How the Photocopiers Industry Authority, BERTL, Picks the Best

When reading about Canon's recent success at BERTL's 'Spring Pick' Awards a month or so ago, it quickly became apparent that BERTL, who are now the major assessment authority within the photocopiers industry, have made some pretty significant changes to the way they judge performance for the world's major photocopiers manufacturers. In many ways echoing the view of Trevor Dodsworth, Canon UK's Head of Product Marketing, who recently spoke of Canon's own device product development drivers, BERTL are placing ever more emphasis on end-user needs than whatever the rest of the industry's own internal performance criteria happen to be at any given time. BERTL and Art Wynne, the company's President, very kindly agreed to shed some light on how the world's leading photocopiers manufacturers are being assessed today.

BERTL

For those entirely new to photocopiers or those looking at photocopiers for the first time in a long time, BERTL, which stands for Buisness Equipment Research and Testing Laboratory Inc and they do exactly that. BERTL provides laboratory testing of both devices and software solutions with the objective of producing indpendent product evaluation reports and comparative analyses. Manufacturers possess no influence over BERTL's evaluations and the company prides itself on the rigour of its research and analyses.

The focus of BERTL's efforts are not the manufacturers but the end-user. All reports, customer satisfaction research, product ratings and its industry-renowned awards scheme are conducted entirely at BERTL's expense and for the benefit of the company's global subscribers. Covering all of the world's major manufacturers and software producers in the business equipment field, BERTL provides a highly comprehensive website, containing evaluation reports, data, vertical market research and news on all office equipment from photocopiers, MFP's, printers, document scanners, fax machines and even wide format printers.

BERTL's Assessment Rationale

For many looking to buy office devices and who do not want to take a chance on whichever salesman approaches them first, BERTL provides an essential one-stop-shop in the BERTL Awards for determining the best devices around in any given year. Canon's success at this year's BERTL Awards revealed some interesting changes to the way the company makes its assessments. BERTL outlines this on the 'Awards' section of its website,

"Keeping up with the times and the demands of its end-users, BERTL left behind the simple speed and feed productivity artificial reliability tests and theoretical SRP pricing lists and focused on the end-user and the business dynamics when putting together the year's 'Best of the Best'"

It is very clear, BERTL has made great efforts to broaden and deepen its assessment criteria. Speed in particular, which has started to plateau in the last few years anyway, particularly when it comes to office photocopiers and MFP's, is no longer the 'be-all and end-all'. As the explanation continues,

"While it may be easy to divide up the market into speed groupings, it can often place devices of very different capabilities side-by-side."

Art Wynne, President of BERTL, elaborated,

"Speed is no longer the primary consideration for end users. They are concerned with a far broader range of criteria - if a device can reproduce colours accurately (especially logos), if a device has adequate security measures...what finishing options are available (so that a whole job completed at the device), how easily jobs on a device can be monitored and whether a device has 'green' policies to ensure that the overall impact on the environment is minimised."

Wynne added,

"While these are just a few of the overall concerns end-users may have, BERTL uses 11 different criteria for testing the devices we issue reports on."

But Wynne was also very keen to stress the growing importance of context within the industry. While many organisations will require more-or-less the same 'basics', different sectors understandably have differing priorities when it comes to office technologies. Wynne continued,

"As for the vertical market applications and business benefits there are unique considerations for different markets... For instance, in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) vertical, there is a need to know precisely how accurate the scanning is, what types and sizes of media a device can accommodate, how much room a device needs to have for planned to be scanned-in and printed-off and lately, if there's an ability to scan-to or print from the cloud. In the medical and legal verticals, there's a definite need to know about the security features."

While BERTL today make a very useful destinction between desktop, workgroup, department and production it's very clear from Wynn's analyses of the best assessment criteria that the most impressive devices today not only need to be multifuntional but also in a way multi-'vertical' too, responding adequately, convincingly to the very real and varied needs of the economy's different business sectors. While there will inevitably be a greater emphasis on some features than others in particular verticals, it's clear that from BERTL's assessment criteria, the real skill for today's manufacturers is to provide all.

It's impressive to see that BERTL who are relied upon by organisations across the globe for their scrutinizing eye have evolved such an evidently rigorous judgement criteria. It's interesting to note as well, much as Canon outlined in a recent article, speed for BERTL no longer seems to be the primary, 'trump-all' consideration for most end-users.

Falcon would like to extend its thanks to Art Wynne and the team at BERTL for sharing their insights and welcomes any enquiries about the latest crop of 'BERTL's Best' award-winning Canon imageRUNNER and Canon imageRUNNER Advance devices, available on photocopier leasing packages or to buy.

About the Author

Jeremy Samson is an imaging technology expert writing extensively on the latest developments in the document managment industry.

Use Those Photocopiers/Photo Printers Wisely - What Colour Can Reveal About You

While printing to your photocopier or printer in colour would not ordinarily be a worry, a recent Canon commissioned paper into the symbolic power of colour in relation to the way we dress could easily prompt considerate readers to think again aboout their favourite photos of themselves and the way they choose to dress for work in future. This study for Canon, more renowned for its photocopiers and MFPs, provides a fascinating insight into the incredible symbolic power of colour. Here, Falcon, a leading UK Canon photocopiers supplier, provides some of the study's most salient obsevations.

The Power of Colour

Colour effects all of us a great deal but often, without us even being consciously aware of it. Not only is it important to how we define ourselves but it effects our spending habits, our livelihoods and ultimately, our well-being. It is a part of a natural non-verbal signalling system and human beings, like any of nature's creatures, all use colour in our assessments of the world we inhabit. Our appearance and especially our colour coordination, is the first thing by which others judge us. First impressions are typically made within 3-7 seconds.

But colours, when it comes to people, are rarely present in isolation. Typically when we form a first impression of someone, we're looking at colour combinations. If the combinations are discordant, the impression we form of a person is likely to be less positive. If the combinations are harmonious however, we are likely to feel "pleasant feelings", as the colour theorists Judd and Wysesky found.

While the harmony is absolutely crucial, it's the person wearing the clothes who is the really pivotal determinant of how we react to the colours they are wearing. Most people will fit into one of four major personality types and for colour too there are four harmonious colour groups, each associated with one of the four personality types. Each colour group expresses best the positive aspects of the personality type with which it is associated. So to ensure the most positive responses from others, one must choose harmoniois colours from the colour group which fits you. We all respond positively to the harmony and autheticity of teh right colours in association with the right personality type. Whilst none of us fit the archetype of type 1, 2, 3 or 4 personality type, the predominant apsects of each will place us fairly well in accordance with one of the four according colour groups.

Colour and Personality - The Theory

Type one personalities are characterised as being externally motivated and very young-at-heart. They possess a quality of 'lightness' and tend have rounded and quite delicate features. They have great charm and succeed working with large numbers of people. They are often very bright but rarely bookishly academic. Above all, this personality type is characterised by a strong practical streak and boundless energy.

As far as the No 1 colour palette is concerned, they are clear, warm delicate colours containing no black. Scarlet, coral, peach, dafodil yellow, emerald green, sky blue, cobalt and lilac are some examples. The chracteristics expressed with this tonal family, in line with the type one personality are bright, warm, friendly, young, lively, fresh and optimistic.

Archetypal personality type two's are typically fairly cool, calm and collected. They are usually internally motivated but tend to be highly empathetic to what others are feeling. Their features tend to be gently curved and there eyes can have what might be described as a misty quality to them. Type two's tend to dislike vulgarity and their humour may be described as subtle and dry. Great careers for this personality type tend to be creating order out of chaos and keeping the peace. They often have a very acute sense of touch, so artistic careers can be suitable.

Type 2 colours tend to be cool, contain rather more grey and while delicate, would not usually be decibed as light. They are usually soft and subtle - maroon, rose pink, grapefruit, dove grey, veridian, delphium and laveneder. Again, in line with the personality type, the characteristics of these colours are understated elegance, cool, calm, graceful, upmarket, timeless, expensive, soothing and aspirational.

Like personality type one, type three is externally motivated. But type three's are intense and strong and tend to be quite fiery, to a greater or lesser extent. They possess a strong sense of justice and are fascinated by how things work. Physichal comfort and solidity are important to them and they usually have an aversion to anything flimsy, be that ideas or physical objects. Good careers are jobs that involve getting under the surface of things.

Much like the personality, this third colour palette is about intensity and fire. They usually contain black in their mixing and are charcterised by warm, friendly, traditional, solid, substantial, reliable and earthy qualities. Examples include tomato red, burnt orange, rust, leaf green, teal blue and aubergine.

Type four personalities automatically command respect. Physically, their features are usually well-defined and their eyes tend to appear quite compelling. They are usually internally motivated and have a gift for seeing the broader picture and for delegation. Colour pallette 4 is about clarity and strength, Black, white, crimson, magenta, lemon, jade green, ice blue and violet are tpical colours. They communicate uncompromising excellence, material aspiration, efficiency and drive.

General, Non-type Colour Psychology

While individuals should always choose the right combination of colours from their colour type, they'll always be a way that different character types can wear a variation of the same colour. For instance a red, blue green or yellow could be worn by all personality types - it's a question of which tone suits the personality in question. So as all can wear a nuance of quite a number of difference colours, each base colour itself has certain communicative powers which may be used to suit a given context for any personality type. For example, a manager may choose to wear a dark blue for a meeting in which a colleague needs to be disciplined or reprimanded, to create a focused but also trustworthy and logical atmosphere. Green would be more appropriate to convey harmony, reassurance and balance, if a colleague wished to discuss a personal matter for instance. Red has a warm, friendly and energetic connotations and can boost energy levels and aid assertiveness. Yellow conveys optimism, confidence, creativity and can lift spirits and boost self-esteem.

Canon, better known for its industry-leading photocopiers than its advocacy of 'colour pschology' has commissioned a truly interesting study. As well as finding some genuinely useful advice, readers may also find themselves re-assessing the way they dress and which photos of themslevs tehy choose to print out on their photocopier/MFP.

Falcon is a leading supplier of Canon photocopiers and offers the latest Canon imageRUNNER and Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers and MFP's to purchase or on photocopier leasing packages and supplies award-winning document management solutions.

About the Author

Jeremy Samson is an imaging technology expert writing extensively on the latest developments in the document managment industry.

Photocopiers and MFP's - What's the Difference?

The simple answer is that to many people today the terms 'photocopier' and 'MFP' have become inter-changeable. But the equation in terminology, while a useful short-hand, particularly from the technologically unaware user's point of view, masks a world of difference in technology and functionality. Over the past decade or so, the MFP has really been at the leading-edge of reprographics developments, the bearer of the latest innovations and the most significant technological advancements. While many today continue to regard photocopiers and MFP's as one and the same thing, there should be no confusion that the technology involved has come a very long way, to the extent that very few devices today would offer solely conventional photocopying functionality alone. MFP's have been quietly redefining what is possible through what was once a fairly cumbersome, single-function device. Here, we'll explore just how much photocopiers have evolved over the years and what today's organisations can expect from when buying or leasing a photocopier/MFP.

The MFP - From Conventional Analogue Photocopier to Digital Multifunctional Device

When photocopiers bagan to be more widely available during the 1960's, they were huge trundling leviathans of machines, with just the one single function - photocopying. They were often slow, would usually only handle very limited media sizes and weights and would struggle with any larger workloads.

Canon was the first photocopiers manufacturer to introduce electrostatic colour photocopiers, launching the first mass-produced colour model in 1973. The 1970's and 80's saw gradual improvements in the productivity and well as the reprographic quality of photocopiers and accompanying reductions in the actual size of devices themselves. But it was really in the mid to late ninetees that photocopiers technology really began to take-off. As the world was finding its feet with PC's and the internet, personal computer technology was beginning to filter through to photocopiers, so that more advanced user interfaces and operating systems could give photocopiers users access to a greater range of photocopying and printing options. For the first time, photocopiers could be networked to users' workstations, so that as well as photocopying at the device itself, users could send print jobs to the print servers or to the devices themselves, effectively doubling the photocopier's functionality. Attending these developments were improvements to media handling, so that devices could accomodate various paper weights and a variety of paper sizes. And at the close of the last millenium photocopiers also began to include an extended range of finsihing options so that the conventional copier could not only print as well as copy but could print a variety of documents, providing stapling, hole-punching and various kinds of folding finishing options. Scanning also came to be a more regular feature on photcoopiers, initially just black and white or monochrome but increasingly, colour scanning has become prevalent among many more high-end devices.

MFP's and Photocopiers Today

In the last decade, the rate of technological change in photocopier/MFP technology has been astonishing. With more sophisticated on-board embedded platforms, users have been given a much greater level of control over device output and have been empowered to create dynamic document workflows between users and devices. With the greater levels of integration between photocopiers and back-end systems, using PDL's and   ">MEAP connectors for example, and integration with commomly-used desktop software, using WYSIWYG print publishing and previews for example, photocopers and MFP's have effectively broken-down the boundaries between desktop and printer, so for example, documents may be previewed on devices before they progress further down the document workflow. What is known as Universal Send provides limitless possibilities for documents once they have been scanned in. It's now possible to scan directly to an   ">FTP site, to SMB or to users' email accounts. Canon's CloudConnect feature connects Canon MFP's with leading cloud-based services, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Sharepoint, so that documents may be printed off at an MFP/photocopier from a mobile device and conversely scanned in at an MFP/photocopier to a mobile device, a technology which further expands the parameters of document workflows.

But a major difference between a modern day photocopier/MFP and predecessors 15/20 years ago is energy consumption. Th latest Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers today consume up to 65% less energy than their equivalents only 10/15 years ago. Very few modern devices will not have had to met some energy consumption standards, be that TEC energy consumption, Energy Star accreditation or RoHS and some photocopiers, again taking Canon's imageRUNNER Advance series as an example, are made using recylcled materials and bio platics, to save on energy consumption and CO2 emissions during manufacturer. So even though photocopiers today do so much more by way of performance, they typically cost much less to run, especially now that service access is given increasing consideration in photocopiers design.

To refer to a modern-day multifunction printer (MFP) as a photocopier is entirely acceptable. It is afterall from the photocopier which the MFP originates and for many, though certainly not all, the primary function of an MFP remains photocopying. However, if anyone thought for a second that what they understood to be a photocopier 10/15/20 years ago bears really anything but a notional resemblance with photocopiers/MFP's today they'd be much mistaken. Photocopiers or MFP's, as they're more often known within the industry today, provide a huge wealth of features and functionality, so that for many companies today they have effectively become an organsiational hub for all their document management needs. Providing for a multitude of document output requirements and offering scanning, printing, faxing and i-send functionality, today's MFP/photocopier can make the conventional photocopier look veritably antique.

Falcon is one of the UK's leading Canon photocopiers suppliers and a leader in document management solutions. For further information about photocopier leasing, the latest Canon photocopiers or for any other enquiries, please contact Falcon.

About the Author

Jeremy Samson is an imaging technology expert writing extensively on the latest developments in the document managment industry.

Photocopier Leasing

Earlier this year Falcon reported on the record levels of customers choosing photocopier leasing as opposed to outright purchase of devices. Falcon could reveal that since 2008 and the dawn of the present recession, there had been a steady growth in photocopier leasing levels, starting from an almost even spread in 2007/2008 to 60% photocopier leasing in 2009 and an astonishing 70% plus by the start of 2011. Well, more-or-less half way through 2011 and Falcon can reveal another rather staggering increase in leasing levels - by June this year they'd reached an all time high of 82%. Now more than ever, it seems, customers are realising the many benefits which photocopier leasing can bring. For many, the structure of photocopier leases has changed significantly since they last considered the option, so that entering a photocopier leasing agreement today is much simpler and the costs associated much lower. For others, the relatively short term financial commitment of photocopier leasing has become very much more attractive in the more straightened economic times we're experiencing. Here we explore how photocopier leasing levels have shot up so dramatically in the past few years and what seems to be driving the change in customer preference.

A Consistent Increase in Photocopier Leasing Levels

Since the UK entered the present economic downturn in 2008, there has been a consistent growth in the number of organisations choosing to lease photocopiers rather than buy. 2009 saw photocopier leasing levels increase to over 60%, from an almost even split between leasing and purchase in 2008. Falcon had reported at the time of the news that as well as the natural tendency towards leasing as a consequence of the uncertain economic times, photocopier leasing companies had been doing much more to make themselves more attractive to potential customers. Since then, as the economic fortunes of the country haven't improved and photocopier leasing companies have been working hard to promote leasing as the most cost-effective solution, the proportion of customers choosing to lease photocopiers has increased further still. At the time of the last leasing figures in January, Falcon could reveal that up to 75% of new business came from photocopier leasing customers. Now, half way through 2011 and that previous record high for leasing has been smashed. The average perecentage of customers leasing photocopiers in the first five months of 2011 was an astonishing 82%.

What is Driving the Increase in Photocopier Leasing?

The major advantage of leasing a photocopier as opposed to purchasing outright is avoiding the significant financial outlay which buying any modern device will usually entail. While small/medium-sized Canon photocopiers for instance are now the best value they have ever been, the imageRUNNER Advance C2020L Canon photocopiers for instance costing around £2000, for many businesses that's still not something they can afford, especially in the uncertain economic times we're experiencing at the moment. Photocopier leasing allows customers to pay for any devices, including all the latest Canon photocopiers, at manageable monthly amounts and only for the time they require. As has been noted, photocopier leasing companies have been going the extra mile to encourage organisations not to hang-on to ineffective reprographics systems or hold-off from buying new devices out of fear of costs. Unlike the earlier days of photocopier leasing, with much greater competetion among photocopier leasing companies, they now typically make much lower margins and are also far more flexible about minimum monthly leasing terms. For this reason, not only do photocopier leasing customers benefit from low monthly costs but they're also able to limit their financial commitment over time.

With many businesses currently operating very close to their bottom-line, staff time is also more valuable than ever. For many, the fact that photocopier leasing comapnies now offer all-inclusive packages covering all toner, parts maintenance as well as all servicing and installation, really takes the stress out of owning a photocopier, where often a non-technical member of staff would find themselves saddled with the task of topping up the toner or attempting to resolve technical issues. Together with the more flexible leasing terms, lower costs and all-inclusive packages, photocopier leasing companies are also working closely with potential customers to maximise the chances of securing lease financing. In a climate in which banks are increasingly unlikely to lend to businesses, photocopier leasing companies are effectively bucking the trend in providing finance for the vast majority of their customers.

But a major reason why many organisations are opting for photocopier leasing rather than outright purchase is to keep up with the latest developments in technology. As more and more innovations are built into the latest photocopiers, Canon photocopiers for instance now connecting directly with 'cloud' services such as Google Docs, leasing allows businesses to regularly renew equipment, as technological developments occur. With typically shorter leasing terms, businesses don't have to wait very long to replace devices and take advantage of the latest equipment, meaning they're always able to enjoy the best productivity and efficiency savings possible.

The ongoing recession means there's very little optimism in the economy at the moment, with many businesses remaining uncertain about their prosepcts for the future. With banks reluctant to lend in such precarious times, it has become difficult for many small and medium-sized businesses to secure funding for their larger outlays. Leasing photocopiers has thus become a much more attractive option. Not only do regular monthly payments over a fixed, agreed term make financial planning much simpler, but the greater flexibility, the ability to keep up with advancements in technology and that great efforts that photocopier leasing companies have made to reduce costs and also to help customers secure lease finance, now mean that for many orgnaisations, photocopier leasing has become the preferred option.

Falcon is a leading supplier of Canon photocopiers and document management solutions. All the latest Canon photocopiers and MFPs, including the award-winning imageRUNNER and Canon imageRUNNER Advance ranges are available from Falcon, either to purchase or lease.

About the Author

Jeremy Samson is an imaging technology expert writing extensively on the latest developments in the document managment industry.