Low cost colour A4 Print & MFP from Panasonic
Published January 29, 2009 at 1:44 pm · Filed under Printer / Copier
THE FUNCTIONALITY
YOU NEED AT A PRICE
YOU CAN AFFORD
PANASONIC HITS ON A WINNING FORMULA WITH ITS
OUTSTANDING KX-MC6000 SERIES OF COLOUR MFPS
THE SUCCESS
OF THE
KX-MC6000
RESTS ON
PANASONIC’S
ABILITY TO GIVE
CUSTOMERS
WHAT THEY
WANT
The hottest products in the printer market right
now are A4 multifunctional printers (MFPs) like
the Panasonic KX-MC6000 series.
Gartner figures show that in the first six
months of the year, A4 MFP sales increased
by 25% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa
(EMEA), compared to a sales increase of just
4% for A3 MFPs. Over the same period, sales of
single function inkjet printers and standalone
copiers fell by 22% and 19% respectively.
Growing demand for A4 MFPs is hardly
surprising when you consider their many
advantages. For home users and small
businesses, A4 MFPs are a convenient, spaceefficient
and economical alternative to buying
and running single function printers, copiers,
scanners and fax machines.
They are highly productive, with
sophisticated features, such as scan-to-email,
accessed via a control panel that will be familiar
to anyone who has ever used a copier. This ease
of use gives people the confidence to use more
advanced features, bringing real improvements
to business efficiency, not to mention lower
print and postage costs.
Medium and large organisations have
embraced A4 MFPs, too. Sometimes for
the same reasons as small businesses - in
executive offices, for example, where there
is also a requirement for confidentiality
- but increasingly as part of a balanced print
deployment.
In light of CSR obligations and growing
awareness of the true cost of office printing,
many organisations are consolidating their
printer estates and cutting paper consumption.
As part of such a strategy, it is usual to reduce
the number of A3 departmental devices and
install more A4 MFPs instead. They are cheaper,
quieter, consume less energy, generate less heat
and take up less space, yet still meet 90% of
office printing needs.
Panasonic launched its KX-MC6000 Series
of 20 pages per minute colour MFPs in the
autumn and has not looked back since.
“We were expecting great things from the
KX-MC6000 Series, but even we have been
overwhelmed by the response,” says James
Hopkins, marketing executive for Panasonic
Communication Company.
So what is it about Panasonic’s A4 MFPs that
makes them so popular? To understand this,
says Hopkins, it is important to consider the
strategies of different manufacturers.
“The printer market today is polarised
between manufacturers with a printer
background and those with a copier
background. Both groups tend to have wide
product ranges and compete in all sectors
of the market. But their approach is radically
different, and this has real consequences for
their customers.
“Suppliers from a copier background treat
A4 MFPs like miniature versions of A3 devices.
They have the sophisticated functionality of a
departmental A3 MFP and running costs are
low. But because they are so over-engineered
the purchase price is high, and this makes them
uneconomic for customers with average or
small print volumes. Suppliers with a printer
background take a different approach. They
have a much more realistic pricing model but
their running costs are high.”
Panasonic is deliberately navigating a course
between these two extremes, giving small and
medium-sized businesses and departments
within larger organisations the functionality
they need at a price they can afford.
As an example, Hopkins compares the scanning
capability of an A4 MFP from a leading copier
company to that of the KX-MC6000 Series.
“The copier approach, which is to embed Java
applications on the MFP itself, is applicable for
the small percentage of businesses that have
SAP and large enterprise software systems, as
it enables them to integrate their MFPs into
electronic workflows. But for most businesses
this is an unnecessary expense: to embed Java
you need a large control panel, which just adds
to the cost,” he says.
Hopkins argues that with the ability to scan
hard copy documents to email, to fttp sites
or straight to Sharepoint, the KX-MC6000
Series provides all the scanning functionality
that 95% of businesses will ever need. At an
affordable price.
One thing that Panasonic has retained from
its copier background is its commitment
to low print costs. Hopkins claims that the
combination of aggressive consumables pricing
and the use of separate user-replaceable toner
and drum units gives the KX-MC6000 Series a
significant cost advantage over printer-based
MFPs in the same price bracket.
Ultimately, the success of the KX-MC6000 rests
on Panasonic’s ability to give customers what
they want, not what Panasonic can get away
with or what it thinks customers ought to want.
“People want an aggressive point of
acquisition, low running costs, good quality
output, scan-to-email and basic document
management,” declares Hopkins. “That is what
we deliver with the KX-MC6000 Series and that
is what we will offer with our mono A4 MFPs
when we launch them in a few months’ time.”
