Competition in digital copier market gets tough

Rudijanto, Contributor, Jakarta

The latest trend in digital copiers offers users not only savings in space and costs but also time, thanks to their compatibility with other high-tech office equipment such as personal computers, printers, scanners and facsimiles.

Employing state-of-the-art technology, the latest brands of digital copier can be used as multifunction machines that combine printer, scanner and fax functions into a single machine.

Equipped with sophisticated information technology (IT) gadgetry, the new digital multifunction machines on the market expect to wipe out the remaining bulky, slower stand-alone analog copy, print and facsimile machines.

Multifunction machines can serve as network printers, yielding more or less the same quality as a laser printer. Some of these machines, Konica models for instance, can even support tandem copying and printing.

Unlike conventional stand-alone fax machines that can generally send A4-size documents in halftone 64 grayscale, some Konica models can fax documents up to A3 in size, thick books and even 3-dimensional objects, all at higher speeds and with better quality -- halftone 256 grayscale, at 33.6 kbps -- than conventional, stand-alone fax machines.

Some of these multifunction machines, particularly Fuji Xerox products, or Document Centers, have copy and print speeds from 15 pages per minute (ppm) up to 70 ppm. With a computer connection, a Document Center can also serve as a printer and scanner.

Some multifunction machines such as the HP OfficeJet 5510, HP OfficeJet 9100 and Canon ImageRUNNER C3100N (IRC3100N) even have an ability to send color faxes. Some machines also have dual processing capability, which enables the machine to print, scan or fax at the same time.

Integrating IT technology to a high degree, most of these new digital multifunction copiers equip themselves with an LCD monitor, some with touch-screen LCD monitors, such as the Canon IRC3100N, hard disk drive of up to 40 GB, 512 MB of RAM and 250 MHz CPU.

With such equipment most of these multifunction machines are able to send a variety of documents, both hardcopy as well as electronic, via a local area network (LAN) or the Internet, to a variety of destinations more quickly. Thus, what is the future of stand-alone copiers?

Located in one of the world's growth centers, Southeast Asia, Indonesia cannot avoid this global trend in multifunction machines. Some world-famous brands like Canon, Konica and Fuji Xerox have been aggressively penetrating the country's copier market with their multifunction machines.

As sole distributor of Konica products, PT Asaba observes that there has been a significant shift in market demand from that for analog copiers and stand-alone printers and faxes to digital multifunction machines over the past two years.

"Many companies start to think of cost efficiency in their document processing. That is why they have abandoned the use of analog and stand-alone printer units and shifted to a single-unit digital multifunction machine that can save their operational cost," says PT Asaba's Division Manager Burhan.

Operating cost efficiency also comes from the management tool incorporated in such digital multifunction machines that has an ability to control and track the use of the machine.

With such sophisticated equipment in digital multifunction machines, the fate of conventional, analog copiers seems to have been sealed. Burhan believes that conventional, analog and stand- alone copiers will simply become history in the not-too-distant future.

"Some photocopy manufacturers have stopped producing analog machines due to a decline in global market demand. What they are still selling in Indonesia is old stock. Thus, sooner or later, all photocopiers will become digital multifunction machines," said Burhan.

PT Astra Graphia Tbk (Astra Graphia), distributor of Fuji Xerox Document Center multifunction machines, stresses that there has been an upward trend in demand for multifunction machines on the Indonesian market.

"People consider multifunction machines as yielding better results, more practical and easier to manage. In terms of value for money, they also rate more highly multifunction machines rather than conventional copiers that can only duplicate documents," said Astra Graphia marketing communications manager Indra L. Suria.

Targeting office and print shop businesses, Astra Graphia reveals that the market seems to have responded well to the new multifunction machines, particularly Fuji Xerox Document Center machines, as shown by significant growth in the sale of such products as compared to the previous year.

Manufacturers may project rosy growth in their sales but the general public may have some apprehension about single multifunction products. The high-tech content of such machines can probably scare users, especially those who are not very technologically minded.

For these people, simple analog copiers are far easier to operate than technology-laden copiers with multifunction capability that make them depend too much on distributors' after- sales service.

A simple-to-manage copier that can be fixed easily or repaired by an average office secretary in the event of small problems might be more appealing to these types of people. Relying too much on distributors' technicians in emergencies can often be a frustrating experience.

Indra admits that multifunction digital copiers need really competent support from their vendors, particularly when they are integrated within a network or a customer's workflow system. But he stresses that Astra Graphia is fully ready to provide such a support system.

"That is why vendors have to provide a systems analyst and competent people to analyze the customer's workflow in order to arrive at a more efficient and effective workflow configuration by using the multifunction machines," Indra said.

Astra Graphia also emphasizes that the company offers on-site support to customers. Indra said that such support enables customers to enjoy lower maintenance costs, as compared to using three stand-alone machines.

Like Astra Graphia, other vendors of these sophisticated machines also emphasize their reliable after-sales service. PT Asaba is confident enough to claim that it has 28 years of experience in providing good service to its customers.

"PT Asaba is one of five Konica distributors in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa that has received an award for its ability to provide IT support for the users of Konica digital multifunction machines for two consecutive years," Burhan said.

He said that in the event of trouble, customers can simply call up the service center, which will send technicians within three hours.

Players in the digital multifunction machine market cannot but provide the best support systems to their customers if they want to succeed in the competition. Otherwise, they will simply alienate the market with products that are too sophisticated.