Smoothing out Installs

[teklife256]

Install day has always been a source of anxiety for me. It seems I always question whether I covered all my bases and prepped the machine accordingly for the particular customer with all their pertinent data. Perhaps my sheer lack of install experience leads to this. Going forward im hoping to perform a greater number of installs and would really appreciate any advice on how to go about gathering customer data. It doesn't seem that my dealer currently has any sort of document to handle this. At this point Im taking it upon myself to put one together even if just for my own use. What sort of things would move the process along smoother? Can I print the network settings like IP, DNS, SMTP and such in a report? How about contacts? Can I save them to a USB and transfer to new MFP (sharp to Sharp)? Can I clone outside of series? B&W to color?

[blackcat4866]

Re: Smoothing out Installs

I suppose the best advice I can offer, is don't get too uptight and just wing it.

Yes it's good to prep the machine as much as possible, but in many cases you just don't know anything beforehand. Or the information given to you by the IT contact is inaccurate, or they give you an IP address that's already in use. Quite often you'll be the most knowledgeable IT person available, which isn't saying much. =^..^=

[Akitu]

Re: Smoothing out Installs

Device clone and data backup are the two features I most often use on the copier web pages.

The former will back up system settings, whereas the latter will back up the actual data. eg. Device clone will port the settings enabling user authentication, data backup will restore the established users of the user authentication.

You can print the "All custom settings" list and it'll give you IP address, meters etc. It will not give SMTP or other network settings aside from basic IP/Gateway/Subnet, those will be copied through device clone and data backup.

Clones and backups can be restored across most series, Sharp has been very good about that; as to mono-to-colour I can't say for sure. I recall doing it in the past to varying degrees of success; the only time I can remember having difficulty was just after the release of the 2610 before Sharp released a firmware update that allowed clones and backups to be uploaded properly.

[MHeon71]

Re: Smoothing out Installs

I am with Blackcat and Akitu. Make sure the machine is in good working order, such CQ, feeds paper, fax and network are working components.

Use the Device cloning and Storage backup when available. When this doesn't work perfectly and copier gives you a message like cannot copy to center tray or something else does not look right, try a factory reset. All info stays with the machine, but the bugs seem to disappear. Worked for me several times.

There will always be a surprise. So keep the latest drivers, latest firmware and Sharpdesk. Let your training take care of the rest.

Note - I am not endorsing Sharpdesk, but if the salesperson is pushing it as a "powerful tool" then there may be little you can do not to install it. I keep a copy of Sharpdesk with me, because a copy does not always make it to the customer's install. You can also ensure that you are loading the latest ver. 3.3.

I am not sure how your sales people are, but our sales team refuse to retrieve network information. Hell, it is a successful install if we sell a 20Amp copier and they actually verify that they have 20 amp outlets.

If worse comes to worse "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit." LOL

[teklife256]

Re: Smoothing out Installs

Thanks, all very good ideas. New install coming up and I went out to customer and utilized the device clone and data backup on their three current machines. New machines are due in soon and will import the settings in hopes of streamlining install.