The Digital Copier Revolution

Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi is executive vice president of HP’s Imaging and Personal Systems Group. The International Imaging Industry Association (I3A), the leading global association for the imaging industry, recently honored VJ with its 2005 Leadership Award. The award recognizes individuals in the international imaging community who have exhibited the exemplary qualities and innovative vision of a leader.

There’s a digital revolution taking place in business today: Nearly everything you do throughout the workday is shifting from a labor-intensive, physical and analog process to an automated, digital, mobile and virtual process. This is especially true in imaging and printing, where digital copiers are resetting the traditional copier market – a market that was long overdue for transformation.

In fact, little has changed since photocopiers were introduced in the 1960s. They may copy more, faster and better, but the paper-based processes they support still clog the workflow pipeline. Workers still stand in line at large, centralized copiers that are just too expensive to distribute around the office and closer to workers. And expensive copier contracts still drive up costs at a time when you need more results for less money.

Low-cost, high-performance, multi-function products (MFPs) are changing all that, making the traditional copier model overpriced and obsolete. These new, networkable digital devices with copy capabilities not only rival the speed of high-end copiers, they eliminate the dead-end paper trail with digital files that can be integrated into the electronic workflow and sent virtually anywhere – for improved productivity and cost control.

Complex and Costly Contracts. Copiers are usually leased as part of a complex and costly “one-size-fits-all” contract, with an equally costly service contract. You pay for a monthly page volume, whether you reach it or not. To avoid premiums for going over that amount, many businesses set the monthly volume at peak usage, so many months they are paying for pages they never use.

Poor Reliability. Copiers are known for breaking down at critical moments. With the sheer volume of traffic these centralized devices handle – and the 10,000 moving parts found in many of them – it’s easy to see why the copier repair man is so popular around the office.

Decreased Productivity. Everyone has spent time walking to, waiting by and clearing jams in a copier. It's a real productivity buster from a management viewpoint and a real time waster for the busy end user.

Paper-based Workflows. Traditional copiers only perpetuate dependence on paper-based documents and processes. Just think what would happen if your invoices didn’t make it out on time or never made it to their destinations at all. You could lose millions of dollars per hour due to the delay. Standalone copiers also do little to eliminate the rigidly siloed business functions where paper-based content is stockpiled rather than integrated into a digital workflow.

That’s just one reason why transforming paper into digital-based images – which can be securely stored and easily accessed – is by far one of the greatest opportunities to take advantage of in this digital evolution.

In listening to our customers during our research, it quickly became obvious to us that they needed a way to break through the traditional copier paradigm. To help them do so, we asked what they need most out of their day-to-day copier operations. They told us they wanted:

• Faster, better results for less cost
• More flexible, less costly alternatives to copier contracts
• High productivity levels with low associated costs
• More reliability
• Improved security
• The ability to digitize valuable business documents and make paper-based copies
• New ways to consolidate resources and streamline workflows to make end users more productive and happy
• Easy, cost-effective management of MFPs

That was over a year ago. Now, let me tell you what we’ve done so far and how we can help businesses of all sizes benefit.

HP re-set the copier market in November2004 with new multi-function digital imaging and printing devices. For the first time, there was a low-cost, high-performance alternative to expensive leased copiers and an ideal printing solution for nearly every office environment.

The HP LaserJet 4345mfp is considered a breakthrough in the industry because it offers similar performance to mainstream copiers – up to 45 ppm – and can do so at one-third the device/hardware cost of comparable 45 ppm devices.
Find out more about the HP Laserjet 4345mfp

The HP Laserjet 4345mfp for enterprises

The HP Laserjet 4345mfp for small and mid-sized businesses

The “star” of our MFP family is the HP LaserJet 4345mfp, considered a breakthrough in the industry because it offers similar performance to mainstream copiers – up to 45 pages per minute (ppm) – and can do so at one-third the device/hardware cost of comparable 45 ppm copier devices. ⁽¹⁾

The HP LaserJet 4345mfp and other HP multi-function devices equipped with print, copy, fax, scan, digital sending capabilities and paper handling options, effectively blur the lines between copiers and printers. But one thing is clear: Consolidating them into the same multi-function devices can deliver the real-world results asked for by our customers.

Greater Cost Control. You can purchase theHP LaserJet 4345mfp at a fraction of the cost of other similarly classed devices, giving you the performance of a copier without the constraints of a lease that requires paying for the extra features you don’t need. You can also choose an HP leasing program, but you still save by leasing devices with only the features you need. There’s also more flexibility to choose the level of support that best meets your needs.

Unlike a copier contract, HP’s Pay-per-use Program gives you an affordable, predictable monthly payment and provides everything for reliable printing, including printers and supplies, installation, management, maintenance and support.

Digital Workflows. The LaserJet 4345 and other HP MFPs are intelligent network devices. Copier manufacturers are still on the network learning curve. At HP, networking is in our DNA, which means we can help leverage the network to transform the way you do business every day. Paper-based documents can become digitized files, routed and delivered across the Internet as part of a digitized workflow that trims turnaround time, lowers transaction costs and reduces risks.

Higher Return on Investment. On the network with industry-leading HP management tools, such as HP Web Jetadmin for ongoing and proactive management, HP MFPs become part of your overall IT environment. That means your fleet of multi-function digital devices can be easily managed as flexible resources by facility or IT staff.

Through HP’s Total Print Management Solution, an integrated family of HP hardware, software and services, we can help you “balance” the deployment of printing devices – single- and multi-function, HP and non-HP – to help you select and strategically distribute the right mix of printing and imaging resources for your business.

As a result, you can eliminate the wasted capacity or unused functionality that drives up the costs of a leased copier model. Instead, you can cost-effectively align device capacity and features with user needs. You can also flexibly redeploy these assets as business needs change, making these printing and imaging resources a dynamic part of your business.

Find out more about Total Print Management

TPM for enterprises

TPM for small and mid-sized businesses

The office copier is surely something that has touched everybody throughout every company, and nearly every day. But it’s the things we take for granted every day that are often the last things we think about changing. The ones right under our noses. The given. The familiar.

But consider this: With new HP multi-function products, network management tools and services for Total Print Management, HP can help you reduce printing and imaging costs by as much as 30 percent, while increasing productivity and asset utilization. That certainly makes a compelling case for business change – and for making traditional copying a thing of the past, and cost-efficient MFP devices from HP a thing of the future.

» International Imaging Industry Association (I3A)

Total Print Management (TPM)
» TPM for enterprises
» TPM for small and mid-sized businesses

Find out more about the alternative to a traditional copier
» HP Laserjet 4345mfp for enterprises
» HP Laserjet 4345mfp for small and mid-sized businesses