Answering Your Question About Printers and Supplies

Every business and almost every household has at least one printer and every printer needs toner or ink to print.  Good printers used to be quite expensive.  Some still are but you can purchase a decent printer today for about $100.  If you look hard enough you can find a pretty good printer for free (or $1.00 per year) if you agree to buy toner from the company that gave you the printer.  Many companies, both here and abroad make printers but the market is dominated by brands you know, names like HP, Lexmark and Canon.  All of these companies want you to buy their branded toners and ink, which they say are designed to be used in their printers.  In fact, they have gone to great lengths to convince you that using any other toner in their machines will result in 1 or more of the following:

(1).  Poor quality printing.

(2).  A broker printer.

(3).  Fewer printer pages.

(4).  Toner on your hands and in the inside of the printer.

None of this is true if you buy a reputable compatible cartridge but since supplies is where the money (profit) is, Original Equipment Manufacturers keep trying to convince their customers that their printers and supplies work better as a team.  But, do they?

This is one of the hundreds of questions, I have been asked repeatedly over my almost 30 years in the Imaging Equipment and Supplies Industry.  Imaging equipment is anything that, as the name implies, produces an image of a document or anything else. (We’ll discuss 3D Imaging in a later column.)  Imaging supplies enable the equipment to produce the image.  I work for a company that sells these products but my purpose in writing this blog is to answer the most important questions that will help you make good productive and cost efficient decisions on your printing purchases and utilization; not to sell you anything.

If you have a question on the subject send it to me.  I’ll respond to the ones with the most widespread relevance in my blog and will answer as many others as time allows.  Your comment are also welcome and encouraged.

Until Next Time, Richard Blumberg, The Print Maven

Richard Blumberg has almost 30 years experience as a distributor of Imaging equipment and supplies.  He was an owner of Richard Young Products and American Ribbon and Toner and is currently an officer of American Toner and Ink Corporation

 

American Toner would like to thank the Dell Corp for Acknowledging that the use of re-manufactured toners & inks is Ok and an Environmentally Sound Practice. It’s been a long time coming and frankly we never thought that would ever see the day, where a top OEM Corp would accept and endorse the use of re-manufactured toners or inks , we at American Toner (amertoner.com) report on the constant war and lawsuits between the re-manufactures and the OEMs’. Hopefully this will give some light to the other OEMs’ in this industry like Hp, Canon, Xerox & Lexmark to do the right thing and also endorse the use of remanufactured toners or inks publicly for all of us to see. Save time and Money today, call us

Richard Olin American Toner & Ink Corp.

President

Toll Free 877-373-7692

Direct 954-320-6664

Fax 954-781-4449

web www.amertoner.com

As incredible as it sounds, by managing print requirements effectively, your business can save up to 15% on your total in-house printing costs. Estimates produced by Gartner Group revealed that businesses spend between 1 and 3% of their total yearly revenue merely through document generation.
These 10 keys will help:
1. Use Less Paper Simple techniques like setting printers to print on both sides of the paper automatically (duplex) and requiring users to enter a log in code at the printer result in less paper and ink usage.
2. Decrease Supplies Cost Your office can save costs in many instances by switching from “Brand Name” supplies to high-quality, but lower cost supplies from other manufacturers.
3. Use Managed Print Services A professional managed print services program can customize your document generation and routing processes to allow powerful technologies deliver increased profitability, competitive distinction, enhanced customer service and reduced legal liability.
4. Reign in Wasteful Employees Output tracking technologies can keep a record of which documents are printed and which employee printed them. Your staff will know that your company is monitoring information security, thus creating an environment where employees are hesitant to print unauthorized material. As well as enhancing security, your company will be able to reign in wasteful employees by keeping track of what documents are being printed on which printers- even after hours.
5. Strategically Deploy Your Fleet Would you make your quarterback try to kick a field goal? Your printing environment, as in football strategy, depends on using the most efficient device in the right places. Properly measuring output and cost associated with your current devices will help you put the right piece of equipment in the right department. You could save money on every document your produce.
6. Right Size Your Fleet Developing the right blend of multifunction systems and printers requires understanding the properties of each tool. In many cases, replacing multiple old devices with high-output devices can save money with a higher output.
7. Go Green Energy-Efficient devices cut your energy costs, allowing you to “Save Green” while “Going Green.”
8. Identify Problems BEFORE They Become Emergencies Managed Print Services use Remote Print Monitoring- We’ll know when a machine is low on toner, when supplies should be ordered, and when a device is down. We’ll automatically create your service call and have you up and running in no time.
9. Use a Document Management System Instead of dedicating a large of amount of office space for storage, creating an electronic document library will allow you to instantly find any document you need. You’ll not only save in paper costs, you’ll save employee time and wages.
10. Request your free Document Assessment from QualPath. We’ll help you identify which cost savings techniques can help you immediately.

(Source: amertoner.com)