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Your Church, September/October 2002
Tomorrow's Office … Today
How productivity and quality can become the standard of any church office.
By Katherine Crosett
Q: Our trusted church copier has finally given up the ghost after years of faithful service. Several on the deacons board have asked that we look into the possibilities of moving to a digital copier. That sounds 21st century enough; but what exactly are the benefits of "going digital?"
A: For starters, analog copiers are yesterday's technology. Or as Ricoh's Russell Marchetta told me: "Major manufacturers are not introducing new analog copiers. It's all digital!"
What exactly do digital copiers do? Actually, they do many things, but primarily they scan your original, convert the information into electronic data, and then make copies. And because digital copiers have memory and can connect to your computer, you never need to leave your desk to do your copying work. Just create a document using word-processing, click "Print," and a networked copier will print the entire document. Moreover, using a properly configured digital copier, you can even fax copies of important documents to a board member who's out of town.
As with traditional analog copiers, before making a final purchase you'll want to compare features like first-copy speed, double-sided copying, and copy control. But along with features you're accustomed to, digital copiers offer some entirely new possibilities.
One unique feature is called "Scan Once, Print Many" (SOPM). Here, the copier scans all of a document's pages into memory. After you scan your document, collect your originals, and select the number of copies you need, you can walk away. From memory, the copier prints the job.
Analog copiers often have a bin that accepts sorted output. When your need exceeds the number of bin slots, you run the job again. Digital copiers often come equipped with electronic sorting capability, so lack of bin slots will never be a problem again.
The editing features of some digital copiers allow you to reduce the image size of your page in order to combine many originals onto one sheet, thus reducing your storage needs for filing.
Finally, one of the most important features of a digital copier is its ability to print in high-quality color. Remember the color wheel you learned about in elementary school? Copiers work on the same principles. Using combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—and the digital laser printing process—you can print any color. All to say, digital copier technology makes in-house copying affordable and easy.
Help me understand the difference between digital copiers and digital duplicators.
Similar to digital copiers, digital duplicators scan a document and convert the information to digital data. However, that's where the similarities end. Duplicators have a special processor that converts data into a master—a sort of template for printing—that is placed onto a cylinder. The revolving cylinder then prints the master image onto each sheet of paper fed into the duplicator. These machines can operate as a stand-alone or via your PC or network.
The main advantages of a duplicator are its speed and its cost effectiveness as the quantity of a print job increases. (Thus a high-speed digital duplicator is your best option for large print jobs. The more copies you make, the less expensive each job becomes. In fact, reports indicate that a digital duplicator can pay for itself within one year of purchase.) And, depending on the duplicator model chosen, you can even create masters from hard-to-handle originals like books or maps.
Are service contracts for machines worth the additional expense?
It all depends. Manufacturers take great pride in their products; and exceptional product quality may indeed make such "insurance" unnecessary. Moreover, most office equipment comes with at least a 90-day warranty—or the promise to repair or replace equipment at no charge during its initial—and critical—period of use.
Still, there's no way to avoid the question of what happens if problems arise post-warranty.
If your church should find itself with serious equipment problems once a warranty expires, you'll either have to pay the labor and material costs required to fix the problem(s) or those same costs can be covered under a service contract agreement. In either case, your church will be paying more than the initial purchase price.
When considering a service contract, be sure to ask at least these two questions:
First, What kind of mechanical problems is our new equipment likely to experience in the next year? A reputable dealer will tell you what to expect. For example, an envelope imager may require board replacement once in five years. If that is the only problem your imager is likely to develop, a service contract may not be cost effective (or good stewardship!). However, equipment with more moving parts typically requires more frequent service, making a service contract more economical.
Second, given your intended use of the product, what is its life expectancy? When weighing service contract pros and cons, the answer to this question is strategic. Life expectancy is based on use and maintenance practices. For instance, if you use your copier at higher levels than the manufacturer recommends, maintenance bills are likely to pile up quickly and a service contract may be a wise investment. However, if you use it sparingly and treat it to regular cleanings, you usually can postpone maintenance costs.
To sum it all up, service contracts do add to equipment costs, but they can offer peace of mind. And that's hard to put a price on.
Katherine Crosett (kcrosett@hotmail.com) is a technical writer living in New Albany, Ohio.
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Your Church magazine.
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September/October 2002, Vol. 48, No. 5, Page 95
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