Epsonow Magazine

Page 14 - Laser printers = Revenue generation

Cost-effective, high volume laser printing. Precisely what Mailing Systems Australia (MSA) was looking for in a laser printer solution. With two Epson EPL-N4000+ laser printers and an Epson AL-C2000 colour laser printer the company has achieved rapid payback on its capital investment and recognised additional revenue generating applications.

For rapidly growing document processing and imaging company, Mailing Systems Australia (MSA), the need for a high volume laser printer came about in September 2000. One of its largest clients, dissatisfied with the service it was getting from another document processing company, turned to MSA for the monthly printing and processing of 30,000 outbound documents.

"Cost was quite a factor," says MSA Director, Mr Greg Logan. "We received a quote from another vendor for a 40 page per minute laser printer, and the price came in at around $60,000. I knew a lot of the other brands were quite expensive, but that was pretty extreme.

"With the EPL-N4000+ coming in about one-sixth the price, from that perspective it was certainly a lot more attractive than similar printers from other companies."

Price aside, before committing to the purchase of the Epson laser printer, MSA arranged with Epson Australia - Epsonow Magazine Volume 1 to have one brought on-site for a comprehensive assessment and evaluation. "Because of the price, we were looking at buyingytwo machines, so we wanted to make sure they had the reliability and throughput we needed," states Mr Logan.

Once connected to the company's Microsoft Windows NT network, MSA staff put EPL-N4000+ through its paces. Unattended operation, print quality, imaging cartridge life, reliability and even ease of programming were all thoroughly assessed before the final decision was made.

"Reliability is a critical factor," states Mr Logan. "From the time we receive the raw data from our client, we're expected to have the documents printed and dispatched within 24 hours. The last thing we want to be dealing with is print jobs halting because of paper jams, unexpected toner cartridge depletion and general system failures. Since we took delivery of the printers we've had no problems at all."

As a result of the high levels of performance delivered by the EPL-N4000+'s along with the need to implement an in-house colour printing solution, Greg approached Epson to discuss the suitability of the Epson AcuLaser-C2000 colour laser printer. "We were after a printer that would provide us with high quality colour prints for our own marketing material," explained Mr Logan. "Every time we introduce a new service or want to communicate with our clients via mail, we've generally had to use the services of a printing house. Aside from the cost involved, it also took days to get the finished product. We wanted something that would enable us to create our own professional colour documents in large quantities and in a fraction of the time.

"When Epson staff came in to show us the AcuLaser-C2000, we knew we had the solution right away. Even though this particular printer has been in only a few weeks, we're already recognising its potential to take it beyond its original role of internal use only and offering colour laser printing as a service to customers."

Going The Next Step

The two EPL-N4000+ printers have been proven so successful that MSA is looking to purchase an additional two units. With four of the high-volume laser printers, Greg sees the main benefits being redundancy and increased capacity.

"We had initially planned for a nine-month payback on investment with the EPL-N4000+ printers. The sheer reliability and low cost of running the machine, as well as the increased capacity they've given us to take on additional high-volume print jobs for clients has cut that initial estimate down by several months.

"It really comes down to one thing. They're generating revenue!"