quest to recycle waste.
eReco are able to offer a 100% environment-friendly, cost effective, photocopier toner bottle and laser printer cartridge recycling service, with all of the material being utilised in the manufacture of other products.
eReco is one of a few that will take on board the complete process of toner bottle and cartridge recycling, in particular to provide a “green” result without any component ever ending up in a landfill site.
Within this scheme eReco is able to provide you with detailed asset tracking reports and associated waste transfer paperwork in order for you to comply with current waste duty of care legislation.
eReco operate a 0% landfill disposal policy and their service is 100% auditable. No “downcycling” – the high quality polymer that is produced as part of the process they provide can be re-manufactured a number of times.
Other recycling methods (such as the production of plastic wood) can only be used once, hence eReco provide sustained recycling capability.
Recycling is all about reusing materials. It creates jobs. Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job. Putting that same amount of waste into a landfill creates 6 jobs. Recycling it creates 36 jobs.
Print when you need to, but think about reducing and reusing. To learn more, please click here.
Energy Saving for Photocopiers January 10, 2012
Posted by admin in : Canon Photocopiers , add a commentWith rising energy costs and the increasing need to make business both environmentally friendly as well as efficient, saving energy on your workplace photocopying is a great way to reduce your bills and minimise your environmental impact. Save energy and money while copying without reducing your company’s productivity
Make sure you are fully aware of your printer device’s functionality. Relatively new photocopiers often include scanning, printing as well as faxing and can be internet connected too. Your existing photocopiers may do much more than you think. It will be easy to work out whether you’ll be able to save, once you’re completely au fait with its capabilities.
If your photocopier doesn’t possess all those attributes and you are buying again, it might be more cost effective as well energy efficient for you to opt for a multifunctional printer device. When used correctly, multifunctional printers (MFP’s) can save on the amount of photocopies and prints that you make and will often cost less in terms of both the finances and energy consumption than if you were to run several single function printer devices separately.
Making sure that everyone in the workplace only uses your printers and photocopiers when necessary is very important. Even at first glance around most organisations, you will find far more paper goes to waste than is necessary, often simply because people have formed bad habits. For instance, copies of a document may be made when it could just as easily be scanned in and emailed around to colleagues. Engaging your people to think whenever paper is consumed is essential and can make a substantial difference both in terms of energy and financial costs.
Everybody in the office should make sure to check that all photocopiers are turned off before leaving the office. A number of photocopiers automatically switch into standby mode, so energy can be saved this way even during the working day, potentially reducing your energy bills significantly as well.
Select a photocopier’s duplex function for automatic double sided printing. This should in fact be set to default, which will greatly reduce the amount of paper that is consumed and also lower your office costs.
Always choose a copier/printer that is good enough for the job. For instance, don’t copy or print with a much larger colour/gloss paper MFD (multifunction printer) when a smaller, simpler black and white, matte paper printer would do.
Always examine the photocopier’s graphic display carefully and only press the green button when you’re confident of the result. It is worth familiarising yourself with the machine’s on-board menu before you actually need copies. This way, you’re in no rush to find the function you require or at risk of frantically making unnecessary photocopies.
It may sound simple, but when placing your document in the document handler, ensure it is the correct way up. You’ll always know, as somewhere closely in view, will be a relief image of a typical document, clearly indicating which side should be facing up and which down.
When buying a new photocopier, printer, scanner or multifunction printer (MFP), please be sure to check the new printer’s environmental credentials. Various organisations, such as Energy Star, based in the US, set out very specific and rigorous criteria, to ensure only the most efficient printers bare its logo. At any one time, no more than fifty percent of products in any particular appliance market should have Energy Star accreditation, so you can be confident; both that standards are high and continually rising.
Software packages are available that monitor employees’ print/photocopy usage, so you can determine where in your organisation, resource and energy may be being wasted. Other applications allow you to configure copiers and MFP (multifunction printers) to work in the most efficient way, so printers aren’t misallocated or misused.
One of the best ways for workplaces to limit their environmental impact and save energy is to recycle. Providing simple and convenient waste paper disposal arrangements makes recycling your unwanted waste paper quick and easy. As a general rule, keep large waste paper bins right by your photocopiers – large so they don’t fill up so quickly and close, so the lure of nearby general waste bins is never that strong.
Ensure your organisation disposes of its other printer consumables in the correct way. Most printer cartridge manufacturers will provide instructions for disposal, which will usually involve simple repackaging and labelling to be sent away for recycling. This way the environmental and energy impact of your photocopying is kept to an absolute minimum. To learn more about recycling, please click here.