Colour in the office has been available for nearly 10 years, both as Inkjet or Laser. Whereas the ‘specialist’ types of laser colour applications previously made laser colour printing solutions cost prohibitive, this market has seen rapid growth as the capabilities and usability features have advanced to allow easier access by casual operators.
The functionality of office colour machines is now on a par with the mono equivalent, the weaker specification being in the area of speed.
Price has also been a factor affecting growth. Now that ‘office’ colour machines offer good quality colour and features there have been significant price changes in capital costs and running costs. The price for mono (black) on a colour device is now at a similar level as mono from a mono machine, and the phrase ‘black to colour’ has been coined to describe the market movement towards colour capable devices that are increasingly replacing mono products.
Why Colour? Why not? – we all use colour, we all prefer colour, we will always respond to colour documents faster and more effectively, an important message for all businesses, and one that many businesses are embracing to their benefit. However, costs should always be front of mind. Surprisingly, Inkjet is a cost that has traditionally managed to slip through the net, with many organisations being unaware of the costs involved. Many articles exist on the very high price of ink and the very low capital costs of the printer, but many businesses are unaware of the volumes being printed and the amount of ink being purchased. This will probably be a surprise and shock to many companies.
Inkjet printing is excellent for one off, occasional print usage. However, the costs rise rapidly when the volumes increase, and the overall slow job productivity does represent a handicap.
Laser and LED technology offer the solution for higher volumes and in situations where job productivity is required. Many machines offer low running costs on higher capital machines, capable of much higher monthly volumes and document finishing capabilities like duplexing, sorting, stapling, hole punching and folding – all at very high speed when compared with inkjet and offering the ability to be shared by multiple user through a network. With this comes control and feedback, with many machines allowing control of access to the product through PIN numbers and count of prints/copies per person. Sharp also offer a secure Network Card that can stop unauthorised usage of the product.
Many Office Colour devices can print in mono at a similar speed to mid volume mono products running between 25-40 pages per minute. However, these types of devices only offer slow colour speeds at around 12 pages per minute. With the introduction of these devices, organisations have started to use colour much more cost-effectively. And in turn, this has prompted the demand for faster colour solutions.
As a result, new generation products have arrived, like those offered by Sharp which offers higher colour speeds – allowing businesses to run colour at a similar level of productivity as their mono machines.”
Market Backdrop
• Colour market has grown rapidly and will continue to grow because technology is now catching up with customer requirements.
• The user demand has been changing over the last few years due to increasing output volumes and recognition of the increasing costs of their current technology. It is easy to understand the importance of colour in the business environment. When colour output has changed the way a report, presentation or bulletin has been perceived by its recipient, the creator will continue to use colour to maintain that increased level of perception.
• With Inkjet, when the volumes increase, so does the print cost, business cost due to slow output speeds and lack of productivity features found on normal office products – duplex, multiple paper sources and stapling being the more obvious.
• Customer demand has pushed for conventional mono office copier and printer products to include colour in its range of features.
• Research from Infotrends/Cap Ventures in Aug 2004 shows us that the most frequently copied colour documents in order are Internet Pages, Presentations, Forms/Letterheads, and Marketing Materials.
• Infotrends/Cap Ventures also say that the “Universal Copier/Printer” will take copy and print volumes from Offset Presses/Digital Production (for convenience), and Workgroup/Personal printers (for productivity, lower running costs and finished output). Interestingly, 60% of respondents say that they will replace their Inkjet machines with “Universal Copier/Printers” (UCP is Cap Venture name for Colour Capable/Colour Centric products), 45% say replace Mono printer, 45% say Mono Copier (multiple responses to multi segments)
• The market has responded in 2 ways. Firstly Colour Capable devices which offer mono office products with slow colour speeds – offering all the mono benefits but designed for low colour volumes. Secondly Colour Centric, which offer all the benefits of Colour Capable products but thanks to Tandem Technology, produce Colour output at high speeds. Colour Centric products were originally at a higher capital cost than Colour Capable products, but the launch of the Sharp MX Series has put this Colour Centric technology on equal terms with Colour Capable – with huge speed and productivity advantages.
• IDC market research forecasting huge decline in Inkjet sales to 2008, 40% down on 2003. Colour MFP sales are forecast to increase by 150% over the same period. Sales of mono products will be slightly impacted, but in general Colour sales are incremental sales in the marketplace
Product Specifics
• MX Series are “3rd generation” machines, strengthening our current product range to appeal to a wider audience.
• Sharp offers the marketplace the MX-2300N at 23 pages per minute Full Colour with 23 ppm Mono to join the range along side the MX-2700N (27ppm Full Colour and 27 ppm Mono) and the MX-3501N at 35ppm Full Colour with 35ppm Mono to join with the MX-4501N (35ppm Full Colour with 45ppm Mono).
High Speed Mono and Colour Copying and Printing from one compact unit
Sharp UK have been providing the Office environment with quality devices for over 30 years, and are pleased to introduce the new MX Series compact multifunctional printers that offers many advantages to the user
Colour Copying and Printing in the office has seen a significant increase, the obvious presentation benefits being the driving force.
The MX-2300N and MX-2700N provide full A3 output and comes standard with a Document Feeder, 40 Gigabyte Hard Disk, Printer Controller, A3 Network Scanning (to distribute colour scanned images to desktop or by e-mail to other parties) and Secure Network Interface Card. The MX-3501N and MX-4501N offer similar functionality but with a Duplex Single Pass Document Feeder for rapid scanning, and an 80GB HDD
Optional additional equipment includes paper trays and the ability to send faxes from A3 or Book originals.
200 User Access Codes (1000 on MX-3501N/4501N) enable you to control costs by restricting usage of Colour, and the Secure Network Interface Card offers you Firewall capabilities at the machine level by restricting access at IP/MAC address level.
With the standard configuration, the MX Series provide a good IT investment for any office, allows you to take the facilities offered to staff and internal support to a new level, to share the capital investment over a controlled network and introduce lower colour and mono running costs to a cost conscious environment.
Important factors to consider
• Cost
The Capital Cost of the equipment must be considered with the ongoing Running Costs, and also with “what can the product do for me”. Consider the labour costs of manually collating your output or manually duplexing versus the Copier/Printer doing all the work. Also consider how long it takes to create a finished job on your older technology.
• Productivity
How fast?
How easy?
Copy/Print Collation?
Therefore Labour Costs?
• Presentation
Internal – is it important to convey the right message accurately and professionally to internal staff? External– is it important to convey the right message accurately and professionally to your prospects and existing customers. Ensure that you are perceived by your customers as providing professional services and quality output.
• Supplier Can supplier offer advise on usage and applications from your purchase to ensure that you maximise your investment effectively, bearing in mind that your market situation can change over the next few years?
Will your supplier ensure that your machine works regularly over the next 3 years or more or is it currently “a here today dotcom thank you very much for your business goodbye” company?
In Business, whatever your business, Colour is already used in onscreen presentation design, spreadsheets and presentations. Much of this work is already printed out, and it is important to identify where it is printed and on what – is it the most cost effective way in terms of running costs or productivity.
Why make life difficult?
We have designed our range of Colour product with ease of use foremost in our minds. We have used an operating system and User Interface similar to that developed over the last 3 years on mono products. End Users must feel comfortable with the products to ensure reductions in frustration and calls to your internal support.
— Posted by Jonathan
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