Office Equipment

What is the most important thing to consider when buying a new printer/copier? 

It actually has nothing to do with the look of the machine, the feel of it or how fast it prints. The answer lies in how much it can safely print per month, or its recommended monthly print volume.  

The recommended monthly print volume of a machine is the essential indicator you need to pay close attention to before buying a new office machine. 

But the question becomes: How do you figure out your current, or estimated, monthly print volume so that you can buy a machine that can rightly accommodate it? 

That question is what we will use our almost 40 years of expertise to answer today because it is perhaps the most significant question to answer before purchasing a printer. 

If you’ve ever looked at a printer/copier online, you’re likely familiar with the term “duty cycle.” 

But what does a machine’s duty cycle mean and why is it important? 

These are the types of questions we will use our almost 40 years of industry expertise as a print vendor to answer today because duty cycle is one of the key indicators you need to pay attention to before purchasing a new office machine.  

If you forego a printer’s monthly duty cycle and just buy whichever machine you can find easily, you may be subjecting yourself to more service issues down the road---something we will cover later on in this blog.  

Before getting into all of that, let’s first begin with the basics: What does duty cycle mean when it comes to printers/copiers? 

How can you tell the differences between two printers? Are there really any? 

Besides the appearance and logo on the machine, there may not be obvious differences between a printer from this brand and a printer from that brand. 

When you dig underneath the surface though, there are quite a few differences worth noting between two different-branded printers---beyond just the cost and basic functions of the machines. 

Knowing the differences between two seemingly similar printer models can ultimately make your purchasing decision for you. But to get to that decision, you need access to the right information.   

As a print vendor for almost 40 years, we’ve gained the knowledge necessary to write thorough model comparisons between Xerox, whose products we sell, and other brands’ machines. 

If you were offered a free membership to a service that would give you a discount on your next printer/copier, would you take it? 

I’m guessing 99.9% of you said “Of course!” to that question. However, since seemingly nothing in life is free, you’re probably wondering: “What’s the catch?” 

While you might believe it’s too good to be true, there is actually a membership offered free of charge (most of the time) that can give you special pricing on your next office machine, as well as other relevant supplies or services to your industry. It’s called cooperative purchasing, and many people don’t know about its benefits. 

The workplace has become more technologically advanced with time, which has increased the efficiency of office technology in automating tasks that would customarily be completed manually.  

But there is a mechanism that print providers use to execute tasks like automatically shipping your toner at the right time or ensuring you have the latest firmware update for your device.  

It involves having your printers online, or in this case, connected to a cloud server from your print provider. 

Putting your office machines on a server so that service and supplies can be conducted remotely is becoming a priority for providers, and that means some of them are now charging fees for not having your printers online. 

What does this mean for you and how can you avoid getting charged a fee for not having your devices online?