high volume workgroup printer recommendations

[RTHolmes]

been using Xerox colour and B&W lasers for years but the reliability is getting worse with every generation. the latest ones we have are really shonky, so I'm looking for recommendations from anyone who does alot of printing. and by that I mean 50k/month on each printer.

what I need:

 * fast colour and B&W laser printers
 * genuine, reliable 50k ppm printing
 * bare minimum 2x 500 sheet drawers
 * duplex
 * stapling/folding/collating options would be nice, but not essential
 * no MFDs (fax scanning etc)

so, does anyone own/manage/use something that fits the bill?


edit: I know this isnt AH-related hardware but it seemed like the best place to put it

[gyrene81]

50k ppm printing?     

if you're really printing 50,000 pages a month on a single printer, you should consider talking to a business machine leasing company, especially with the specs you have listed. it may be worth the effort to explore the total cost of ownership between leasing and buying. for high volume devices like that it's generally best to let someone else worry about maintenance/repair and you just take care of the consumables.

[RTHolmes]

50k is a very busy month, but they are pretty much working all day long and need to be up to it. we do of course run them under service contracts, and have spares onsite and a spare machine for when they inevitably break but any downtime costs alot, and sadly the xerox machines just dont cut it anymore.

as for IT outsourcing companies ... I get several calls a week from their sales monkeys. which is rather pointless because they have no tech expertise at all, and that is exactly what they are trying to sell ...

the moment one of them answers my question "so ... what do you run your servers on?" with "well ... *nix of course. duh." then the call will last more than 30s. hasnt happened yet

[gyrene81]

   i know what you mean.

if you're going to have any luck with it, you need to do the calling.    don't you have places that specialize in just office machines? where i work we lease our high volume mfd printers from business machine companies. keeps the cost of ownership within reason and we don't have to maintain the things.

[RTHolmes]

yeah we have companies that lease business machines, but they seem to have a higher salesmonkey/techie ratio than even the IT outsourcers, and are notoriously untrustworthy. leasing massively overspecced, often refurbed, last gen kit at rates which would be acceptable to credit card companies you might think they would like reliable kit as it reduces their maintenance costs. actually they dont really care because they themselves ... you guessed it ... outsource the servicing under long term contracts.

 


edit:

me? I think theyre great. I only started subbing for xerox this year and I'm takin the kids to disneyland at christmas on the overtime *wink*

[RTHolmes]

I just reread this, I know its monday but thats quite a big moan

not all our suppliers are bad, so for a little balance some that I like:

 * HP business desktops and servers - decent value, almost faultless reliability (with intel mobos at least), very cheap and comprehensive warranty (practically a service contract for ~£30pa per seat!)

 * OpenSUSE - its Linux. nuff said.

 * Apple MacBook Pros - fast, reliable, work great for presentations, OS doesnt degrade over time requiring vanilla reinstalls, expensive to buy but low TCO.

 * Netgear switches and NAS - good value, features and very reliable, which is all you need from them.

 * Draytek routers - as above

 * Siemens PBX systems - value, versatility

 * Our print bureau - 30+ years experience, extremely knowlegable, quick turnaround, no screwups.

 * Sophos AV - havent had to manually kill and remove any nasties for over 4 years now.

[BoilerDown]

50k is a very busy month, but they are pretty much working all day long and need to be up to it. we do of course run them under service contracts, and have spares onsite and a spare machine for when they inevitably break but any downtime costs alot, and sadly the xerox machines just dont cut it anymore.

The first thing that comes to mind is to run both your primary and at least one of your spares at the same time.  If there is significant downtime in deploying the spare in place of the broken primary, simply have two primaries.  You'll reduce the load on each printer individually and if one breaks the other is already set to go.  If they both break at the same time you're not any worse off than you were before.

[RTHolmes]

we have an online spare and an offline spare

[2bighorn]

Konica Minolta bizhub series