When considering the acquisition, upgrade or replacement of office printers, without doubt, the combined factors of print speed, brand reputation, connectivity to existing equipment and print quality are all part of the decision mix. But budgeting for the total cost of the selected printer in terms of the consumables used – this is the real challenge for buyers.
This is the area where the manufacturers and distributors are battling for the income streams from consumables – inks, toner cartridges, print media, replacement parts and the like. Here the discounts are less obvious, and for good reason. The onus is squarely on the buyer to consider these costs and to ensure they are not buying into an expensive cost of ownership.
But in another scenario, price discounting has also brought the color videojet 1520 printer within reach of the home-office worker, or sole trader company, where the "mantra" factor tempts buyers away from inkjet simply through the belief that laser provides better print quality at faster print speeds.
So, rather than going with the brand and the technology they are used to, and looking for the biggest purchase price discount, what do buyers have to gain by doing their research? The answer, of course, is a great deal.
First off, the mantra from IT departments is often fixed in stone, that videojet 1520 printers should always be specified as the more professional choice for any organization. But for small groups, inkjet provides a perfectly professional print quality and would suit small networked teams, not least because of the quiet operation compared with some extremely noisy laser systems in operation.
On the other hand, in terms of purchase price alone, the cost of entry-level color laser has also made laser very attractive to corporations, so that they can follow the advice of their IT departments, upgrade monochrome laser to color and then absorb the supplies and consumables costs in their departmental stationery budgets.
Here, it is quite possible that low page counts and color content would not justify the higher cost of many videojet printers currently available.
On the other hand again, by looking amongst the best-discounted prices, color videojet 1520 in the Canon range can be found at a very similar price to Hewlett-Packard business inkjet machines, and as we shall see, can offer laser technology at a competitive overall Cost of Printing, when print volumes are below average.