Categories: Administration

Another leap forward in multifunction photocopiers

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-713" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;SN24&lowbar;-&lowbar;Administration&lowbar;-&lowbar;Photocopiers&lowbar;-&lowbar;Toshiba&lowbar;300x225&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SN24 - Administration - Photocopiers - Toshiba 300x225" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>Significant cost savings for schools come with the latest environmentally-friendly MFP breakthrough&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier confident predictions that the advent of the age of desk-tops would soon mean that the average office would soon be paperless&comma; have proved to be very wide of the mark&period; Many offices and schools are finding they are handling more paper than ever – with the associated considerable costs in paper used&comma; and then simply discarded for recycling or as waste&period;&nbsp&semi;Those early predictions almost certainly did not take account of the rapid transformation of the photocopier&period; Earlier versions were extremely limited in what they could do and tended to jam frequently&period; Printing had to be done separately&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The arrival of multifunctional photocopiers &lpar;MFPs&rpar; that can also access the internet&comma; be a portal for using software applications&comma; and wirelessly interact with smart phones&comma; laptops and tablets&semi; brought a new dimension&period; From being a simple tool for making copies of worksheets and other school documents&comma; today&&num;8217&semi;s photocopiers have been merged with printers and now allow users to not only copy&comma; but also print&comma; scan and fax documents&period;<br &sol;>But the considerable costs of purchasing paper remained&period; In an age of far greater sensitivity to preserving our environment&comma; wasting all that paper seemed increasingly incongruous&period; Now&comma; a new breakthrough has slashed both that environmental incongruity and operational costs&period; For most schools&comma; both those factors are likely to be very significant&period;<br &sol;>New paper-saving device<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The technology available to schools has just taken another leap forward with the release in New Zealand of a brand new system&comma; creating the world&&num;8217&semi;s first erasable printer&sol;copier&period; Developed by Toshiba and unveiled in March&comma; the new multi-functional printer &lpar;MFP&rpar; for the first time allows users to print and erase documents&comma; then re-use the paper&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The world-first eco-technology can reduce paper usage by up to 80 per cent&semi; saving money and helping users reduce their carbon footprint&period; Toshiba says the Eco MFP slashes carbon dioxide emissions associated with standard machines by up to 50 per cent&period;&nbsp&semi;The Toshiba system comprises two machines&colon; the e-STUDIO306LP multifunction copier that uses a special erasable toner&comma; and the RD30 erasing device that uses heat to erase what has been printed&comma; allowing paper to be used up to five times&period; Before applying the heat&comma; the system can scan the output to file&comma; via network or USB drive&comma; for archiving so that its data is not lost&period; It can erase 30 sheets per minute and then sort through and eliminate any damaged paper from being reused&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The erasable printing is as distinctive as the MFP itself&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Toshiba&&num;8217&semi;s Auckland regional manager&comma; Jim Nolan&period; &&num;8220&semi;Its blue colour notifies users that its output is erasable and the paper reusable&comma; so they know that they&&num;8217&semi;re not only saving money by using less paper for the same document volume&comma; but also protecting the environment&period; In essence&comma; the new technology bridges the gap between reducing and recycling paper&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Nolan says the system delivers colour scanning and other functions typically associated with large Toshiba multi-function copier-printers&period;<br &sol;>&&num;8220&semi;These include rapid warm-up&comma; fast first copy times&comma; double-sided printing&comma; and print speeds of up to 30 pages per minute&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also walk-up printing&comma; simply by plugging in a USB flash drive&semi; and a full 9&&num;8243&semi; LCD Touch Screen&comma; with large&comma; easy-to-read control buttons&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;He says the cost is expected to be around &dollar;7&comma;000 and that a number of organisations were quick to buy it&comma; sight unseen&period; &&num;8220&semi;Those that have high volume printing needs – for example in education&comma; law&comma; finance and government – will benefit significantly from reduced costs&comma; while supporting the environment&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;The Eco system is part of Toshiba&&num;8217&semi;s programme to produce eco-friendly products that drastically reduce a company&&num;8217&semi;s carbon footprint by using less energy and making efficient use of resources&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are many benefits to using a multifunction photocopier in place of a range of standalone devices&period; In particular&comma; the cost savings can be quite significant&period;&nbsp&semi;The technology involved in MFDs has evolved to the point where the cost per page is much lower than that of stand-alone desktop printers&comma; said Mr Nolan&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;And of course&comma; MFDS offer functions of greater quality – whether that be print &lpar;via colour control tools&rpar;&semi; distribution &lpar;via scanning to email&sol;network&sol;internet&sol;USB or hard drive&rpar;&semi; or document output finishing &lpar;via punching&comma; stapling&comma; folding and booklet making&rpar;&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As well as being cheaper to run overall&comma; MFPs also utilise reporting technology that means schools can track costs and monitor departmental or individual usage&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;With Toshiba technology you can set limits for certain staff or students&comma; and you can set rules that recommend another print device be used&period; These print rules are chosen by the school&comma; based on things like cost-effectiveness&comma; peak-usage trends&comma; or security&period; A recent trend emerging is card access for MFPs&comma; which can be extended to other &&num;8216&semi;purchases&&num;8217&semi; around the school – parents can view all transactions and add value online if the school is on-charging&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;With our proactive service support model&comma; we will often know about a potential issue and deal with it before a school is aware of it – since our back-end service system receives information directly from our MFPs&period; Our goal is to keep our schools operating happily at all times with our MFPs and software&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Mr Nolan&period; &&num;8220&semi;And we are now introducing an even more advanced system whereby our Help Desk can &lpar;with the school&&num;8217&semi;s permission&rpar; log-in to the management hub and help with any MFD issues&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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