Using the mobile phone or the TV for email, internet access, downloading music or films is a major talking point among makers of consumer communication products and is called convergence.
It is not only in telecommunications that convergence is a hot topic, however. The printer and copier industry also sees opportunities for convergence - that is combining several functions in one piece of equipment such as Multi-Function Printers (MFPs).
As printing technology has become more sophisticated and networkable, and with digital printing quality improving, it is now possible to create documents including their design and layout to be print-ready on a computer then send them electronically direct to a printer/copier to be turned into a hard copy.
Combining printing, copying, faxing, scanning and digital sending using a networked MFP rather than several pieces of stand-alone equipment can improve office efficiency for handling both digital and paper documents. For the home and small business user these multi-function machines can be particularly useful, allowing for fewer pieces of equipment to save on space and cost while enabling the user to produce professional-looking documents in colour or black and white quickly and easily.
There are three main levels of sophistication with MFPs. For the home user there are all-in-ones devices (AIO) which are not usually networked but are small desktop machines and concentrate on printing and scanning, but often with additional features most likely to be important for the home, such as bundled software for organising photos and for photocopying documents.
SOHO - For Home Office/Small Office use - are small freestanding unites or slightly larger desktop units and have all the basic Print, Copy, Scan and Fax functionality but in addition some of the more sophisticated models also having simple document storage and retrieval, and basic authentication functions.
The full MFI units are mid-sized freestanding unit, designed to be used as a central office system. They tend to focus on the printing aspect such as high speed, high quality output, and highly advanced finishing (including book creation with cover insertion and may not have all of the advanced network functionality of some of the smaller machines.
If considering adding a MFI to an existing office set-up it is important to ensure that the software that comes with the unit is compatible with existing software. Different sellers have different licensing models, that range between completely "closed" proprietary systems (which can involve large costs) to open strategies with no direct cost involved. Some of them will be able to supply a software development kit so that users can integrate communication between existing office software and the MFP. Your local supplier of copiers and printers should be able to advise you.
However, with all these machines, effective technical support to deal with problems is more important than it was with the previous generation of stand-alone printers.
Historically, the printer/copier would be sold as part of a computer package at zero profit or even at a discount. However, there was little or no back-up if there were problems with the printer and it usually meant that the owner found themselves dealing with a lengthy and cumbersome process of packaging and returning the machine to the manufacturer to get it fixed.
As one American-based supplier puts it printer maintenance was essentially a "customer care free zone" where there has historically been either no service support or a low cost low response or back to base outsourced maintenance.
For users of an integrated multi-function printer/copier/scanner this is unlikely to be an acceptable situation.
Author Resource:
Convergence is not only the hot topic in consumer communications products, it also applies to printers and copiers. Writer Ali Withers finds out about MFPs, Multi-Function Printers, from Firstcopy, Cambridge, suppliers throughout East Anglia.
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