Paper Management: Printers, Copiers, Scanners, Fax Units, and Multifunction Devices Basics 25 GPSolo 2008

25 GPSolo 14 (2008)
Paper Management: Printers, Copiers, Scanners, Fax Units, and Multifunction Devices

handle is hein.journals/gpsolo25 and id is 204 raw text is: Pa er Ilna.P mett:r. intrs,
C opi rSc nnrs, F xU its,
nd lti nton evices
By Nerino J. Petro Jr. and J. Anthony Vittal

awyers usually focus on the 'sexy as-
pects of office technology, such as com-
puters and software. Too often, lawyers
overlook and fail to appreciate the mundane
tools-the items that work in the back-
ground, such as copiers, scanners, printers,
and multifunction machines. Successful of-
fices depend on these pieces of equipment,
however, to generate work product and to
turn paper into electronic files.
Planning Your Purchase
What do you need to know about plan-
ning an upgrade to new equipment? Focus
on four basic considerations:
Cost. Several elements comprise cost.
First, there is the average cost per page
(CPP), which has three components-de,
vice cost, maintenance cost, and supplies

cost (for ink or toner and other supplies).
CPP is calculated by taking the number of
pages you expect to generate over the de-
vices anticipated life span in your office and
then amortizing the cost of the device over
that number of pages and factoring in the
per-page maintenance and supplies cost for
that number of pages. Do not forget to in-
clude the labor cost associated with gener-
ating the work product (for example, if the
CPP of manually collating and stapling
copied documents exceeds the CPP of
adding a collator and stapler to your copier,
it may make economic sense to pay more up
front for the fancier machine). Finally you
have the cost of storing supplies and storing
and recycling used components. Add these
components together and you get a total
cost of ownership (TCO) figure.

TCO is important because modem of-
fice and personal printer manufacturers fol-
low the Gillette pricing model-sell the
device (razor handle, printer) inexpensive-
ly, and make your profit on the consum-
ables (blades, ink/toner). For example, Dell
sells one laser printer for home use at the
same price as a single high-capacity replace-
ment toner cartridge for that unit. Itis com-
mon knowledge how expensive ink for
ink-jet printers can be relative to the cost of
the device; indeed, an ancillary industry has
evolved for the manufacture and sale of kits
enabling users to refill ink cartridges.,
Hewlett-Packard's new product line in-
cludes a price increase for consumables.
Therefore, you must consider the TCO of
all devices in your office. Changing the mix
of devices, manufacturers, and technologies
may result in a lower overallTCO and a re-
sulting improvement in your bottom line.
Ergonomics. Ease of use, ease of main-
tenance, and the need to get up and walk to
the device to collect or generate work prod-
uct all should factor into your decision.
Environmental impact. As we become
increasingly conscious of the impact of
technology on the environment, these fac-
tors should become part of our analysis.
For example, toner apparently has adverse
health impacts because it contains sub-
stances that at best are skin and eye irri-
tants and at worst are carcinogenic or
mutagenic. Studies in Austria and Aus,
tralia have equated the toxicity of the toner
dust emitted from laser printers and
copiers with that of diesel exhaust. Toner
Nerino J. Petro Jr. Is the practice
management advisor for the State Bar
of Wisconsin. He may be reached at
practicehelp@wisbar.org. J. Anthony Vittal
is in private practice with The Vittal Law
Firm, based in Los Aeles, Califonia. A
former member of the ABA Standing
Committee on Technology and Information
Systems, a member of the editorial
boards for Tech eNotes and the
Technology & Practice Guide issues
of GPSolo, and a member ofvaiu
technology-oriented committees of ABA
Sections, hespeaks an rtsfrequently
on legal technology topics. He may be
reached at tony@vittal.net.

..4 SOLO.. .2 Jue 00

?SOLO June 2008

14

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