How Anchorage Businesses Can Avoid Common Mistakes When Ordering Office Printers

Ordering a new office printer in Anchorage, AK, can seem pretty straightforward, but the truth is, many small business owners make critical mistakes that cost them time, money, and team productivity. Whether you’re buying your first office printer as a small business or you’re a large enterprise that’s buying several machines, mistakes in your planning, purchasing, and installation can cause ongoing issues with your print workflow. Keep reading to learn more about the common mistakes that businesses make when buying an office printer.

Not Fully Understanding Your Printing Needs

You wouldn’t buy a piece of production machinery or a company vehicle that doesn’t meet your needs, and yet many businesses buy printers that don’t meet their printing needs simply because they don’t take the time to evaluate those needs before choosing one. Understanding your print volume, for example, shouldn’t just be about how many pages you printed today; it should also consider your anticipated workload and printing needs over the next several years. Overestimating that volume can lead to buying an unnecessarily expensive device, while underestimating can cause early printer failure from overuse.

To fully understand your printing needs, you need to track monthly print volumes in your office, preferably by department; assess whether or not you have specific times of the year when you print more, such as for end-of-quarter reports; and project your future printing needs based on your business’s growth.

As mentioned above, tracking this information by department is preferable because different teams can use printers quite differently. For example, sales might need color flyers and brochures, while HR might print sensitive employee documents, and finance might need rapid printing of invoices. By understanding who is printing what, how often, and where, you can better identify your office's printing needs and find a solution that works for everyone.

Not Choosing the Right Features and Specifications

The first thing you’ll want to consider when buying an office printer is the machine's core technical specifications. Here are a few things you’ll want to look at first:

• Print speed and duty cycle: Offices with high print volume need robust machines that produce a high number of pages per minute (PPM). You’ll also want to find one with a high duty cycle, which is the number of pages the printer can put out each month, to ensure that you’re not straining the machine with excessive print demands.

• Connectivity: Depending on your exact printing needs, ensure your printer supports Ethernet, Wi-Fi, mobile printing, and/or cloud printing. Which ones are necessary for your business will depend on the capabilities that matter most to you.

• Security: The information contained in your printed documents can be a lot more vulnerable than you think. Look for printers with security features like user authentication, encryption, and secure print release to protect sensitive data.
  

If you fail to align these core specifications with your business’s requirements, it’s unlikely that the printer is going to meet your company’s needs, and you’ll end up with inefficiency in your workflow and potential security risks.

Of course, budget is another key factor for many businesses, but it’s important not to buy a printer based solely on price. High-quality features and improved productivity in a printer will always increase the price. Be sure to keep in mind how the higher price tag on a printer is reflected in its cost per page, reliability, and durability. These factors are far more important in the long run and can ultimately reduce your total costs.

Not Planning for Supplies and Other Consumables

When you’re thinking about buying a printer, you should be thinking about the supplies you’ll need to buy for it, too. Printer toner, ink, drums, and maintenance kits can significantly impact operating costs over time. If you fail to factor in the availability of your printer’s consumables and how much those supplies will cost over time, you might be surprised by just how expensive the device will be over its lifetime.

When buying a printer, plan ahead by ensuring the consumables for that make and model are readily available and reasonably priced compared to those for other machines. Look for something that’s had fairly stable pricing over the long run, and options for buying in bulk. You might also want to consider subscription or maintenance plans that automatically refill ink or toner and replace other consumables for you.

Not Ensuring Compatibility

Before you buy any office machine, ensure it’s compatible with the other equipment in your office. Printer drivers and management software need to work with your existing operating systems and print servers. Installing outdated or incorrect drivers can cause printing errors, cancelled print jobs, or issues using more advanced features.

Large businesses with multiple offices should also standardize their equipment across all locations. This can help simplify support, training, and ordering supplies and consumables, reducing your overhead costs through bulk pricing and streamlined workflows.

Not Partnering with Reliable Vendors

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when buying a printer is failing to plan for maintenance and support. Office printers are much more complex than your average at-home printer. They require periodic servicing to avoid downtime and expensive repairs. Often, the company selling the printer to you will offer service packages, but you don’t need to blindly choose them as your service provider.

Take the time to ask about service-level agreements and response times, check for service area coverage and their access to the right parts, and examine their warranty and preventative maintenance options. Compare multiple vendors in these areas, as well as their pricing and reputations, to find one you can rely on to keep your printer running for several years.

If you’re ready to order an office printer in Anchorage, AK, contact Arctic Office Supplies today to learn more about the models we have in stock and to find one that fits your needs.