Remote Employees – What Next?

You are divesting your office and allowing some of the employees to work at home.  One of the issues is how to keep them productive with phones, office equipment like copy machines and basic productivity tools like document management.  The more that employees are allowed to work from home, the more that controlling documents is crucial and the more you will want to watch copier spending.

So, your marketing director is going to work on a new document and while they are making some changes to the specials, a sales rep grabs the document and sends it you your prized customer.  With a document management system, this would not happen because as the marketing director had the document checked out, the sales rep would not be able to access the file.  Having a document management system, or electronic content management system is crucial the more you have employees working in remote locations.

On top of this, you have the phones and the data lines to run to the homes.  If you are a larger organization, you may want to consider a solution called hybrid VoIP  — this can make having to pay for a lot of phone lines a lot cheaper.

If you are moving employees all over or letting them work from home and need phones or copiers for them, please give us a call!

Sometimes when we walk into a copier opportunity, we are walking into an unwinnable situation, or I have yet to acquire the skills to win the copier deal.  We see people sign up for terrible copier deals and there are some common elements we see in these bad deals.

The biggest mistake we see people make when buying a copier is rushing to get a quote rather than taking their time to ensure the quote they are getting is for the correct copier to begin with.

We will get a call with a question like, “Can we get a quote for a Kyocera Copystar 3060 with 3 trays, the fax card, the saddle stitch finisher, the extra 512MB of RAM and the scanning feature?”  If I ask how they arrived at this machine, I often get an answer back that “we know this is the machine we want, so can we just get a quote?”   Basically, what this tells me is that I have no real chance to get the business.  Someone has already approached them with a copier deal, it sounds good to them and now they just want to make sure they are not getting screwed.  Fair enough, but hard to get excited about the opportunity for me because they already trust the other copier dealer enough that they are sure they want to go with his/her recommendation.  They just want to make sure that company doesn’t make much money.

Now, if they would go through the extra 10 minutes of my questions, they may find out that they don’t need tabloid copy capability, or that this is simply too much machine for them, or they may discover this is indeed the best copier for their needs.  It is hard for me to help when these situations come up and as much as I want to sell them their next copier in Denver, I am still not too excited to even quote as my experience has taught me they will just use my quote to lower my competitors pricing.  Rarely will I get a fair chance.  In these situations, I simply shoot a quick E mail with some prices as I don’t want to get too involved in a quote I cannot win.

The second most common copier buying mistake in Denver that I see is getting a color copier when color is totally not needed.

This is a common issue when a competitor offers a free upgrade to color.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to print in color if needed?  Of course it would be, but these companies are generally banking on the fact companies that have color and don’t manage it strictly tend to print way more in color than they would like to.

The final most common mistake I see is getting too hung up on one train of thought.

Some common ones out there are just looking at the speed per minute (and not paying attention to warm up times), deciding on stapling when only used once a year, wanting a specific brand like Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Xerox or Toshiba and nothing else, or resolution of a color copier (and not image quality).  All of these are indeed an important consideration, but when they become the ONLY buying factor, they can add thousands of dollars to the ultimate bill.  We recommend taking all the facts about the copier you intend to purchase and then when all these facts are weighed, rewarding the Denver business that gave you the most appealing offer.

If you would like a copier quote here in Denver, please give us a call today!

Do You Understand the Relationship Between Cost and Coverage?

Color coverage seems to be a concept many people in Denver struggle grasping.  I thought I would quickly describe what color coverage is and how it affects your bottom line.  Let’s look at a specific example and show you how this one factor can vary dramatically.  If you owned a HP Laserjet 4700DN and you were printing standard business color (20% — broken down as 5% of the page is covered with Cyan, 5% with Magenta, 5% with Yellow and 5% with Black) then you are going to pay about $.10 per print.  If you did this with 3,000 pages per month and did this for 5 years, you’d spend about $18,000 over 5 years.  Each percent you are off one way or the other is going to be about $900! 

If you figured everything at 20% and it was actually 22% (very insignificant difference) your budget will be off by $1,800 when you are done with the 5 years.  If, conversely it is only 18%, you’ll be $1,800 better.

So, when you are thinking about doing color, you will want to understand the concept of color coverage.  Give us a call if you would like your files analyzed by a color specialist and we can tell you exactly how much your color is costing you in Denver!

What to do when your copier rep is laid off...

Your copier rep in Denver has just been laid off or they are quitting for greener pastures elsewhere.  This is always a frustrating time because in general people don’t like copier reps really well so when you find a good one, it really stinks to lose them.  If your copier rep in Denver has been laid off or has quit, there are a few things you need to do before it is too late!

First of all, in any business relationship, there are always unspoken modes of operation.  Maybe your copier rep knows you won’t pay for shipping, so they take care of this detail for you.  Maybe you need to have everything in a formal PO, maybe you overpaid on something, so they have been giving you cheaper toner.  Whatever arrangements you have made, it is wise to get these into writing (It is wise to do even if they are not quitting!).

I know it feels awkward to ask your rep to send an E mail outlining these procedures.  If you don’t it is unlikely the copier company will honor these special arrangements.  You will get frustrated and probably find a new copier company “because they don’t do things right.”

If you are looking for a new copier company in Denver, please give us a call.  We will do everything we can to give you a good copier buying experience!

Our Favorite Lexmark Product!

When you sell as many brands of printers and copiers as we do, it gets a bit overwhelming at times trying to keep up on all of the options.  As of today, we sell HP Copiers, Kyocera Copiers, Copystar Copiers (same as Kyocera), Ricoh Copiers, Lexmark Copiers, Okidata Copiers, Xerox Copiers and a few other copiers here and there.  It gets overwhelming because of the sheer volume of devices out there.  If we look at Lexmark, for instance, here is what is in their product line along with a little summary of some of the devices…

Lexmark Black and White Printers:

Lexmark E120 -Small office or personal use only

Lexmark E260/E360 – Still for small office use.  Maybe 2 reams a month or so of paper.

Lexmark E460 — Still small office, up to about 2,500 sheets of paper a month.

Lexmark T65o Series, This series contains the Lexmark T650, the Lexmark T652, and the Lexmark T654 printers.  These are god high volume black and white printers which we would feel comfortable having up to 15,000 pages a month printed on.

Lexmark Color Printers:  There are a bunch more printers in this lineup!

Lexmark C540 Series, includes the C540, the C543 and the C544 printers.  These are solid low use devices.  These get expensive if you do a lot of color printing so that’s not recommended.

Lexmark C734, Lexmark C736, and Lexmark C780 and Lexmark C782 are excellent color printers for a mid sized office.  They compete well with the HP Laserjet 4700 series. The cost per print is reasonable, but not the best in the market.

Lexmark C935 color printer.  This used to be a Xerox printer as you will find it looks very similar to the Xerox Phaser 7760 or the Xerox Phaser 7750.

Now these are just the laser printers of one brand.  When you multiply this by 7, you might be able to see how this can get confusing.  This is why we built our free printer comparison tool (to the right of the page…) 

Please give us a call if you need a printer or copier in the Denver area.

The Problem of Document Management in Denver

Document Management in Denver is a strange term.  For some people it means managing a document in production, while others mean a filing system.  “Document Management” is a term much like “Economic Stimulus” — It is a phrase everyone uses, but no one really knows what it means.  So, here is a tip for those wanting to deal with Document Management here in Denver.

• Understand if your needs are in the production of documents or in the management of documents
• Understand the steps you currently employ to “manage documents” and document workflow.
• Don’t buy everything.  See what needs are the most pressing and deal with those first

Copier reps all over Denver are being taught to sell on the basis of Document Management, so you will undoubtedly be getting some strange advice as you are searching for your copier, so just make sure you understand what is being proposed by these vendors before you buy.

If you need any help, please give us a call and we would be happy to work with you on any copier or copier related item in Denver.

Is Your Copier Company Making You Angry?

I was thinking through some of the most common complaints that I hear when a company is switching their copier providers.  What is it that would lead you, to this site in your quest for a copier rather than your current provider?  Here are the most common reasons I have found:

1. Overcharging or continual upcharging.  The company started as a good deal, but has gradually become a bad deal.
2. POOR COPIER SERVICE — This is probably the biggest one.  If you spending thousands on a copier, you (rightfully) expect it to work
3. New rep/bad rep — This is a common one as well and can lead people to looking around for a new company.
4. Overselling or underdelivering.
5. Too many service calls on the same device.

These are the most common reasons people call us when they are fed up with their current provider.  As a copier rep, I can definately say there have been some unfortunate times where my own company has been guilty of #4 or #5.  This is the value of losing a customer.  It has forced us to analyze and assess what we can do to keep our customers happy.  If no one ever left, we may not have ever learned.  I am sure our competitiors feel the same way.  If you are unhappy with your current copier provider, we’d love to have the chance to quote on your next copier in Denver.

Copier for Sale in Denver

So, it seems these small letter/legal copiers keep getting better and better!  We have the Lexmark X466 in our office and it has been surprisingly robust and efficient.  Here is a 4 in 1 unit for lower volumes (2,000 a month or less) that costs between $1,000 and $1,500.  What features do you get?

Duplex print

Duplex Scan

40 Pages per Minute

Color Touch Screen Interface

Print, Copy, Scan and Fax

Scan to E-mail

This device would work for about 1/4 of the small offices in Denver.  However, there are sales reps paid good money to make sure you spend $6,000 or $8,000 to do things the way you always did them…  Schedule an appointment with us to see this little copier crank out the paper and scan to folders easier than that $8,000 copier you have now does!  This is NOT for high volume applications.  (Over 3,000 pages per month!)  Call us for any copier needs in Denver!

Xerox WorkCentre 7328

There is a process which has become more and more extinct.  I have heard the “old time copier sales guys” talking about when they used to drag a copier into an account and leave it there to be tested before they even qualified the account.  They’d load up a truck and start going door to door until someone would give their copier a try.  Personally, I am quite glad that practice has more or less died.  An important question is, “What killed it?”

There are a number of factors which would make this a bad way to sell (and more importantly for you purchase) a copier.  Here are a few of the main reasons you wouldn’t catch me trying that method.

1)  Copiers are networked and include scanning.  Ech network is different, so these can take a few houts to hook up the right way.  Who’s going to pay the install if there is not a sale?

2) Copiers come in a myriad of options…  Letter/Legal only, Tabloid capable, and the color versions of the same.  Plus there are volume considerations, etc…  you’d probably have to carry 6 – 8 copiers at a time trying that method.

3) Drop ins seem unprofessional.  Most companies prefer to have a phone conversation before they have a physical demo.  This helps to get rid of potential supplies who have little to offer.

4) Color copiers are more sensitive than B&W copiers and color is where the money is.  So, moving the fragile equipment that you want to sell is a bad idea because it will end up being a terrible demo

5) There needs to be an agreement between facilities and IT as far as whose responsibility it is to purchase the copier and whose budget it will be taken from.

There are more reasons, but these are a start.  I would shy away from the rep who wants to bring a machine by without really taking some time to try and understand your needs.