About Wide-Format Devices
Wide-format devices, which allow users to print, scan and copy documents that are 11" x 17" or larger, are moving from print-for-pay shops into the office. Two factors have contributed to this transition: prices have decreased and the devices have become easier to use. “Eight years ago a customer would pay $65,000 for a product that would do four D-size prints per minute and that could scan and print,” said Rich Gigl, KIP America’s vice president of sales. Now such a device can be purchased for less than $20,000. In addition, these devices have become easier for a typical walk-up user to operate. “They’re less intimidating,” said Gigl. “Years ago, you needed a dedicated trained operator, specialized PCs and this, that and the other thing.” Now, he continued, an employee “can simply walk up and use it without being trained and certified.”
If your organization is considering buying a wide-format device, the following article will provide an overview of the current monochrome wide-format market.
Defining Wide Format
The definition of what constitutes a wide-format device varied among the vendors we spoke to. Several vendors said that any device that can accommodate documents larger than 11" x 17" can be considered wide format, while Penny Holland, Oce North America’s director of business development for wide-format printing systems, said “what we consider wide format is a 36" output device.” KIP’s Gigl concurs, noting, “Wide format is typically 36 inches.”
Wide-format devices are available primarily through dealers, although some vendors, such as Oce, Ricoh and Xerox, also provide wide-format products via their direct sales channel. Linda Maxwell Allen, Ricoh’s senior product manager for wide-format devices, noted that there is anecdotal evidence that an increasing number of customers are leasing wide-format devices. “They lease because of the changes and advances in software,” she explained. “Nobody wants to get stuck with old technology.” Dealers have told Maxwell Allen “that most of their products are leased for three years,” whereas previously customers signed five-year leases.
Wide-format devices primarily use rolls of paper, although some devices also accommodate cut-sheet paper. Cut-sheet paper has two primary uses in wide-format devices, said the vendors interviewed for this article. One is to use more expensive specialty media, such as mylar, a type of film, and vellum, a parchment type of paper. “If you’re only printing on [this media] once in a while, it may make more sense to run cut-sheet for two reasons,” said KIP National Marketing Manager Steve Kozle. “One, you can buy cut-sheet in a quantity of less than a 500-foot roll. And two, if you’re not printing on mylar or vellum that often, you probably don’t want to have a roll of [mylar or vellum] taking up one of the rolls—slots basically—that could be used for regular paper.” The second primary use for cut-sheet paper in wide-format devices is to serve as a separator page between job sets.
Volume and Pricing
Wide-format devices are generally categorized by volume: low, mid and high. Oce’s Holland defines low-volume devices as those with monthly volumes of 5,000 to 12,000 square feet per month; mid-volume, 12,000 to 75,000 square feet per month; and high-volume, 75,000 square feet and up. She noted that it’s very important for an organization to take its work cycle into consideration when looking at monthly volume. For example, an organization may have a monthly volume of 10,000 to 12,000 square feet but produce all of that volume on one day out of each month. So although a low-volume device could support that organization when it produces 12,000 square feet over the course of 20 work days, it may not be able to do so when the organization produces all that volume in a short amount of time.
Generally speaking, low-volume monochrome wide-format devices range in price from about $10,000 to $25,000, mid-volume models are priced from $25,000 to $50,000 and high-volume devices can cost from $50,000 to $140,000.
Tim Greene, director of wide-format research at InfoTrends, a market research and consulting firm, said that while there has been some small price erosion in the wide-format market, what is more significant is that the number of features built into the products, such as controllers, has increased, so buyers are getting more for their money than they were a few years ago.
Several vendors noted that when acquiring a wide-format device, customers need to look at more than just the price. “Price is going to be important,” acknowledged Katherine O’Brien, manager of wide-format solutions at Xerox, but added that customers also need to look at “the cost of the consumables [see below] and the media that they use.” Customers generally own these devices for three to five years, added KIP’s Gigl, so it’s important for customers to closely examine not only the entry-level price but also how much it will cost to operate the product over its lifetime.
Increase in Market Share
The market for wide-format devices has been increasing at the low end of the market and decreasing on the high end of the market, according to the vendors we spoke to. InfoTrend’s Greene said that the majority of the wide-format market—59 percent—is made up of low-volume units, up from 54 percent in 2002. Mid-volume devices accounted for 38 percent of the market, down from 44 percent in 2002. And high-volume models constituted just 3 percent of the market in 2005, up just 1 percent from 2002.
Xerox’s O’Brien attributes the increase at the low end and a decrease at the high end of the monochrome wide-format market to decentralization, explaining that “people are putting printers near their offices rather than going out to print-for-pay shops.”
Karen Fitt, vice president of advertising and public relations for Oce North America, echoed this observation. She credits a decrease in high-volume devices and an increase in low-volume, as well as mid-volume, devices to what she calls “pushing down the volume.” Fitt said, “It used to be, depending on the kind of volume that you’re talking about, that much of the production was done centrally by a reprographer or a central repro department, and once the output was printed or copied, it was then distributed to the end users who were using the information. What you see more and more [is that] the information is being distributed digitally to the people who use it, who then turn around and print it locally. So we talk about going from ‘print and distribute’ to ‘distribute and print.’ It leads to an overall trend in the market to a low-volume, point-of-need kind of user-based machine, as opposed to these higher-volume production machines.”
O’Brien seconded this. “Customers are doing a lot more data transmission electronically than by hardcopy. And so you don’t necessarily need to pass out a blueprint to everybody. They can now view it on their screen.”
Also contributing to market growth is the fact that the devices have become more user-friendly. “A lot of the driving force behind [this market increase] is that wide-format printers have become a lot easier for the general individual to use,” said O’Brien. “In the past, [these devices] really have been focused around print-for-pay shops, people with high-end experience.”
Replacement products also account for some of the wide-format market growth, said KIP’s Kozle. Some products out in the field are “old enough now that [they’re] in a steady replacement scheme,” he said. Kozle also noted that “there’s a lot of analog replacement,” as well as replacements made by some organizations that employ “a combination of analog and digital—an analog wide-format photocopier and an HP inkjet [printer that] they use in tandem with each other. They are replacing those now at a steady rate.”
Color
In addition to an increase in the overall wide-format market, some of the vendors we spoke to said they have seen an increase in the use of color. According to InfoTrends’ Greene, in 2005 41,000 monochrome laser/LED units and approximately 145,000 color inkjet models were placed. Greene noted that although only about 29 percent of the output produced on inkjet wide-format devices is color, organizations purchase these models because only models employing inkjet technology can output color wide-format documents. Some companies will have both a monochrome laser or LED device and a color inkjet device, said Greene, but a small company may just have an inkjet printer to provide coverage for both its color and monochrome needs.
Multifunctionality
Although wide-format devices are used primarily for printing, they are not just printers but multifunctional products in which the scanning function plays an important role, according to Ricoh’s Maxwell Allen. When a design is being created in a CAD program, for example, the designer will submit the document to others for review at each phase of the design process, hence the expression “back to the drawing board,” said Maxwell Allen. As a result, the document will be printed and copied a number of times and the hardcopy will be marked up. “Once they do that, that’s where scanning comes in,” she said, “and this is where it’s changing in the industry. If people do write-ups or make marks [on the document], they can scan it and send it to the next phase or to the original CAD designer. A printer alone doesn’t always help.”
With the scan capability, users can also archive these documents, eliminating the need to store hard copies that take up valuable real estate. Wide-format documents are typically 24" x 36", said Maxwell Allen, which means that they take up even more space than typical office documents. “You spend a lot of time, energy and real estate just having libraries of hardcopy documents that can be difficult to retrieve and can also be easily lost,” she added. In addition, archiving documents means that a back-up is available if a document is lost, misplaced or damaged.
Analog Versus Digital
Although several of the vendors covered said that there has been a year-over-year decline in the sales of analog wide-format devices, they also agree that there is still definitely a market for these products. With an analog wide-format device, users can only make copies and feed in only one original and produce only one copy at a time. They cannot collate, scan to file or print from a network, send a digital file or manipulate documents (e.g., reduce and enlarge, remove background or adjust contrast). These products are purchased by customers that have “very point of need copying,” said Oce’s Holland. Several vendors noted that you might, for example, find an analog device in a trailer on a construction job site. “You certainly wouldn’t want to put a $40,000 piece of equipment in a trailer,” said KIP’s Kozle. “If they only want to copy,” added Xerox’s O’Brien, “that could be their cheapest option. If they’re really starting to see a need for printing capabilities, they’re going to want to move to digital.” Pricing for analog wide-format devices starts at about $5,000, said vendors, which is about half the starting cost of a low-end digital monochrome device.
Ease of Use
“The most important question that a buyer or user should ask is ‘How does [the device] make my day easier, how does it improve or streamline the print process?’” said Oce’s Fitt. “When you had centralized reproduction, you had a key operator whose job was to get print requests, generate them and then distribute them out by whatever distribution method. By placing these point-of-need printers, you’ve got a lot more people interacting with the machines that don’t normally do it and those interactions are more infrequent. So maybe once a month it happens to be my turn to change the toner because I walked up and I was the one who found out that the [device] was out of toner or whatever else, and I’m not really used to it, so [the question is] ‘How can I quickly, easily and efficiently have that interaction and then turn around and get on with my day?’”
Here’s a look at some other features that help make wide-format devices easier to use.
- Flanges to make replacement of media rolls more convenient. With some products users have to slide a core through the media roll, which means that they have to lift the roll and place it on a table or place the roll on the floor and bend over to insert the core. Because flanges attach to each end of the roll, users stand the roll on one end, insert one flange, turn the roll over and insert the other flange. This replacement method is particularly useful for low-volume users who, to keep costs down, have opted for a model that employs one media roll. Users can buy extra flanges for rolls of other types of media, insert the flanges in these rolls and place them near the device so rolls can easily be switched when needed.
- A Front-exit design, which not only provides easy access but also allows the device to be placed within inches of a wall.
- Displays step-by-step media and toner replacement procedures automatically.
- Change paper rolls and toner bottles while the machine is operating.
- Instant-on printing with no warm-up time, so employees don’t have to stand around waiting for the device to warm-up.
Software Features
Software provided by some wide-format products can also help make them easier to use. For example some software:
- Lets users remotely manage their wide-format devices from any workstation on a network.
- Digitally enhances hard copy originals with little, if any, user intervention.
- Allows users to assemble a set of different file types, such as DWG, DWF and TIFF, and convert them to a print-ready format.
- Allows users to directly view and print design drawings published to the DWF format from Autodesk applications.
- Offer a Web-based print utility compatible with standard Web browsers that allows authorized users to send single or multiple files to wide-format systems connected to the Internet or a local network. So, for example, if an employee is traveling, he or she can transfer files to a wide-format device at the office and output job.
- Some devices offer a single software platform, so users don’t need to learn various software platforms to drive various products.
Other Considerations
In addition to ease of use, customers should also take the following into consideration when acquiring a wide-format device:
- Accounting capabilities. Whether a wide-format device is used in a print-for-pay shop or an office environment, there may be a need to track jobs output, so buyers may want to ask about a device’s accounting capabilities. A print-for-pay shop needs to track how much media and toner is being used so that it can bill customers. A company may also need this capability to bill by department or project.
- Footprint. “The footprint has become increasingly important, the bang for the buck in terms of the size of the equipment,” said KIP’s Kozle. “Sometimes people make a choice literally based on the size of the equipment, given that other factors are similar.” Some wide-format devices require up to three separate footprints: one for the device, one for a scanner and one for a PC for the print controller.
- Image quality. “Higher resolution and grayscale are very important in wide format because you’re not just reading text, you’re reading fine lines and shading and you’re reading everything else because everything means something in a CAD document,” said Ricoh’s Maxwell Allen. “Image is very important. If you can’t see fine lines or cross hatching, then you’re not getting the true picture.” And while image quality is important to the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) industry, noted Maxwell Allen, “it may not be as finely important as [it is to] a reprographer whose business it is to create documents for people.”
- Media. Buyers should make sure that the type of media that a device can handle is compatible with their needs, said Bill Cassidy, formerly Kyocera Mita’s product marketing manager for high-volume multifunctional products and wide format and now the company’s associate director of product sales and solutions marketing. Plain paper, mylar and vellum are the paper types most commonly used in wide-format devices.
- Security features. Some wide-format vendors offer features that enable organizations to keep their documents secure.
- Warm-up time. A device’s warm-up time is important, particularly in a low-volume environment where a device is not being used all day long, said Oce’s Holland. “If a machine spends a long time sitting idle and it takes a long time to wake up from an idle [state], it’s going to take a long time to get the prints out when you need them because you’re not sending them constantly.”
Buyers should also consider the following:
Is the controller embedded? If not, is the PC required to support the controller provided in the base configuration or must it be purchased separately?
- Can the device’s functionality be upgraded to meet your organization’s growing needs?
- Does the device support your organization’s file format needs?
- How much energy does the device consume and how will it affect the overall cost of the device?
- How will you get the device into your facility? “It’s not an obvious consideration,” said Ricoh’s Maxwell Allen, “but some of these products are very, very heavy and very, very big and getting them around corners and into buildings is a challenge."
- Does the device require additional electrical requirements?
The Need for Speed
There are two parts to the speed equation, according to Xerox’s O’Brien. One is the actual printing speed when the device is up and running. “It’s a critical measurement,” she said, “because that’s the first thing everyone measures equipment against. It’s how many Ds per minute do you actually print. A D is 24" x 36". If I put in 36" paper, how fast am I printing every 24".” O’Brien related speed on a wide-format device to speed on a narrow-format printer by explaining that the Xerox 721’s speed of 22 Ds per minute is the equivalent of 180 letter-size (8-1/2" x 11") prints per minute. “Speed is an absolutely critical measurement for people as to how long it’s going to take to get their job out. And they want a lot of speed if they’ve got a lot of production [but] they don’t need as much if they just have a small volume. And you’re going to pay a lot more for that speed.”
The second part of the equation, said O’Brien, is productivity. She explained that Xerox measures productivity from “click to clunk,” a term the company uses for the time between when the user clicks on print on the computer screen to when the paper comes out of the device. This process takes into account a number of factors, such as warm-up time and how long it takes to process the file. “When you’re talking wide format, a lot of these files are huge,” said O’Brien, adding that they range from 1 MB to 300 MB. “So processing time becomes a very important part of the whole issue.” Concurrency—the ability to do multiple tasks at the same time (for example, scan a copy while a device is printing), as well as time for cutting and stacking, is also taken into consideration.
Measuring Cost Per Page
When acquiring a wide-format device, it’s important not only to ask about a device’s cost per page but also how that cost per page is determined because the method used to measure cost can vary by vendor. For example, Ricoh’s Maxwell Allen said that cost per page is typically based on parts, labor and consumables but not media, while KIP’s Gigl said it’s a combination of paper, toner and maintenance pricing, as well as the general acquisition of the product. Also be sure to ask if the media is measured in square feet or linear feet. Three of the vendors we spoke to said cost per copy is measured in square feet, one said it’s measured in linear feet and the fifth said that the cost per copy of one of its products is measured in linear feet, while both linear and square feet are used to measure cost per copy on its other product. Most of the vendors agreed, however, that cost per page is based on a page with 5 percent coverage.
Reliability and Service Contracts
According to the vendors covered, wide-format devices are reliable products. “Customers will tend to hang on to them for five, seven, ten years,” said Xerox’s O’Brien. To help determine a product’s reliability, O’Brien suggests asking the vendor what the average service call expectation is per month. “In order to calculate that, the dealer is going to need to know what your monthly volume is,” said O’Brien. “That’s typically where we have difficulties with customers because they’re not quite sure how many wide-format prints they’re printing per month. Once you understand what your usage rate is going to be, it’s very easy for us to predict what your service call rate is going to be.”
Customers of analog devices didn’t often buy service contracts because they were simple machines and someone in-house may have been able to fix problems, said Ricoh’s Maxwell Allen. However with digital devices, which are more technologically advanced both in terms of hardware and software, “you really need to have a service contract,” said Maxwell Allen. She continued, “I don’t think they require a lot of service, but they certainly require a PM [preventive maintenance]. So if someone is not going to get a service contract from any manufacturer, they certainly need to have someone come in on a regular basis, just as they would treat their car.”
Challenges in Selling Wide Format
When we asked vendors what their greatest challenge is when selling wide-format devices, they said it was making customers realize how cost-effective and convenient it would be to bring the devices in-house, and, once they are in place, how they can improve an organization’s workflow.
People will say that it only cost them a dollar to make a copy, but what they don’t factor in, said Kyocera Mita’s Cassidy, is that they may have driven an hour to get to the place where they made the copy. KIP’s Gigl agrees that it’s sometimes difficult to convince customers that they’d be better off bringing their print volume in-house because they don’t factor in the “intangible labor costs,” saying that they like to go to their local printer because they just produce 10 sheets a week.
The biggest challenge, said Oce’s Fitt, is “making sure that buyers are aware of the big picture, understanding the implications of the purchase decision with regard to workflow, ease of use, reliability, serviceability, construction and how the machine fits into the environment, as opposed to it being a pure pricing decision.” She continued, “If you think about the amount of investment and how long that investment is going to last, it’s easy to make a quick decision about a cheap product if you’re going to throw it away in a couple of years, as opposed to making a greater investment for a piece of equipment that’s going to last a longer period of time, require less service and be overall more robust. You start to see where the decision could go differently. And if you start to take into account things such as software, it becomes less of pricing decision because you see the implications of the other items on the user. People in most businesses are looking for ways to hold down personnel costs and make the resources they have from a people standpoint as productive as possible. They don’t necessarily want to add more people to get the work out; they want to come up with a system or a workflow that makes the people more productive and gets more output per person. And that’s not usually ‘What’s the cheapest printer?’ It’s the productivity of the overall workflow.”