Some Advice Plz

[thesubmitter]

Hey Everybody

So I'm the Office IT Administrator for a Student Union and a few years ago (4 years ago or so) we decided to stop outsourcing our color and leased Fiery X3E Minolta C3102 (31BW/25C) with booklet finisher, scan to email etc.... Great machine because it could do 12pt cardstock, bookletting etc... Quite revolutionary to reduce our cpc fro ~1$ to 10 cents + lease

Later that machine was not able to handle the load - officially we were below the monthly capacity but it was being used by ~200 hundred people for printing and copying and its a little cheap/plasticky so it crumbled and was later refurbished by Minolta (At our cost).

Anyways, we later got a Minolta CPP500 from Ikon and its a little more productionny (a little too much) because this machine is used directly by so many illiterates. We're paying like 800$/monthly for lease + 0.09/cpc for color. I guess the machines reliability is great, I find the bookletting is not as easy as the X3E, it refuses to treat 8.5x11 paper inserted shortside as usable letter, the driver set is having problems with Adobe CS3 bookletting(or vice versa), and it actually needs to have 2 settings for the cardstock 12x18 to function properly (face up & glossy) which is very unintuitive as opposed to X3E where you just choose MEdia Type Thick PAper 3.

Now, I have to replace the X3E and I'm contemplating buying a machine rather than leasing. Right now, I'm seeing an 8050 with tonnes of options and brand new for 10k with the fiery etc...

Questions:
1. Buying seems like a much smarter option, is it? I still probably will get a service contract though I'm pretty hand with these machines (5 years of hell imo)

2. How is the 8050 compared to the CPP500? - at first I thought they were the same machine but rebranded but apparently the 8050 is 1 generation older (8050 --> CPP500 --> CPP600 if I understand correctly)

3. Any recommendations for something reliable/versatile like CPP500 but more user friendly? This is a Student Union and this machine will be used by either 200 random member of student groups or I can keep the CPP500 doing that job and have this one doing 15-20 user work and all the internal printing of the SU + as a backup for the other machine
And, I'm not one of the IT Admins with my head up my butt

Thanks in Advance for the wisdom!

[mikeena]

In Regards To This I Think You Are Refering To The 8050 By Konicaminolta. It Is The Same Thing As The C500. I Would Probably See If You Can Find A C500 For That Price Before You By One Just My Suggetion. Quality Is Great On Them For The Most Part. Depending On What The Coverage Is On Printing . If You Like To Use A Solid Color For Background You Will See Line, Or Marks From The Rollers. The Inperfection Of Konicaminolta With No Fix. Dont Get Me Wrong Konica Is All I Work On But Depending O What Kind Of Prints You Do It Might Be Perfect. not to mention you can pick up a 500 for a little more. to be a new 8050 it must have sat on the shelf for awhile. lol

[thesubmitter]

Who services Minolta branded machines other than minolta?
Ikon just told me they don't!

[mikeena]

I Do But Im Not In Canada look for a dealer in that area is all i can say i have met people from canada that work on them

[laserman06]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by thesubmitter
	Who services Minolta branded machines other than minolta? Ikon just told me they don't!

There are a lot of us that service Konica Minolta machines. Just look for a konica minolta authorized dealer in your area.

[10871087]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by thesubmitter
	1. Buying seems like a much smarter option, is it? I still probably will get a service contract though I'm pretty hand with these machines (5 years of hell imo)

Talk to your accountant regarding the pros/cons of Lease vs. Buy, I'm not exactly up to speed on Canadian tax law but there are benefits of doing it either way depending on your situation.

Get a service agreement, they are a great deal in the long run and will help stabilize your budget. going without one is great until you have to fork over $5,000 for a circuit board or something like that. Konica Minolta parts aren't cheap, and labor can add up fast.

Go to http://konicaminolta.ca/ to find a dealer in Canada.

Go Habs!

[mitchl]

Seeing that all color copiers are basically pigs I am now selling these to all my color customers. yeah there a little slow but the profits on the M/A's are incredible!




sorry couldn't resist!