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Since Xerox first invented and sold the first commercial photocopy machine companies and organisations have paid for use of the machine on a cost per copy basis. This has traditionally included full maintainance and toner supplied under a service agreement. In-fact the office photocopier is unique in the fact its one of the only pieces of equipment that comes without a warranty from new. But photocopier expert Online Connect UK claim all that is about to change. Here’s what they have to say.

The photocopier has evolved completely from an ink or wet xerographic process to dry toner analogue machines and now to digital photocopiers. But the industry is stuck in the past, at a time where the photocopier or Xerox Machine required constant maintainance and broke down frequently. As the technology has evolved so has reliability improved and service costs fallen but that benefit has failed to be fully passed on to the consumer.

One of the easiest ways to explain is to compare photocopiers to the television industry. 30 years ago the average television broke down twice a year and being a television repair engineer was a full time living. Large companies such as Granada rented out televisions and there were even coin operated televisions. However the technology changed, not only did televisions become affordable but they became much more reliable. If I look today for Television Repair in Yell in my town I get one listing, where once I would have had 20 or 30 listings (albeit in the hardcopy yellow pages!). The same thing is about to happen to the photocopier market.

With digital technology we are now dealing with not a photocopier but a printer and scanner. The scanner part of the photocopier is very reliable and the only weakness comes from the printing and feeding of originals. With printers customers have come to expect reliability and customer changeable units. Digital Photocopiers will follow the same way. Recyclable units will replace the need for a service contract on the copier and copiers like printers will come with a warranty and the main parts will be changeable by the customer themselves.This has already been achieved in printers and the photocopier industry will eventually follow.

Consumer buying behaviour is now changing as well. Where once a photocopier was sold by a local dealer now people look to buy online off the internet. With suppliers such as Online Connect a wider choice of manufacturers is available and it will be reviews by the consumers themselves that will most influence purchase habits. The hard sale office photocopier salesperson will become a thing of the past. It’s now for the copier industry to deliver what the customer wants. They want reliability, they want an end to service and cost per copy agreements and they want cheaper prices. And so they should. The manufacturer markup on most photocopiers is 500 – 1000% and easy to change units that exist already on printers with a warranty would negate the need of expensive cost per copy agreements.

In general, digital photocopiers now act as MFP’s (Multifunction Printers) with scanning and photocopying as no longer the primary purpose. Slowly the idea of the paperless office is becoming a reality and both printing and copying is falling. This is partly happening because of the changing workforce. When email first came in I can remember people coming to the office and printing out all there email before they read it. Now people largely due to the internet are used to reading off the screen but it has taken time. Online Connect UK think it will be the customer that determines the speed of change within the photocopier market as they vote with there feet and ultimately it will be the companies and manufacturers that recognise and embrace change that will survive.

Editor’s Note: Article published here.

…

Jennifer Robinson writes for OnlineConnect.co.uk an office equipment and document management solution provider that specialise in the sale and rental of photocopiers for business and organisations. Visit there website http://www.onlineconnect.co.uk/

Read more articles written by Jennifer Robinson

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