Those days are long gone, though. In fact, the way Mitch Tousineau, product market manager at Konica Minolta, breaks it down, the total cost of ownership of laser equipment comes out to be lower than what many businesses would consider a value inkjet printer. "Given 20 percent coverage, a page of color costs 9.5 cents and a monochrome page runs 1.6 cents. And that's a gorgeous, full-resolution print. You might get away with less expensive pages from inkjet, but perhaps at simple draft quality. So while those inkjet systems initially cost much less, expensive consumables, lighter duty cycles, and less networking flexibility really detract in the SMB context."

Mitch makes an important point here—one that warrants a critical look at printer technology by resellers and their customers. Not only do you want to choose products that will save the most money but also put a best face forward, so to speak. In many environments, it's necessary to generate color prints on demand without waiting for a trip to the printer. However, Konica's Tousineau claims insurance agents, healthcare providers, schools, and government offices are all swiftly adopting modern print technologies.

Evaluating Your Options

There are a few poignant factors to consider when it comes to acquiring printer technology. Naturally, the first is cost, of which one variable is the actual equipment price tag. That is what many customers see and on which they base immediate judgment. There's a bigger picture, though, in cost per printed page, which also considers the toner cartridge (or solid ink), replaceable transfer belt, waste trays, and so on. Obviously, taking your work to a third-party printer and paying their rates is the costliest way to go. It's almost unavoidable when the job requires obscure dimensions or professional binding but not worth doing regularly. At the other end of the spectrum, a $59 printer will get you low barrier to entry and a couple of bundled ink cartridges to boot. At maximum quality levels, however, be ready to pay for a lot of ink. Color laser can now be had for less than $1,000, and with convincingly low per-page costs, it's now quite compelling even for home office use.

New Kid On The Block Konica's Magicolor 5450 is a true workgroup power plant, with Gigabit Ethernet, a 667MHz PowerPC processor, and 256MB of DDR memory built-in.

Another pertinent consideration is speed. A particular inkjet may claim color printing speeds as high as 17 pages per minute but at unusable draft quality settings. At full resolution, the same product might be closer to an astounding two or three minutes per page. Color laser is much faster. For example, Konica Minolta just released its Magicolor 2450, available to resellers at about $599, which cranks out 20 pages per minute in monochrome and a realistic 5 PPM in color. The disparity between the two specifications is directly related to the mechanism used to lay color down onto paper. A multi-pass printer such as the 2450 employs a carousel with the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toner cartridges. Each is applied separately, thereby taking much longer to finish each page. A tandem system applies all four colors at once, yielding comparable performance between color and monochrome tasks.

Affordable Lightweight Debuting at a reasonable $599, the Konica 2450 comes replete with Fast Ethernet, photo-quality resolution, 128MB of memory and a 35,000 page per month duty-cycle.

In addition to the time it takes to print each page of content, manufacturers also cite how long it takes for the first page of a job to print, reflected as first page out. There usually isn't a tremendous difference between most models, although it can take as long as 30 seconds for some printers to generate that initial page. In a workgroup setting, that leads to a lot of sitting around the printer, waiting for it to process and output.

While printing performance might not always be a hallmark concern, it's particularly important for shared devices. Traditionally, you'd connect a printer to one computer on a peer-to-peer network using USB or a parallel port and share it though Microsoft File and Print Sharing. But in a busy office where multiple workstations print to the same unit, spooling those jobs will negatively impact the host system's performance. Consequently, pay attention to a printer's connectivity package as well. Standard parallel and USB ports work well for light-duty use, but 10/100 Ethernet support is preferable for workgroup use. Konica's Magicolor 5450, its newest commercial color laser, even comes with Gigabit Ethernet to minimize networking bottlenecks.

The Solid-Ink Solution One of Xerox's most popular models, the Phaser 8400 combines solid-ink technology and a low price for affordable commercial printing.

In the same vein, onboard memory helps network printers shoulder large loads, especially when you're talking about image-heavy color jobs. If a customer is leaning toward inkjet for cost reasons, go ahead and point out that most consumer printers include mere kilobytes of RAM. My Canon PIXMA iP5000, for all of its redeeming qualities, only has 34KB. Most color lasers are designed for more intense use and generally feature generous repositories. It isn't uncommon to find 128MB of DDR memory as a standard feature, expandable up to 640MB or even 1GB. As users send jobs to the printer, they queue in memory, sparing the originating system storage and compute resources. So when a customer shares a single inkjet printer across a network already saturated by traffic, performance drops, print jobs take longer to process, and the overall user experience deteriorates.

Beyond a printer's capacity to fulfill jobs in a timely manner, resolution determines how the end product winds up looking. Historically, inkjet and dye sublimation printers have held the upper-hand with regard to attractive photo-realistic output. Color laser is much more compelling in that space now than ever before, adding to its appeal. In fact, the aforementioned Magicolor 2450 achieves 9,600 x 600-class photo resolution—way better than the previous generation ceiling of 2400 x 600. Such improvements give color laser a home in environments where picture accuracy and speed are equally valued.

Then there are the features unique to certain vendors. One area that Konica devoted particular attention to with its 5450 was ease of use. All of the consumables come pre-installed, making setup a 10-minute ordeal. Toner consumption is tracked electronically and the unit auto-calibrates itself to account for changes in temperature and humidity. There are no calls to the VAR for adjustment, at least in theory. When toner needs to be replaced, ergonomic cartridges make removal and installation a simpler matter. Xerox's solid ink system is designed to be similarly easy to handle. "Our solid-ink C2424 has several inherent advantages over laser," says Jerry Farmer, vice president and general manager of North American reseller sales. "There are no consumables to throw away, the footprint is smaller, and it's as fast or faster than competing laser prpducts. And because solid ink isn't as widespread, we really work with resellers to get the message out to their customers."

Teaming Up

Many printer manufacturers know that selling pricier units is hard work in a world where everyone wants something for nothing. How do you pitch an entry-level color laser at $499 to a customer looking for a $59 inkjet with a $60 rebate? Fortunately, there are a few partner programs that purport to help, both in training and adding incentive to printer sales.

Konica Minolta, for example, offers a slew of associated benefits, including the standard marketing tools and a special partner hotline with free support. An evaluation program allows your customers to try equipment for 30 days before making purchasing decisions, too. Should you wish to expand revenue potential, Konica offers certification training for servicing hardware. Finally, there's a quarterly SPIFF program that pays bounties on certain models and extended warranty plans. Sell $20,000 in Konica equipment and you'll earn up to eight percent in promotional incentives. You can find more information about Konica's program at its partner site (support.minolta-qms.com/reseller).

All In One Though pricey at $2,999, Xerox's C2424 boasts an 85,000 page per month duty cycle. It faxes, scans, copies, and prints full color, too.

Xerox has its own program for VARs who specifically engage small- and medium-sized businesses called Peak. Right off the bat, Peak pays instant rebates of up to 2.75 percent when you buy through qualified distribution channels. Push sales up above the $12,500 level and you'll qualify for up to five percent back-end rebates, and three percent more on top of that for certain products. Extra benefits include MDF, periodic newsletter updates, up to $500 in free collateral, customizable promotions, co-branded customer emails, and special demo pricing. As an authorized service provider, you pay an annual fee, yet receive a 25 percent discount on service parts, increasing revenue potential. Check out Xerox's reseller portal (www.xerox.com/office/resellers) for a partner application.

In Retrospect

It almost goes without saying, but we're living in an era where incredibly advanced office equipment is easily within reach of the most modest businesses. Ten years ago, who would have thought that a real estate broker with five employees would utilize several server applications, remote accessibility, and in-house color laser printing? He projects the image of a multi-million dollar firm from a three-room suite. Leveraging color laser facilitates better exposure for properties.

Then again, the desire to stick with cheaper printing solutions is certainly understandable from an ultra-conservative perspective. More progressive customers will understand that technology evolves, though, enabling exciting new features at ever-decreasing prices. Color laser and solid-ink solutions are now at a point where they're distinctly superior and widely accessible, plus the value is easily explainable, especially in a networked office. Use the incentives offered by influential partners such as Konica Minolta and Xerox to better educate the uninitiated and spark more profitable printer sales. Your customers will thank you for it.