Sharp printer fleet?

[Rob_D]

Afternoon all,

 

We're looking into renewing the lease on our printer fleet, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Sharp as a supplier/support company they wouldn't mind sharing.

 

Thanks!

[TwistedHelixis]

I look after a few schools and for some reason its always the ones with Sharp that I seem to have the most issues with.

[psydii]

I'd counter that with over the last six years we've had nothing but happiness with Sharp.*

 

Key to happiness is definately getting the devices correctly spec'd. If your projected output is near to the limit of the proposed device, get a bigger device.

 

The other key is actually the maintenance compant used. Are they invested in the brand, or are they out to sell you new devices/move on to the next customer in three years time? Direct support/maintenance from the the brand seems to be better as their furtunes are tied to their delivery - a bad service and you wont be able to perusade you to buy their new devices when the time comes.

 

 

*I mean, there are still occasional problems, but nothing like the levels i have saeen with Canon, Kyocera, and Ricoh.

[MatthewL]

I've had every brand of copier going over the last 15 years and I wouldn't use anything but Sharp these days, from a user point of view they I think they are the best.

 

I did spend 7 years working for a dealer I did say 1200 Sharp to 20 Toshiba so have seen the models change too. I have trained, installed and fixed both and still hands down Sharp for me. Yeah some of the other machines do things slightly better and have some little features on but Sharp wins. I currently have 40+ that I manage on PaperCut and get no issues what so ever other than users causing issues or general maintenance. I've installed desktop Sharp's right through to the the big repro machines.

 

Nothing is perfect and Sharp do have their moments no more so that other machines but they are so customisable to your needs from an interface point of view, the web page is simple to use too, they come with so many more features out the box compared to others, integrating them into PaperCut and some other solutions is simple as its just served up as a web page and no extra modules needed. I have used card readers and biometric readers with them and no issues.

 

Do know your volumes and make sure you get the right machines for what you are doing, they do do mono machines, dealers don't like selling as it doesn't make as much money as a colour one but they do exist so you can run similar machines from a user interface point of view. May not always be the cheapest I know others are a lot cheaper in some places but its not just about the cost. They also have a feature to stop the toners been removed unless empty not sure anyone else has that yet.

 

Feel free to ask any questions, I have worked both sides of them so can answers from both sides and I will give an honest answers too. Some say the colours are not as good as others from a repro perspective but then they are not classes as print room machines unless you go high end, personally I never even noticed!

[Guest Guest]

All our MFPs are Sharp and are supplied directly via MidShire (sharp). We've found the devices to be very reliable, although not without the occasional issue.

 

I'm not a fan of the UI as it doesn't seem to be the most user friendly. Basic functionality is ok but when you want something more advanced such as printing booklets with the front cover another colour (something we were trying todo today) it's not the easiest.

 

The support is generally OK, but we have had issues

[MatthewL]

@kieran1990 did you get sorted with that, once you understand how the driver works its quite straight forward, its quite easy to programme in a pre-set on the driver and export it and import to another machine.

[Guest Guest]

@kieran1990 did you get sorted with that, once you understand how the driver works its quite straight forward, its quite easy to programme in a pre-set on the driver and export it and import to another machine.

As far as I know it didn't get sorted. We have previously got it working but couldn't get it to this time

[chazzy2501]

Our Sharp Fleet is also up for renewal. I'm satisfied with them. but any cool features I might have missed with MFPs in the last few years?

 

better O365 integration, Teams specific coolness?

[ColonelPanic]

Big MFPs are okay, but as has been said already, not without issues.

 

The desktop printers that they gave us were underpowered, very noisy, and only take 300 sheets in the main paper tray, but I guess that's what we asked for.

 

Support is generally excellent.

[Rob_D]

Big MFPs are okay, but as has been said already, not without issues.

The desktop printers that they gave us were underpowered, very noisy, and only take 300 sheets in the main paper tray, but I guess that's what we asked for.

Support is generally excellent.

 

Can I ask what model of desktop printer you are using?

[Jawloms]

We've used Sharp for the last five years. They have the occasional issue as all do, but the service has been very good.

[TechMonkey]

We use Sharp and have done for a long time, we were with a 3rd party who got swallowed by Sharp and no major quibbles. We put it out to tender a good while ago and they came in significantly cheaper than anyone else. Some minor annoyances, things like the copier internal UI, but that is copiers for you. We use Papercut over the top so don't have to deal with the copiers directly much. They don't do a guaranteed 4 hour service as others do but I don't think that has ever left us high and dry, they are generally onsite next day if not by the end of the day if we logged it early enough. We do make sure we are proactive and book them to come in during the holidays for servicing.

 

I don't think there really is anything new coming to copiers at our level except slightly faster (and even that seems to have plateaued) and cheaper. Papercut handles integrations and seems to be doing all the innovation.

[Jayellcee]

We have used sharp for several years. Have been impressed by how quick they come out to fix any issues we might have.

[HTCPCP]

Not used Sharp for a few years now, as when I changed jobs, it was all K-Ms and the problems they cause, however would go back to them in a heartbeat.

 

Easy to use, user friendly display, reliable, well built and customisable. We had a great local printer company who we worked with really closely with, and had the benefits of that too (like same day engineer visits if someone was local to us), but one of the sites I used to run had a contract direct, and repair times were still better than other big players, even though they came from further away (Our ricoh technician was based less than a mile away, but would always be at least 3 days before he would be able to come in) and would always need to order parts in rather than working out the issue before hand and bringing in parts they think it might be.

[ColonelPanic]

Can I ask what model of desktop printer you are using?

 

MX-C300P

[MartinT]

All of our copier fleet are Sharp and they've been very reliable. They are supplied and maintained by IBS.

 

Both Sharp and Kyocera are brands that I like and have great respect for. Many others I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.