Photocopyer leasing

[Big_Ted]

Hi,

I have not long taken over as Network manager in a secondary school and have been given the task of finding a new company who would be able to lease photocopiers. We are currently using Canon but we would very much like to move away from them and the uniflow system that they use. I have read a couple of suggestions about the software we could use but would like some ideas about the photocopiers.

The photocopiers are currently being used for photocopying and printing(the scanning ability is not working and not needed at the moment)

We currently have 9 around the school however we are looking to cut down the numbers.

Thanks

My only advice would be to find someone fairly close to you

[browolf]

we use papercut too,
printers & copiers leased from M2 ~ M2 - Reducing your office print costs, waste and risks

[pshuttle]

Konica Minolta leased direct. PCounter for print management.

[Pompey81]

Thanks for all your replies very helpful.

Just had a company called ITQ in and they sell Kyocera copiers with papercut or a uniflow type product.

Never used a Kyocera product myself so not sure how good they are. Good thing I have 16 months to research and find a good company/product to use.

Will speak again as im sure I will have alot of stupid questions

[john]

I wouldn't be given a Kyocera copier again after the ones I had in one job they were naff, very cheap for a reason.

[Big_Ted]

As with any product you will find happy and unhappy people
All you can do is try it out and see if the price works for you.

[david_tulip]

Interestingly enough I really like Kyocera (and I'm not paid to say that!) - I think it's true that some past generations have not been fantastic but there latest TASKalfa machines are great and in fact I know copier engineers who swear by them. I think it true of anything - you remember your bad experiences and that will influence your future ones! I think PaperCut is great in the education space and equitrac's a great product, SafeQ with Konica also looks good or indeed Uniflo from Canon.

I think it's key that you realise you are first and foremost buying a contract (whether that's lease and/or service) secondly it's about the serive (so yes local can be good - what's more important is "can they support me and meet the SLA's!?!" (what's the uptime?) and third and finally (yep really in that order!) you're buying some kit / a solution!

But with that in mind choose a supplier who understands and is not all about signing a deal - that explains the contract (lease and service) and maybe who is not tied to only one manufacturre and is intent on placing round pegs in square holes!

Oh and don't opt for something that is too good to be true!

[sonofsanta]

If you're an LEA school still might be worth finding out who deals with photocopiers at county; in Lincolnshire we can tap into the existing contract with Konica Minolta.

I think our photocopiers are with Ricoh, although our printers are with Fovia, who are merged with Arena now, and they're excellent. Careful going with Danwood - you'll find a few horror stories on this website about them. Avoid the word "Evergreen" with them.

[jenking]

I can also recommend Arena, there super company. They supplied us with 5 Toshiba MFD. Great Machines.
Just recently add 6 Kyocera Network Colour Laser printers to our agreement with Arena. The Kyocera Machines are most impressive. We haven’t had a problem with any of them, hardly even a Jam. There built to profection. Already without totting up the figures properly yet, I can see we are saving arms and legs on print costs.

[truebluesteve]

We use Ricoh printers and MFDs along with Equitrac Express. Staff have pin numbers to release 'Follow You' print jobs although we may integrate it with our Biostore biometric system at some point.

Equitrac has a huge number of reports that you can use for billing and the Ricoh MFDs all use encrytion on their HDDs (if they have one) so that data is unusuable when the copier gets returned at the end of its lease.

[glennda]

We use Ricoh printers and MFDs along with Equitrac Express. Staff have pin numbers to release 'Follow You' print jobs although we may integrate it with our Biostore biometric system at some point.

Equitrac has a huge number of reports that you can use for billing and the Ricoh MFDs all use encrytion on their HDDs (if they have one) so that data is unusuable when the copier gets returned at the end of its lease.

Problem with Equitrac is the cost - from my conversations with people at ricoh they are looking to start using Papercut along side equitrac due to the cost difference.

I'm currently in the throws of renewing copiers and am going for Papercut with Ricoh devices with quotes from multiple companies.

[nadeem]

Equitrac Express (this is the version for educational users) wasn't that expensive for us - we use it with Ricoh kit (printers and MFD) and mifare cards.

[localzuk]

Equitrac Express (this is the version for educational users) wasn't that expensive for us - we use it with Ricoh kit (printers and MFD) and mifare cards.

What do you define as not very expensive?