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There are many considerations when you purchase or lease a new MFP. Some are obvious but many may not be. Here's a simple checklist of things you might take into account.

Are you going to produce mono (black & white) or colour printing?

How many pages per month does your normal workload require the device to produce?

How many of these pages in mono?

How many in colour?

How many people will be supported by the device?

What functions are mandatory for the device to handle? Print. copy, fax, scan.

What type of scanning will you use? Scan to folder. Scan to email. Scan to document management. At what volume?

How long do you expect your device to last?

What business applications will you interface with the device? Are there any special requirements for your software?

Are you looking for the device to provide additional functionality such as holding forms, feeding a workflow, handling secure print?

Do you need to do cost recovery for output from the device?

For billing purposes?

For internal cost control?

Do you require encryption of documents sent to the device?

Will you need to support IP or remote printing?

Will you need to support mobile printing?

What types of paper will you need to print?

What sizes of paper will you need to print, scan?

How many paper sources will you need?

Will you need assistance with setup on your network?

]40 Questions To Ask About Your MFP Purchase Or Lease
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Many of these questions focus too much on the features on a piece of hardware instead of on business issues that need addressed. Here are a few I will add:

-- What issues, if any exist with the current systems and/or service provider?
-- How do these issues effect productivity & business operations?
-- Do you have any idea how much your other output devices cost your organization?
-- How much time does IT spend on printer-related issues?
-- Are there any processes that you wish were more efficient?
-- If you made the decision to contract with your current provider, what led you to choose them?

There are definitely more that I left out, but this is a good start.
Who besides yourself will be involved in the decision?

What will be their involvement?

What is the time-frame of the decision?

If this isn't the first meeting, the first business related question out of my mouth is, "What has changed since the last time we met?" I can't tell you how often my presentation has totally changed direction based on the answer to this question. For instance, why continue to pitch a 60 ppm when they have suddenly decided to go with two 45's instead?

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