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Best Black & White MFP for 10k/month yeild. Suggestions?

From time to time I'll see an interesting thread or post on a forum and I'll take the time to give an unbiased opinion based on the questions that are presented.  Below is a thread I found on a forum that really didn't answer the question for the person who posted the thread.   Please see the question below"

 

Thread from poster: I have to get 3 new MFP's (toshiba e-studio 305 and 455). They are currently under 10K per month print volume each. What is the best product out there?

 

Also we are purchasing (not lease) Should I go with no maintenance and just get the toner or go with a maintenance agreement?

We have looked at OKI mps5502mbf, HP m525c, and Toshiba e-studio306 so far..

 

My Repsone: please, let me answer your question.  You have to look at the documents that you print and copy first in order to decide which maintenance/supply plan is the most economical for your company.  If you are consistently using a high coverage of toner on the printed or copied page for color, then I would recommend to get a maintenance agreement that includes the toner.  However keep in mind that there are clauses in all of the maintenance/supply agreements that will allow the provider to charge a higher cost per copy if they deem you are using to much toner. Also on most of these contracts there is an annual elevator increase of up to 10% PER YEAR!  This can be a very pricey contract.

 

If you are an average color user or just printing a small color logo, a few lines of color or some excel spreads with limited color then your best best is to take the maintenance agreement and buy the toner on your own.  With this contract if the cost of the toner cartridges from your supplier gets to expensive you can always source the toner elsewhere and please only buy the OEM toner, no generics!

 

Providers of the maintenance/supply agreements will always be take the position that you will use the maximum amount of color toner, thus they price those contracts to cover the high toner coverage.

 

As far as OKI and Toshiba, they are not major players in the market, in fact most of the OKI's are not user friendly with their user interface  and there are not as many service providers for that brand.  I mention this because what happens if you are not happy with your service provider if you do get the OKi's, depending on where you are located there may not be another service provider for you.

 

Toshiba, one of the bottom dwellers in market share at least in the US, Technology is ok, however they don't commit the resources to R & D like Ricoh, Canon, Xerox and KonicaMInolta. With Toshiba also, you maybe limited with the amount of service providers that may be in your area.

 

If you need more information you can always go here www.p4photel.com , if I can be of service please let me know with a PM or a reply post.

 

What is the best product out there?

 

Top four and not in any order are :  Ricoh, Xerox, Canon and KonicaMinolta  

 

 

Hope this helps!!

If you like something I've posted please feel free to click the "like" button!

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Comments (6)

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Art, I like your general guidance to the initial poster, and I won't grade your writing since this isn't an English class.  In regard to this brief post conversation, I think honesty is the best policy with customers and with ourselves.  Yes Tim, they probably are in the top ten.  However, the customer was asking which is the best.  By rankings in the market place, the top seven do not include Toshiba.  They fall within the bottom 7% of market share for shipments and the bottom 8.6% for market share in total spend as of Q1 2013.

 

While they may have a good ratio of R&D to sales ratio, the volume of dollars they spend on R&D on their MFD's are rather small in comparison to the top four - and it shows in the reflection of market share and acceptance on a corporate purchasing level.

 

My point is not to brow beat or denigrate - it is simply this. Acknowledge the truth of your product and don't try to make it something it isn't or others will mostly likely know it and tag you as just a salesman.  Find your strengths and sell to them and to the market that appreciates those strengths.  I don't know Toshiba that well, but every product has its strengths - stick with them.  

TimB:

 

Thanx for the comment!  I believe you with the top ten in R & D for Spend to Sales ratios, but I don't R & D being conducted for copiers not like Canon, Xerox, KonicaMInolta & Xerox.

 

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it must be a duck. Toshiba's market share over the last ten years in the US has always been at or near the bottom of the pack, thus they are cellar dwellers, bottom feeders, in the US market.

 

You are correct with the MA, they were not asking for color, guess Im so used to quoting color systems now. My recommendation to most users, especially low volume users is to get off or away from the cost per page that includes toner. Yes, take the maintenance agreement however buy the toner as you need it.

 

Thanx again for the comment!  It's great to read other points of view.

 

Art

FYI: Toshiba, overall, is in the top ten for R&D Spend-to-Sales ratios. "Bottom dweller" really is not a fair use of words. With any device manufacturer, product is only as good as its dealer support. Get references if need be.

 

RE: maintenance; The asker is talking B&W devices not color. Regardless, get the maintenance. Fewer spikes in copy quality or hardware issues because you'll make that phone call to fix rather than putting up with poor copy quality, etc. for fear of how much it might cost. Any maintenance needs are already paid for in advance.

Actually, I did not mention that I am offering any equipment to them. I'm not even sure where they are located,  I'm not looking to sell them,

 

All of the recent MFP's that I've seen at the shows have pretty much the same GUI> I do remember something about a more robust partnering with Toshiba/

First is this your actual reply to the account looking at thoseToshiba products listed (455 & 305)? If yes and they have a great history with the Toshiba product, telling them there a "bottom dweller" would make anyone think that you're only wanting to sell them what YOU'RE offering. The models they requested are older models of Toshiba and who knows if they've worked well for them or not. Also if you research the Okidata product, most of their MFP's are based on the Toshiba platform now and the screen is easy to navigate as most are today.

Maybe I'm totally off here by what you're stating
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