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PRINT.IT
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PRINTERS
ON TEST:
SHARP MX-C301W
Sharp’s new A4 MFP, the cloud-
enabled MX-C301W, is the perfect
companion to large departmental
devices in mixed deployments of A4
and A3 devices – it boasts a robust
durable design that enterprises
and MPS providers demand and,
for ease of use, has the same user
interface as Sharp’s A3 machines.
It is also a highly productive device
for smaller businesses/departments
that might not need or have room for
an A3 MFP.
Kingswood Media, publisher of
PrintIT,
falls into the second category.
There is no room in our Sevenoaks
offices for a large A3 device, yet we still
have a requirement for enterprise-class
functionality and fast print speeds
to cope with times of peak activity,
including the run-up to exhibitions
when we need to produce large
numbers of flyers and promotional
material within a short timeframe.
With colour and mono print
speeds of 30 pages per minute
and a 3GB memory for processing
complex jobs, the MX-C301W easily
coped with peaks in our workload,
while the 7in colour touchscreen with
clear lay-out and intuitive operation
minimised time spent at the device
when scanning and copying. Staff
from our Winchester office valued
the wireless and USB Direct print
capability, which enabled them to
print from laptops, smartphones and
USB sticks when attending weekly
meetings in Sevenoaks.
Print quality is best described
as ‘business quality’ i.e. perfect for
everyday business applications, such
as letters, invoices, reports, proof-
reading etc. For jobs that required
the highest quality output, we
continued to use our own specialist
printer – not that Sharp would
ever promote the MX-C301W as a
graphics device.
What it is is a reliable, belt-and-
braces workgroup MFP that offers
all the functionality you would
expect from a modern A3 device,
from 4-in1 functionality (print, copy,
scan, fax) and a 250GB hard drive
for storing documents and forms
to encrypted scanning and secure
Follow Me printing with five-digit user
authentication.
Much of this
functionality was
surplus to our requirements but would
be very welcome – if not essential – in
larger businesses, especially those
with active print management policies
or a requirement for strict data
security such as in the finance and
healthcare sectors.
That said, one feature that we
would certainly have made more
use of had we had the machine for
longer was cloud connectivity.
Like many organisations,
Kingswood Media has a policy
to reduce the amount of paper
circulating around our business. We
still print to share information and
ease collaboration, but at the end
of each day we scan what we want
to keep and recycle the rest. This
maintains a neat working environment
and ensures valuable space is not
taken up with paper filing.
As standard, the MX-C301W lets
users scan to e-mail, FTP server,
network folder and USB memory.
With the addition of the optional
Sharp OSA solutions platform, it
also connects directly to cloud
applications including Cloud Portal
Office, Sharp’s collaborative storage
and workflow solution. The ability to
scan documents to (and print from)
a portal that can also be accessed
remotely (i.e. when working from
home) and by staff in the Winchester
office has obvious benefits.
Enterprises will love the Sharp
MX-C301W for its functionality
and its ability to be integrated
into an existing fleet as part of a
more balanced deployment of A4
and A3 devices. Smaller, growing
businesses, like Kingswood Media,
may not yet need all the functionality
on offer, but will take reassurance
from the MFP’s fully integrated
design, which is more robust than
many A4 devices; from its ease of
use, including installation; and a
feature set that has the flexibility to
meet evolving needs.
In a four-week trial,
PrintIT
only scratched the surface of
what’s possible with Sharp’s new cloud-enabled A4 colour MFP
The complete solution
... we need
to produce
large
numbers of
flyers and
promotional
material
within
a short
timeframe
One feature
that we would
certainly
have made
more use of
had we had
the machine
for longer
was cloud
connectivity.
...continued
imagination. I went to my solicitor
to hand in some proof of identity
documents. It’s a branch office in
Tewkesbury, about 20 miles from the
head office. She took my passport
and utility bills behind the counter and
when she brought my passport back,
I said: ‘Just out of interest, did you
scan or photocopy it?’ She said:
‘I photocopied it: I’ll send it to the
head office and they’ll scan it there.’
So many organisations will scan paper
at the end of a process, because they
have to reduce the amount of floor
space taken up by records. Why not
scan it at the start of the process and
put it through the process electronically
so it moves so much faster?”
One reason why there is still so
much paper in business processes,
second only to a lack of management
initiatives (cited by 47%), is the
perceived need for physical
signatures (44%).
“People like to have a hard copy,”
explained Miles. “People assume
you need a wet ink signature in order
to make it legal, but you don’t. It’s
valid to use digital signatures, to use
bitmap signatures. We’ve been using
signatures on faxes for years.”
He adds that electronic processes
actually enhance compliance.
“If the process flow says you need
to store a record of a form in the
records management system and
the records management system
is a filing cabinet and you rely on
someone to take a photocopy and
pop it in the filing cabinet, nobody
will know if it didn’t happen, whereas
with an electronic workflow, you can
ensure it happens and block the
workflow or flag up the workflow as
non-compliant if it doesn’t,” he said.
A word of warning, though:
implementing paper-less electronic
processes is not a panacea. “Even
when everything is electronic, some
stuff will have value and some stuff
will have nil value, and trying to
separate the stuff with nil value that
we pay a lot of money to keep is the
next huge issue within electronic
record keeping and electronic
processing,” warned Miles.
Paper Wars 2014 – an update from
the battlefield
is free to download
at
/
Industry-Watch/Paper-Wars-2014.
The full interview with Doug Miles
can be read in the December issue
of
Business Info
, available at
