Purchasing Rubric
Once you have determined the types of products that will meet your needs (if you’re not sure, we recommend the Buyers Lab Advisor Needs Wizard), you should begin developing a rubric to assign weights to the various factors that will go into your decision (e.g. 25% cost; 40% features/ratings; 25% dealers’ reputation; 10% environmental issues).
As we’ve written previously in this How To Guide, the cost of acquisition is only one part of the equation when pricing printers, copiers and MFPs. The other part—ongoing “running” costs— including the price of toner, consumables, servicing, etc. vary widely, so make sure you understand a device’s total cost of ownership (TCO).
Once you’ve decided to look at certain copier, printer or MFPs, a Buyers Lab Competitive Side-By-Side comparison is a convenient way for you to easily see the complete specifications for those products, and directly compare them against the closest products in the marketplace. This makes it easy to compare prices, features, optional upgrades, security features, rated consumables yields and more. Again, ask each dealer presenting to provide this (most have access to bliQ) or subscribe to bliQ yourself if you prefer to do this on your own.