Small business can no longer blame the high cost of equipment for not implementing equipment to enable basic managed document solutions into their everyday business activities. The A4 MFP solution has today, reached maturity as true competition to expensive high-end, full size A3 MFP solutions.
Modern small businesses (SMB’s) strive to save time and money through the implementation of managed document solutions. The A4 segment, devices that enable documents up to 8.5” x 14” to be scanned, copied, printed and faxed, has risen to the top as an alternative for small businesses with less than 20 employees. Research by industry experts like IDC and Gartner has determined many of the extensive features offered by larger devices go unused. Additionally, it’s long been known that over 80% of documents printed by today’s businesses are A4 or smaller, leaving the requirement for A3 devices a distant second. Many manufacturers have recently introduced A4 MFP devices to this burgeoning SMB market, enabling inexpensive entry into the green, cost saving arena of Managed Document solutions.
Lanier was recently lauded by BLI, an industry stalwart for the rating and dissemination of the myriad of products by industry leaders. Marlene Orr, BLI’s Senior Analyst for printers and A4 MFP’s recently said “Though a relative latecomer to the high-end A4 color MFP market, Ricoh (Lanier) really delivers quality and performance with the MP C300 (LD130) and MP C400 (LD140C) series,” When released by Lanier, the LD130-40 series A4 MFP devices were introduced as enterprise capable devices, utilizing similar architecture as their A3 siblings and importantly, compatible with Lanier’s extensive software solutions portfolio.
In June of 2011, Kyocera assaulted the marketplace with a myriad of new A4 solutions. The recent introduction included two monochrome and two color products, the 3540, 3640 and 2526, 2626 respectively. In its June press release, Kyocera said the new products were designed to enable integration into advanced document workflows. Kyocera punctuated the devices seamless support for HyPas, Kyocera’s Java based MPS software development platform. With the new machines support for MPS software integration and their extensive feature set, Kyocera new A4 line is poised to join the leaders in a competitive MPS marketplace.
A4 MFP solutions have certainly proven to be top performing catalysts for SMB’s entry into Managed Document solutions. With the hardware in place and the savings within sight, the obvious next step is the implementation of a Managed Document software solution. Together, industry leading ‘Managed Document’ hardware and software solutions will help drive efficiency and thereby savings, for SMB’s in a challenging economy.