Choosing Office Equipment
What to Consider When Purchasing Equipment for an Office
Selecting office equipment requires a careful examination of the users of that equipment. Consider who will be using the equipment and what the volume of use will be.
Purchasing office equipment for a new office can be a daunting task as it requires a large outlay of capitol or signing a leasing contract that binds you for a few years. Consider the users carefully so that you can identify the best options for the group that will be utilizing the equipment. Not only identify the number of users and the volume of use, also consider the varying needs of different departments i.e. sales, operations, finance.
Also, work closely with your IT department. They will need to be consulted on the networking requirements. Often they have suggestions for models that work well in the IT environment of the office.
Printer
How many people will be using the printer? Will they need to print in colour? Will some of their documents require large paper i.e. beyond legal? What is the anticipated volume of printing?
Photocopier
What is the volume of printing? What finishing options would be most used – 3 hole punching, binding, collating, etc.?
Fax Machines and Scanners
How often is staff faxing hard copies? For example, sales staff may need to fax signed contracts and therefore need to fax hard copies. If your office is a sales office, you may need to look at a high volume fax machine or a printer that scans hard copies for ease of emailing.
All-in-Ones
All-in-one machines are great for small offices but can be very impractical if there is either a large volume of printing or copying by a few people or if there are many people networked to the all-in-one and jobs are being queued up. Read the suggested volume limits for the all-in-one units and consider purchasing separate machines if needed.
Other equipment to consider purchasing:
- Paper Cutter – if staff needs to trim a large volume of paper, a paper cutter is a must to get a professional straight cut.
- Heavy Duty 3-Hole Punch – if customers or clients receive binders of sales or training materials, a heavy duty 3-hole punch is important. Also purchase pre-punched paper for the photocopier if there is to be a large volume of binder production.
- Heavy Duty Stapler - a heavy duty stapler is a must in an office that produces documents of 20 pages or more on a routine basis e.g. long contracts, training materials.
If you have comments or suggestions on this article, please start a discussion
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