Copiers can provide your business with a number of benefits, whether you regard getting one as a required upgrade from desktop multifunction devices or as a significant investment that should go along with a certain level of ongoing success. But that coin has two sides, bringing with it both advantages and disadvantages. Depending on how you see the decision to integrate a copier’s capability into your workflow, one side may remain in the forefront.
Convenience & Flexibility
Instead of taking materials to a copy shop, bringing them back to your office, and then incorporating them into a project or mailing, you may keep your duplication procedures in-house by owning or leasing a copier. With today’s versatile, modular technology, you may choose the characteristics you want in a machine and even add on additional features through an upgrade after you’ve already bought it. You might be able to reduce the quantity of equipment your office requires by taking advantage of the functions your copier offers, as many copiers also operate as networked printers and can scan or email documents. Copiers often outperform lightweight multifunction devices in terms of resolution, output quality, and speed, accelerating and improving your job.
Space
The footprint of a copier increases in proportion to its flexibility. A larger housing is required to accommodate all of the machine’s working components due to the inclusion of several features and paper drawers. A networked copier could require the same amount of floor area as a full-sized desk. You may also need to isolate the machine in a room where you can implement temperature control, depending on how well your office maintains a consistent, low humidity level. This will present the right working atmosphere for hardware and paper, neither of which operate best in moist settings.
Costs
Copiers use heat activation to embed the toner into the paper’s surface. Any equipment or appliance that produces heat, either directly or indirectly as a result of its functioning, needs a sizable quantity of electricity to operate. To avoid the copier’s “appetite” for power from impairing the functionality of computers and other office equipment, you might need to install a separate circuit for it, separate from the current supplied to them. Copiers also require supplies, such as toner and other consumables as well as paper by the case, which might result in a high fixed cost to your monthly budget.
Privacy
Copier security breaches can still occur even if you are successful in building an enclosed or otherwise distinct space where you can copy private papers without revealing their information to inquisitive eyes. A lot of these devices, particularly those made for high-volume network operations, have built-in hard drives that save project information for delayed or multiple copies of output, keep scanned material for emailing, or keep archived projects so they may be rerun whenever needed. In order to prevent someone who buys the machine as used equipment from learning personally identifying information or trade secrets, you must remove all of the data from the hard drive when you decommission one of these machines.
