“You have to
do your homework. Discover what’s out there and what meets the needs
of your business,” says Fairbrother, who upgraded his office to an
MFD last year after using older printers and fax machines for years.
The device he bought also does copying and scanning, “but someone
else who doesn’t have to make a lot of copies or need to do scanning
is better off spending $150 less for a machine [without one of those
functions],” he says.A good place
to start researching and shopping is on the Internet. All vendors
provide detailed information about their products online. Business
owners also can read reviews of office equipment and get other
feedback at various sites, among them Epinions.com (type “office
supplies”).
Kick
the Tires
After researching on the Web, “you should go out and touch the
equipment,” Fairbrother says. “Go into the stores and see how the
devices work. Even if you end up buying online, you need to look at
the equipment to see if it will fit in your office and whether it’s
compatible with other equipment you have.”
As for buying
online, use caution, he advises. “Make sure you know whom you’re
buying from and understand their services and return policies. The
company may not be around in a few years.” Fairbrother recalls the
time he ordered a software upgrade over the Web that turned out to
be incompatible with his PC. “The company’s response was ‘That’s
tough.’” The same thing can happen with office equipment, he says.
But “as long as you buy from a name-brand supplier, you shouldn’t
have problems.”
Small-business
owners should take a hard look at MFDs before investing, Wohl says.
Multifunction devices can handle a variety of tasks. By linking an
MFD to a PC, for example, a user can scan and print a document or
scan a letter and email it to a customer. A wide range of MFDs are
designed for small businesses, varying from low-end machines at less
than $600 to top-of-the-line devices with digital copiers at $4,000.
The devices
have become popular because they are typically less costly than
buying separate pieces of equipment for copying, faxing, scanning
and printing.
The Downside
You guessed it—there are potential drawbacks. MFDs don’t always
perform various functions as well as standalone devices, Wohl says.
Print quality and versatility—such as the ability to print labels,
for example—may not be as good with an MFD printer as with a
standalone printer. And MFD copiers may lack some of the sorting
capabilities of standalone copiers.
In addition,
individual functions can’t always be upgraded. So if you need a
better printer, you’ll likely need to buy a better standalone
printer or upgrade to a higher-end MFD. Wohl says MFDs are rarely
designed for high-volume work, so owners should be sure to check on
volume thresholds before buying.
Perhaps most
important, if the machine breaks, you lose all the functions at one
time. “When you buy one of these, you’re putting all your eggs in
one basket,” Wohl says. Find out beforehand how quickly you can
expect to get the machine fixed if something goes wrong with it.
Keith Beaucamp,
president of Carolina International Sales Co., a
distributor of chemicals for industrial and manufacturing
applications, recommends buying a service contract from the
equipment manufacturer when upgrading to new equipment. His company
upgraded its two offices in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., with MFDs
after using analog printers, copiers and fax machines, and he’s
pleased with the results.
“It’s a huge
benefit having one piece of equipment instead of all the other
stuff,” Beaucamp says. “We’ve saved office space and have easier
access to the different functions because they’re all in one place.
We’ve been able to get more done because we can do more than one
function at a time from the same device.
