How to get the best bang for your buck!
Why price is not the most important factor
when purchasing imaging hardware
When shopping for new imaging hardware, many customers look at their budget and let that dictate their purchase. Now I understand that budget is an important factor, however over the last 9 years working with imaging customers, many have purchased equipment based mainly on price – only to discover that it did not meet their long term growth needs.
So in light of these discussions, here is bits of wisdom that can be used as a checklist when considering new purchases:
- Color or Black & White (B & W) scanning? The majority of scanners automatically come with color option but can also provide B & W scanning for smaller document size files.
- Is Speed important – scanners are classed by Pages per Minute (PPM). How fast do you need the scanner to scan?
- How much volume are you expecting to scan per day, week or month? Volume and speed is determined by the manufacturer when they develop the scanner.
- Manufacturers group their scanners into categories based on PPM and the Daily Duty Cycle (DDC). DDC is how many images the scanner can handle on a daily basis. So if you have a large volume of scanning to be completed on a daily basis, a small desktop workgroup scanner will not be sufficient for the volume – it would break down all the time. Here are the general groupings that manufacturers use:
Don’t Leave Money on the Table – How To Receive Cash For Old Scanners
As an Inside Sales Account Executive at ImageSource, I am constantly having conversations with customers that realize they have to upgrade their older scanning equipment.
What surprises me is that many customers do not know they may be eligible to receive trade-in credits or rebates for their old scanners when purchasing new equipment.
Some manufacturers also organize eco-friendly disposal of your used equipment at no charge.
If you have old scanners that need replacing, you might be surprised at the trade-in credit/rebates that may make this purchase financially achievable now!
Not all equipment qualifies, so please reach out to our team here at ImageSource to see if you can receive $$$!
Contact Megan Lane at (360) 943-9273 or insidesales@imagesourceinc.com.
Megan Lane
Inside Sales Account Executive
ImageSource, Inc.
Do These Documents Make My Scanner Look Small…?
Is this a common question in your organization? Well, good news. There are scanners that can scan documents that are larger than 8 ½” by 11”. Even 8 ½” by 17”! In our industry, we call them Large Format Scanners.
Large Format Scanners can scan documents up to 58” wide and up to several feet in length. The scanned image can also look better than the original – just like with production and desktop scanners. Large documents can be scanned in resolution of up to 600 dpi. The speed of these scanners is impressive as well – up to 16” per second. Another great feature of these scanners is that they require few or no consumables to maintain their performance. The manufacturer leaders in this industry include ImagePRO and Contex/Vidar. Both of these manufacturers ship equipment with a standard 2 year on-site warranty agreement – a great add-on feature. The ImagePRO line also uses LED technology which provides instant-on color calibration translating into no waiting time for calibration.
Businesses/organizations in which Large Format Scanners are commonly found include Architectural firms, counties’ assessors’ offices, galleries, geological surveyors, companies that produce maps, public utilities divisions, photography studios, manufacturers of airplanes and trains, etc.
The scanned image can be seamlessly imported into your existing enterprise content or document management system. Typical software shipped with these scanners allows you to scan the document to a JPEG, PDF, or TIFF. You can also scan-to-net as well. In terms of drivers, most large format scanners work with TWAIN and in terms of interface, they use SCSI III, USB 2.0 and/or Ethernet. These scanners ship network ready.
At the end of the day, feel confident that no matter how physically large yours document are, there is a scanner out there that can capture them, and give you the benefits of digital storage and deliverability that you have grown accustomed to in your normal day to day business with normal sized ones.
Ian Hundtofte
Inside Sales
ImageSource, Inc.