A multifunctional printer’s main purpose for your company is to print, copy, scan, fax, and send but did you know they can also do much more.
Whether you need a multifunctional printer for your at-home office or your company office, there are many features and sizes to best fit your business needs. The first step is to look into the needs of your business to further understand which MFP would benefit your company’s ROI (return on investment) and productivity the most comprehensively.
Functions of a Multifunctional Printer
Key features vary between each company (Canon, Xerox, HP, Kyocera, Sharp, Konica and Toshiba) and the MFP printers they have to offer. So, let’s focus on the universal key features these printers can offer you:
Emailing: MFP offers email features that allow you to scan a document and add it as an attachment to your email within seconds. Another option can be scanning the document and email it directly to your Internet service provider (ISP) or the in-house email server your company has. If this feature caught your attention, another feature some MFP offer is a scanning duplexer, allowing you to scan both sides of a document. Increasing your productivity and time.
Data Security: When continuously giving your printer important documents to scan, fax, print, keep in storage; look into the information technology security the printer is using. Whether that’s McAfee or Cisco, a MFP can be breached and can leave your company in a vulnerable position. Make sure your vendor and brand understand security and they are able to assist your company navigate these capabilities.
Wifi: Wifi connection is evolving often and more efficiently in an office than ever! If you or your employees continuously need to print documents from their smartphone, tablet, or laptop be sure your MFP has wifi connection. Whether the printer offers this feature with a USB, mobile or cloud- connection this feature helps you print documents on the go with app-enabled features. Some MFP have upgraded to tablet-like interfaces, providing a touch screen user interface for easier user accessibility to multiple tools on the printer.
Color vs Black & White: Multi-functional printers are available for both color and simple black/white printing. These features will depend on your office needs. If you feel you won’t need to print any color documents, limit your expenses, and choose the black and white version, or ask your vendor to ‘lockout color and enable for authorized users only”.
Estimate Printer Longevity
After evaluating the needs of your office, small or large, another quality to check is the printing output. Judging the quality of the printer’s output can be important especially when choosing a color. Also, consider the longevity estimation of the brand of printer you choose. Multi-functionals vary on lifespan, you’ll want to take a closer look into the brand and vendor. You may realize this is an important operating expense for your business. Making the right choice could be the difference for many happy years of trouble-free printing, scanning, and copying.
Printing service companies, such as DocuProducts, offer a contract option including low toner notified by your printer through our Imageware cloud service. Your company will want to investigate if this is an option when purchasing your multi-functional printer; possibly saving your company time and money in the long-run.
Good luck and do your research before making this investment.