How much speed do you need?

One of the most important qualities of a printer/copier is ppm or pages per minute. It's not the only factor, but copy speed is certain to be heavily factored in when deciding on which copier, or multifunction printer (MFP), to lease or buy.

Much like an automobile's horsepower, top printer speed is not always utilized, but it's nice to have it when it's needed. On the other hand, do you really need to lease a Corvette when most of your driving occurs within a radius of 10 miles or less, on city streets?

Is faster always better? Not necessarily. There are a wide array of speeds available in the MFP market, generally ranging from about 25 ppm on the low side to over 65 ppm on the high side. But there are other considerations other than ppm.

1. Cost - You may be wasting money on too much MFP. However, an under-performing, too slow MFP, for your business, can cost even more money in the long run.

2. Quality - Does your business mainly print copies for in-house distribution? Will the majority of your prints be single or two-sided? What do you need most, color or black and white? Do you print booklets? There are just some of the factors to consider when buying or leasing an MFP.

3. Monthly volume - Your workflow may vary from day to day, even week to week. You may need to produce 30,000 copies a month. But are they needed at a steady pace of 3,000 per day, or about 7,500 per week? Or does your business require a huge chunk of that volume, 20,000 for example, during the last week, or even the last day of each month? A lower speed MFP would have no problems with 3,000 copies a day, but it would take a lot longer for the same device to print 20,000 copies than a higher speed MFP.

4. Print environment - The overall mix of devices in your business should be taken into account. Many factors go into deciding on the right devices for your office's document output needs.

So how do you know how much copier speed you really need?

A good place to start is with a free print assessment of your entire print environment. Call Chattanooga Business Machines at 423-855-5222 for your free assessment.