How Many Years Worth of Toner Does Your Small Business Need?

Several years worth?

It’s not surprising, then, that the 17-person company is still using Windows XP, Microsoft’s popular but aging operating system. But they’re not sticking with XP because they don’t want to buy new hardware or software. Rather, the company is sitting on a stockpile of printer supplies — toner, drum units, and the like — for seven Konica Minolta Magicolor 2200 color lasers. Standardizing on a single printer enabled Veripic to purchase large volumes of supplies at discount.

This is as much an “aging operating system” post as it is an ink & toner post. Trying to stay on top of the “newest” in software is hard enough for individuals and sole proprietors; doing so with 17 employees and as many desktops is infinitely harder. That’s not to mention “big business”, defined as institutions with 10,000 or more PC’s, whose migration to an OS other than XP may never happen.

But this is ultimately a tale of cost savings for small business, at its heart, and the choices SMB’s have to make regarding just how much supply to buy when deals come around. VeriPic, the SMB on display in Information Week’s article, loaded up on Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2200 Toner Cartridges because buying in large bulk offered the best discount. They did so ostensibly without regard to any particular future need to upgrade their hardware or OS. It’s a choice that has worked out for VeriPic…so far.

Of course, choices like these are affected by countless other factors, including client base and needs, access to capital, network compatibility and even, ahem, factory cleanliness. No two SMB’s are identical nor are their printing or OS needs.

Here at Ink Technologies we recognize that fact and it’s part of the reason we have Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2200 Toner Cartridges, for SMB’s like VeriPic that have to make hard choices like these. Whether your SMB needs to be cutting-edge or whether your model calls for stockpiling ink and toner, we’re here to take care of you.

So which are you? A tortoise or a hare?