Mixed-technology options converge in the digital era

I. Christianto, Contributor, Jakarta

Most of office equipment makers have now bid farewell to analog tools and have come out with lines of digital gadgets designed to for document solutions.

Companies known as the producers of photocopy machines, scanners, fax machines or printers are now competing in the same products, the digital multifunction devices

A machine can do copying, and when connected to a computer, it can also stand in for a printer and a scanner. Once the image is scanned into the copier's memory, unlimited copies can be printed.

It is also common now to find equipment with faxing capabilities along with scan/print/copy; and computer-based faxing software.

Multifunction machines like this are available from Brother, Cannon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Konica, Minolta, Mita, Panasonic, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Xerox and others. Some of them use inkjet-printing technology, others use laser.

The first models could send and receive faxes by themselves or if hooked to a PC, could print, scan to PC, and make copies. In other words, various separate functions were nestled in one box, with one footprint, one power supply and one convenient location.

At present, the functions have been multiplying, for examples, with cordless telephone and answering machines. Some equipment can also scan to email and perform optical character recognition, making them a highly versatile machine indeed. Eventually, the producers have created equipment with basic functions which can be upgraded into multifunction devices depending on consumers' demands.

Among the digital multifunction devices, some of the best available are the Samsung SCX-5312F, a fast copier, printer, fax and scanner. It can run at 12 pages per minute, up to 400 percent zoom, 550-sheet standard paper capacity and 100-sheet bypass.

Konica has the 7415, for copying, printing, faxing and scanning, ideal for the small business or home office. At 15 pages per minute, the 7415 handles paper A4-A6 sizes. It has a maximum paper capacity of 750, a 50-sheet document feeder, electronic sorting & faxing in less than three seconds. Other Konica products combine the performance of a digital copier with optional facsimile, scanning and printer functions.

Brother offers the MFC series, including the MFC-5100C, a compact, full-color fax, printer, copier, and scanner equipment. Users can also select high-resolution printing for exceptional color output. It features simple one-touch keys for scanning directly to e-mail and imaging applications to complement the high-resolution color scanning. A dual-access memory stores up to 200 pages so faxes can be scanned while sending or receiving.

Hewlett-Packard has the PSC 2210 which features print, fax, scan and copy in color.

Meanwhile, PT Samafitro, sole distributor of Canon copiers and faxes in Indonesia, offers the imageRUNNER (iR) multifunction series which have captured top office equipment industry awards.

Agus Mulyono of Samafitro said that his company's iR series performed as a hub information, in which the equipment allows the user to send a document by fax, as easily as they can send it to an office printer or as an attachment to an e-mail.

In May last year, Buyers Laboratory (BLI) of the United States named Canon's iR series the "Most Outstanding Copier-Based Multifunctional Product Line of the Year," for an unprecedented third year in a row.

Nando Zihan of PT Tritanu, sole distributor of Sharp office equipment, said the company offered many kinds of office machines such as copiers. The latest product includes the AR-M350 and AR- M450 multifunction copiers/scanners which offer security features.

"Office copiers and printers often have a hard disk that retain information and this could have the potential for a company security breach. Sharp offers encryption technology making unauthorized retrieval almost impossible. It is available for use with the AR-M350 and AR-M450 modular multifunctional and printer products," he said.

PT Perdana Jatiputra, sole distributor of Minolta copiers, has the Di152, Di 251 and Di351.

Perdana's marketing manager Gama Dita Simon said that the digital printers/copiers feature text and photo exposure controls and fixed enlargement and reduction settings.

Panasonic, locally distributed by PT Fax Nusantara, has the DP series including DP2500 DP 1510P and DP150FP copier/printer.

Adrianus Budiman of Fax Nusantara said that the products, known as Workio could be upgraded as multifunction equipment.

Executives of the local distributors said most copiers marketed in Indonesia were black and white, though the overseas principals or makers have already produced color copiers.

"Distributors are still banned from importing color copiers," said Gama.

Based on a decree of the then Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives No. 03/KP/IV/78, any party should have a special authorization from the government to import color copiers. As a matter of fact, many companies and also individuals in the country operate used or reconditioned items as the regulation does not cover such products.