

You want what is efficient and reliable for your workplace. Churches and nonprofits have different needs as well. What type of business are you in? Printing needs for an advertising firm are far different from an accounting firm.Do you have multiple offices with printing needs?.How often are you printing? Do you need a machine that is able to run constantly throughout the day, or one that is only used a couple times per week?.What is your budget for office equipment?.Do you have any extra fax machines or scanners on the premises? Are they leased, and if so, when are the leases up? Would a lease buy-out be needed?.What kinds of printers, copiers or MFDs do you currently have? Are they all being used? Do you wish they had more or fewer functions? Are they leased, and if so, when do the leases terminate? Would a lease buy-out be needed?.

Do you need to scan to email, OneDrive, Google Drive or another cloud service?.If you need scanning capabilities, what scanning volume do you anticipate? Will scanning be done ad hoc or in bulk?.What add-on accessories will you need? Staple? Hole punch? Security built-in? Booklet folding? Envelopes? Print on special paper? Tri-fold? Integration with applications? More on this further down.How many employees do you have, and how many of them will use the printer or copier?.Do you need a black-and-white-only machine (monochrome) or do you need to print in color, too?.Is print resolution important for your documents?.Based on your number of prints, what speed do you need?.What volume do you print? Think of how many prints you make per month.Do you need your device to copy, print, scan, and/or fax?.Questions About Your Printer/Office Copy Machine/MFD Needs Devices that serve many purposes are often called copiers, or more accurately, multi-function devices (MFDs). Hidden cost savings can be found in offices that have forgotten, overpriced or underused devices.įirst things first: You should identify whether you need a device that only prints (a standard printer), or one that will serve multiple functions such as printing, copying, scanning or faxing. You may think you just need a machine that makes copies quickly, but we’d be doing you a disservice if we didn’t ask for the context of your print environment and assess your needs. It's amazing how many questions you need to consider to help determine what you need. In turn, that salesperson won’t be meeting your needs and could end up with a dissatisfied customer. You may over or underestimate your needs and end up with a copier that doesn’t fit your workplace. What you don’t want is for a sales representative to come into your workplace with questions that you’re unprepared to answer. This guide was assembled to help break down all the “depends on” factors to help you understand what you need and what you can expect that device to cost. The answer to the question, “How much does a copier cost?” depends on what you need. Without knowing precisely what you’re looking for, we can answer by saying somewhere in the ballpark of $500 for a small printer, to $100,000+ for a production machine with all the bells and whistles.
