It’s officially 2023 which means the new year has started! With the new year comes resolutions – like eating healthier, drinking less caffeine and exercising more – but also comes new budgets and the time to upgrade aging technology in your office. Whether your office copier is on its last legs, it’s becoming too expensive to run or its been awhile since your last upgrade and you want to make sure you’ve got the latest and greatest features to keep your office running smoothly, we’ve got you covered! Check out our list below of the top 10 features that make up the best printer for the office in 2023.
Top 10 Features Your Office Copier Should Have
1. Secure Print Release
With everyone in the office using the same copier or print device, printed documents can easily get mistakenly picked up by the wrong person. This can not only be frustrating and wasteful, but it can also be a huge potential problem if the printed document contains sensitive information or personal identifiable information (PII). The best printer for the office in 2023 needs to have a secure print release feature. By utilizing a secure print release feature, like Secure Print on Xerox AltaLink Copiers, users can send their print job to the multifunction copier and release it when they are physically at the printer using a passcode they’ve created. This ensures they are only releasing their document for print when they are physically at the device ready to grab it.
2. Security, Security, Security! Built-in Security Features
In 2023, office printers and copiers are a huge target for cybercriminals who are looking to penetrate networks and steal valuable data. In fact, in a workplace printer security experiment, the CyberNews security team hijacked almost 28,000 printers and forced them to print out a 5-step guide on printer security. It’s extremely important that you consider the built-in security features when determining the best printer for the office. For example, the Xerox AltaLink 8100 series of multifunction copiers have built-in security features like Trusted Boot, which protects the printer’s startup process from malicious actions; Configuration Watchdog, which monitors and auto-remediates 75 critical security settings to ensure security policy compliance; and Trusted Platform Module (TMP) chip, which stores encryption keys and prevents cybercriminals from tampering with the printer.
3. Scan to Email/Scan to File
In today’s workplace, you can easily scan your document(s) into a .pdf or .docx format and send it directly to your email or to designated file folders. You can essentially do what you used to do from your computer right from your office copier in just one easy step.
4. Walk-Up Sensor
In order to support sustainability efforts in your office, you don’t want to leave your copier on all the time. However, needing to power on the device every time you want to use it doesn’t make sense logistically, especially if it’s used frequently throughout the day. The best printer for the office should have a walk-up sensor, like Xerox’s Smart Proximity Sensor. The Smart Proximity Sensor detects when a user approaches or leaves the device, using a reflective sensor. This feature provides convenience for users, and can reduce power consumption. You can enable the device to wake up and sleep based on the detection of a user.
5. Finishing Options
At the very least, you should have the ability to collate and staple printed pages to save you the time of having to manually put together printed booklets. However, it’s important to think about what other kinds of finished documents are you either outsourcing or putting together manually, that your office copier could help save you time on? The best printer for the office gives you the option to easily and seamlessly add finishing functionality such as stapling, hole punching, booklet making, and even folding.
6. Duplex Automatic Document Feeder
Slow scanning and print speeds getting you down? Gone are the days of having to print one side of a page, reload your paper and then print on the other side for double-sided printing. Today, standard office copiers are equipped with Duplex Automatic Document Feeders, which automatically print on both sides of the page – and quickly! Ensuring your office copier has an auto duplexing feature will save you money and waste less supplies.
Statisticians say the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. If you could scan up to 4 times faster (30 seconds), you’d save
- 300,000 seconds
- 5,000 minutes
- 84 hours
- 5 days
If the average worker makes $24/hour (≈$50K/year), that means savings of over $2,000 per year!
7. Mobile Printing
There’s no arguing that the best printer for the office is equipped with mobile printing features. You need to make sure your office copier allows you to virtually print from anywhere — whether you want to print from your Android or iOS phone or tablet, or send documents wirelessly to your office multifunction copier. Make sure your office printer is fully equipped for you to print, scan and share to/from the cloud.
8. Ability to Run Printer Apps
Just like you install apps on your smartphone to work more efficiently, your office copier should have the ability to run printer apps to do just the same. Xerox’s ConnectKey Apps offer an array of proprietary and third-party apps, each of which can simplify or automate tasks in a way that saves your business time and money. You can scan to the cloud, translate documents into other languages, transform hardcopy documents to audio files, convert hand-written notes to digital text and so much more! And there are apps for every industry including Healthcare, Education and Legal.
9. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Capabilities
When considering the best printer for the office, you’ll want to make sure the multifunction copier you choose has optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities. OCR capabilities make it possible to convert any printed characters within your document to digital text, and this allows you to edit it. This is an absolutely critical feature if you are using any kind of document management software so that you’re able to make your documents searchable in your database.
10. Automated Supplies Replenishment
How many times have you walked up to the copier to get your printed document only to find an error message that you’re out of toner? Now you either need to run out to the nearest Staples or Office Depot to pick one up, unless you can somehow wait for the newly shipped on to arrive. If your printer is out of toner, then it’s essentially useless for printing. And downtime is no good! The best printer for the office is no good if you don’t have the supplies to power the printer, but it can get expensive to have spare supplies on hand. That’s where automated supplies replenishment comes in! Working with a managed print services (MPS) and copier-service provider like Parmetech means you no longer need to keep track of your supplies. Your printer(s) are set up to directly communicate with our team and your toner is ordered and shipped to you automatically, labeled with the proper end user location.
Make Sure You Have the Best Printer for the Office in 2023
It’s a new year which means time for a fresh start and new technology! If you’re in the market for a new office copier this year, make sure you’re choosing the best printer for the office equipped with all the top features to keep your office running smoothly and productively.
Looking to purchase or lease a new office copier? Let our team at Parmetech help! Give us a call at (800) 727-6383, send us an email at info@parmetech.com or send us a message online. And don’t forget to ask about our Affordable Upgrade Event!
