Editorials

Two Organizations Simplify, Centralize and Save with Managed Print Services

By Amber E. Watson

Managed print services (MPS) help organizations of all sizes reduce overall costs, ease the labor of managing a fleet of devices, and provide businesses with a better vision of the printing process, needs, and opportunities for efficiencies going forward.

With a strong sense of an organization’s operational, financial, and technological status, the chief information officer (CIO) typically plays a lead role in deciding what and when to implement MPS or managed document services (MDS).

In the November/December 2013 issue of DPS, we outlined market share leaders providing MPS/MDS services. With this article, we offer a follow-up by presenting real-world examples of the practices in action.

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Ink Myths: Original, Compatible, Re-manufactured and Refilled Cartridges

Printing is an expense that companies can’t avoid. The printer may be a large up-front cost but most printing budgets are spent on ink cartridges and paper. Most printer manufacturers urge you to buy a new name brand ink cartridge for your printer or it may cause problems. After shopping around for your specific ink cartridge you will find places that advertise amazingly cheaper prices for re-manufactured, refilled, and discounted off brank ink cartridges; but what is kind of damage could these products do to your printer and your budget.

Let’s break down your options:

Original - These are the cartridges that are specifically made from your printers’ manufactures for your style of printer. These cartridges are name brand, top quality, and usually the most expensive option. Large name brand printing companies will sell printers at a discounted price and sell the ink at a much larger price. Printer manufacturers can afford to sell you a printer at $45 because they will recover any loss in the cost of ink ranging from $40-$115 per cartridge. These are great for big print jobs but not long time use.

How Lexmark is Helping Companies Print Less, and Growing Its Business in the Process

By Lyndsey Gilpin March 6, 2014

Think about how many times you've started printing a document and realized there was a mistake. You try to cancel it, but pages are already spewing out the printer. Or another common situation: you don't want all those excess pages with photos, ads, and hyperlinks. You leave it in the printer bed. On a good day, someone puts the paper in the recycling bin. The majority of the time, however, the pages are tossed in the trash, only to pile up in a landfill unnecessarily. 
One in six pages of printed paper is never picked up, and in the entire lifetime of a printer, up to 80 percent of the machine's carbon impact comes from the amount of pages printed.

Several years ago, Lexmark saw this enormous discrepancy in the printing industry, and decided to act on it. Customers were getting a lot more conscious about how much they were printing, while Lexmark and other printer companies focused all their marketing around helping businesses print more.

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Proposed NJ Legislation Would Require Printer Packaging to Include Cost per Page

By Lynn Nannariello, Assistant Managing Editor, March 3, 2014

The State of New Jersey is once again proposing legislation that would require manufacturers of inkjet printers to include the average cost per page to print 1,000 impressions on the device’s packaging. The bill, which had been previously introduced but expired without gubernatorial action at the end of the State’s last legislative session, has been reintroduced and approved by the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee; it is now bound for the full Assembly.

Under the law, it would be illegal to sell a printer in New Jersey unless the packaging or a conspicuously placed tag or label attached to the packaging includes the average cost per page for printing 1,000 pages in monochrome and, if applicable, for printing 1,000 pages in color. The cost would be calculated by dividing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for each cartridge by its rated yield. The law would also make it illegal to sell ink cartridges unless the packaging or a tag or label on the packaging displays the ink cartridge yield determined using ISO standards.

Buy or Lease Major Office Equipment?

Companies of all sized face this decision all the time. Large companies may differ from small companies budget wise but both will have to make the decision. What will cost more up front? What will cost more in the long run? What will fit your company and your budget? Can I write this off on my taxes? These are all good questions; here are some things to keep in mind when you need to make large office purchases even if you are just updating your office machines:

  • How much do you print? How much do you print per month? When it comes to copiers, scanners, printers and multifunctioning machines you will need to have a very good idea on the number of pages your company prints per month. Keeping an eye on your printing not only helps you see any misuse of office supplies but also helps you see if you print enough to buy. There is no hard number to say if you print enough for a purchase but a good rule to follow is if you print less then 700 pages a month it may be affordable to just use a medium size desk top machine. If you plan on doing more then 700 a month it would be best for you to lease a machine.

A Cloud Sync Storage Battle: Who is winning your business?

You’ve probably heard all the hype about cloud storage and how it is changing the way we store and share files between all your devices. The new cloud service apps have been at a toe-to-toe race for the best services to win your business and money. What services are winning your business? What new features may you be missing?

Here is a look at the most popular cloud applications that are available on the market and how they compete with each other:

HP Announces Industry-First MFP to Simplify Mobile Print for SMBs

By Marlene Orr, Senior Analyst, Printers/A4 MFPs, February 18, 2014

The office is not static; business environments continually evolve and so do the workers in them. While mobile devices as part of daily workflow is a trend in the office that is here to stay, mobile printing has not historically been easy, presenting challenges for users and IT departments alike. To further meet the needs of business users looking for simplified mobile printing, Hewlett-Packard (HP) today announced the first Mopria-certified print device, the Color LaserJet Pro M476, targeted to SMB customers needing an affordable color MFP with enterprise-level mobile print capabilities.

HP Announces the Industry’s First Mopria-Certified Print Device

What is Mopria? The Mopria Alliance is non-profit membership organization of leading global technology companies with the shared goal of aligning the mobile, software and print industries with a common set of standards that make printing universally compatible from any mobile device to any printer anywhere. (For more news on Mopria, check out the article on Solutions Center.) As the industry’s first Mopria-certified printer, the Color LaserJet Pro M476 series meets the established global standards for delivering simple wireless printing from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, regardless of brand. As such, the series begins shipping to customers in April 2014 with embedded print support for Android-based devices (a Mopria print plug-in Google KitKat/Android 4.4 OS will be available March 2014).

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Behind The Ricoh MIF Transfers: An Interview with Ray Morgan Company

By Jessica Schiffenhaus, Associate Editor, February 18, 2014

In October 2013, Ray Morgan Company, a Canon-only dealer for 33 years and the second-largest independent Canon dealer in the US, acquired select Ricoh commercial accounts in Central and Northern California, as one of several Ricoh direct-channel to dealer MIF (machines in field) transfers. The Ricoh partnership comes only a year after Ray Morgan Company added Samsung as a second line in June 2012. We spoke with Ray Morgan Company’s Executive Vice President and Owner, Chris Scarff, and the Vice President of Ray Morgan Company’s Southern Region, Tito Molfino, about the recent acquisition, and here’s what they had to say:

Why, after having been a single-line dealer for so many years, did you feel it was best for business to carry more lines?

Tito: There are many advantages to being a single-line dealer. However, our decision to partner with Ricoh was based on our belief that we could still rapidly grow our Canon business, while also doing extremely well with Ricoh.

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Making Print Pop – Best Printing Resolutions

You could have the best printer on the market, but if you don’t understand printing resolution you could become very frustrated with your print job. Here is some printing advice and knowledge that will make that next print job a little less stressful.

The size of your digital file is measured in pixels and DPI or Dots Per Inch. Sometimes this measurement is referred to as PPI, or Pixels Per Inch.

A pixel is a small dot inside of a transparent. Think of it as when someone talks to you about the type of display your computer or T.V. screen has. DPI refers to the number of dots (pixels) per inch. Resolution is how much detail an image holds. Higher DPI means great resolution, but this does also means higher image size.

3D Printing Advancements Change The Way We Live

3D printing has made a big splash in many different markets, not just printers. It feels like every day we hear about a new use for 3D printers. Today we can already see the effect of these printers, what will tomorrow bring?

We have gathered a list of impressive advancements in 3D printing you should be aware of:

  • Functioning weapons. We can now print firearms that are ready to use.
  • Printed musical instruments.  From flutes to acoustic guitars, we are making music now
  • Eye catching art. This ranges from beautiful light fixtures to 3D prints of your child’s drawing for keepsakes.
  • 3D printed fashion. We can now print shoes, fabric and jewelry!

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