Blog by Matt Nelson of CityBlue Technologies:
For decades, businesses have purchased copiers based largely on the name printed across the front of the machine: Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Toshiba, Sharp, Epson, Lexmark, and recently others such as Katun.
But the modern copier industry is far more interconnected than most end users realize.
Manufacturers source technology from one another. Some machines are manufactured by one company and sold under another company’s badge. Companies share components, controllers, print engines, software, and intellectual property. Product lines change through acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, divestitures, and consolidation. Meanwhile, the company servicing your equipment may have very little connection to the company whose logo appears on it.
That doesn’t mean one manufacturer is good or another is bad. It means copier buyers should understand what they are actually buying.
For an organization signing a 60 or 63 month equipment agreement, the distinction matters.
The First Thing to Understand: The Logo Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Most people assume that if they purchase a copier carrying a particular manufacturer’s name, that manufacturer designed and produced every major component inside it.
That isn’t necessarily how the industry works.
There are several layers involved in producing modern office equipment:
- The print engine
- Scanner technology
- Controllers and processors
- Printheads
- Toner or ink systems
- Finishing equipment
- Embedded software
- Print-management software
- Document-management applications
- Security technology
- Accessories and peripheral equipment
A manufacturer may develop some of these technologies internally while sourcing others from outside companies.
In other situations, one manufacturer may produce an entire machine that another company sells under its own brand. Some manufacturers even sell other brands. A perfect example is Ricoh selling Epson wide format products, and the Kyocera TASKalfa PRO 15000C.
This practice is generally referred to as OEM sourcing, private labeling, or rebadging.
And it is much more common than the average copier customer realizes.
What Is an OEM?
OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer.
In the simplest situation, Company A builds a machine and sells it under the Company A brand.
But the copier industry often isn’t that simple.
Company A might manufacture an engine that Company B sells under its own name. Company B may modify the firmware, user interface, controller, finishing options, or software before selling it.
To the customer, it looks like a Company B copier.
Underneath the exterior panels, however, portions of the technology may have originated somewhere else.
This isn’t necessarily negative.
In many cases, it makes tremendous business sense. Developing an entirely new copier platform can require enormous research-and-development investment. If another manufacturer already has a competitive platform in a certain speed range or product category, sourcing that technology may be more economical than recreating it.
The automobile industry works similarly. Automakers share transmissions, engines, platforms, technology, and manufacturing partnerships while still competing against each other.
Office equipment manufacturers do the same thing.
Private-Label Equipment Is More Common Than Buyers Think
Private labeling allows a manufacturer or distributor to fill gaps within its product portfolio without developing every product internally.
For example, a manufacturer might have a very competitive line of A3 multifunction systems but need an A4 desktop product, wide-format device, production printer, scanner, or specialty finishing solution.
Rather than engineer one from scratch, the company may source it from another manufacturer.
The exterior badge changes.
The underlying technology may not.
That is why experienced copier technicians can sometimes look inside equipment from two supposedly competing brands and immediately recognize similarities.
The machines may use related:
- engines,
- components,
- service procedures,
- finishing equipment,
- controllers,
- consumables,
- or underlying architecture.
Again, this does not automatically make the product inferior. Some private-label products are excellent.
The important point for the customer is simply this:
Don’t assume the brand name tells you who engineered every component of the machine.
Manufacturers Can Be Competitors and Partners at the Same Time
This is one of the strangest parts of the copier industry for outsiders.
Two manufacturers may compete aggressively for the same enterprise customer while simultaneously doing business with each other elsewhere.
One company may supply another with equipment in a category where the second manufacturer doesn’t have its own platform.
Another may purchase components or intellectual property from a competitor.
Companies can share technology while their dealer organizations compete head-to-head in the field.
There are also major third-party technology providers used across multiple manufacturers.
EFI’s Fiery technology is a familiar example in production and graphic-arts environments. A Fiery controller can appear alongside equipment from different manufacturers because the controller itself represents another specialized layer of technology.
Similar relationships exist throughout printing, scanning, software, workflow automation, finishing, and document management.
The copier industry is better viewed as an ecosystem of interconnected technology companies than as a collection of completely independent manufacturers.
CityBlue Technologies VP Matt Nelson is a fourth-generation tech professional.
Consolidation Is Changing the Industry
Another important trend is consolidation.
The traditional copier industry developed when printed documents were central to almost every business process.
Businesses printed enormous volumes of:
- invoices,
- reports,
- contracts,
- presentations,
- marketing materials,
- brochures and mailers,
- forms,
- accounting records,
- engineering documents,
- and internal communications.
Today, many of those external processes have moved partially or entirely online.
Print isn’t disappearing, but office print volumes have changed dramatically.
That puts pressure on manufacturers and dealers.
Manufacturers must spread research, manufacturing, logistics, software development, security development, and support costs across an increasingly competitive market.
As a result, the industry has experienced mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, restructuring, dealer consolidation, and strategic alliances.
One of the most significant historical examples was the Fuji Xerox relationship. For decades, Xerox and Fuji Xerox were closely connected in portions of the global market. That relationship ultimately changed, and Fuji Xerox became FUJIFILM Business Innovation, illustrating how dramatically manufacturer relationships can evolve over time. I encourage you to research Katun as well, a Fuji built product. A very interesting happening in our industry just after the Xerox acquisition of Lexmark.
Other major manufacturers have pursued acquisitions, partnerships, technology-sharing agreements, or strategic restructuring as they adapt to declining traditional office-print volumes and growth areas such as production print, inkjet, software, workflow automation, and managed services.
For an end user, this raises an important question:
What happens to the equipment I buy today if the manufacturer’s strategy changes three years from now?
That is one reason customers should evaluate more than the equipment specification sheet.
Your Copier Dealer May Matter More than the Manufacturer
This may be the single most overlooked consideration in the copier buying process.
A customer may spend months comparing:
Canon vs. Ricoh vs. Kyocera vs. Xerox vs. Konica Minolta vs. Sharp vs. Epson.
But once the machine is installed, the customer isn’t dealing with a specification sheet.
They’re dealing with the organization responsible for keeping it running.
That usually means:
- the service technician,
- service dispatcher,
- parts department,
- supply department,
- account manager,
- billing department,
- and dealership management team.
Two businesses can own the exact same copier model and have dramatically different experiences depending on who services it.
A great machine with poor service, or no service team, becomes a bad copier very quickly.
A reliable service organization can make even occasional equipment problems relatively painless.
Therefore, customers should investigate the dealer just as carefully as the manufacturer.
Ask:
- Do you employ locally?
- Where are they located?
- What is your average response time for a customer our size and in our location?
- What percentage of calls are fixed on the first visit?
- Do you stock parts locally?
- What happens if a machine cannot be repaired quickly?
- Do you provide loaner equipment?
- Who handles escalation?
- How long has the dealership represented this manufacturer?
- How long has the dealer been in business?
- Average age of employee? Succession? Will the company be sold?
Those answers may ultimately matter more than whether one copier produces 60 pages per minute and another produces 65.
Dealer Consolidation Matters, Too
Consolidation isn’t happening only among manufacturers.
Independent copier dealerships have also been acquired at a rapid pace.
Large regional and national organizations have purchased hundreds of smaller independent dealers.
There can be advantages to this.
IBEW 34 in Bartonville chose CityBlue Technologies.
Larger organizations may have:
- greater purchasing power,
- broader geographic coverage,
- additional technology offerings,
- larger parts inventories,
- and more administrative resources.
But there can also be disadvantages.
A locally owned business that was once serviced by people who knew every customer personally can become part of a much larger organization with centralized billing, dispatch, contracts, or decision-making.
We’ve seen acquisitions in our industry
Customers should therefore ask a question that rarely appears in an RFP:
Who actually owns my copier provider?
Find out whether the company is:
- locally owned,
- manufacturer-owned,
- private-equity backed,
- part of a regional consolidator,
- or part of a national organization.
There isn’t automatically a correct answer.
But customers deserve to know who they are entering into a five-year relationship with.
The Financing Company May Be a Completely Different Organization
Another major source of confusion is leasing.
The manufacturer may be Company A.
The dealer may be Company B.
The leasing company may be Company C.
The service contract may technically be held by yet another entity.
That distinction becomes extremely important when it comes to knowing contract terms and end dates. When you reach out to figure out your contract end date, or where things are at, you get bounced between the copier dealer and the leasing company.
The subject that comes to mind around copier leasing is the “evergreen clause”.
There is a window at the end of copier leasing, normally 60-120 or 90-150 days, where if you do not provide written notification of intent at the end of the lease term, you are automatically renewed for an extended period of time.
A payoff must therefore be obtained.
This creates a disadvantage to the competition. Your current provider fails to notify you in advance of your lease terms, so then you get locked in to a renewal – and dealers use that as a negotiation strategy.
LOOK AT THE FINE PRINT IN YOUR COPIER LEASING.
Pay Special Attention to Minimum Print Commitments
This is particularly important as office print volume continues to change.
Many traditional copier agreements contain minimum monthly print commitments.
For example, a customer might pay for:
20,000 black-and-white pages every month
whether they print:
20,000 pages,
10,000 pages,
or 2,000 pages.
If the customer exceeds the minimum, additional overage charges apply.
From a financial standpoint, the arrangement can be very favorable to the vendor.
The customer assumes most of the volume risk.
This becomes especially dangerous with long agreements because nobody knows exactly what an organization’s print volume will look like five years from now.
Employees leave.
Departments become remote.
Documents become digital.
Locations close.
Software changes.
Workflows move online.
Yet the minimum print commitment remains.
Ask whether the service structure can adjust if volume declines.
Ask About Annual Escalators
Another contract provision customers frequently overlook is the annual service escalation.
A service rate may increase 5%, 8%, 10%, or another percentage annually depending on the agreement.
A seemingly insignificant increase becomes substantial when compounded over five years.
For example, a $1,000 monthly service expense growing approximately 8% annually could eventually be substantially higher than the original agreement.
Customers should ask:
“Is my service rate guaranteed for the entire term?”
If not, ask exactly how increases are calculated.
Understand the Technology Roadmap
Because the manufacturer landscape is changing, customers should ask where a platform fits within the OEM’s long-term strategy.
This is especially important for organizations buying:
- high-volume production equipment,
- specialized workflow systems,
- wide-format equipment,
- inkjet platforms,
- or large fleets.
Questions should include:
Is this a newly introduced platform or an outgoing generation?
How long does the manufacturer typically provide parts?
How long will firmware and security updates continue?
Is the platform manufactured internally or sourced from another OEM?
Is this technology strategic to the manufacturer going forward?
You may not always receive perfect answers, but asking the questions forces the vendor to explain the product’s position.
Security Support Is Becoming Just as Important as Mechanical Support
A copier isn’t simply a printer anymore.
Modern multifunction systems are network-connected computers.
They can contain:
- storage,
- memory,
- operating systems,
- network interfaces,
- user authentication,
- address books,
- cloud connections,
- scanning workflows,
- email credentials,
- and stored documents.
That means manufacturer support for cybersecurity matters.
Customers, especially government agencies, healthcare providers, financial institutions, schools, and large corporations, should ask about:
- firmware updates,
- vulnerability patches,
- encryption,
- secure boot technology,
- data overwrite,
- hard-drive encryption,
- authentication,
- certificate management,
- TLS support,
- network protocols,
- security certifications,
- and end-of-life security policies.
A mechanically reliable copier that no longer receives security updates can still become an organizational problem.
Don’t Automatically Assume Toner Is Better than Inkjet
One of the largest technological changes within commercial printing is the expansion of business inkjet.
Traditional office copiers primarily relied on toner-based electrophotographic technology.
That remains an excellent technology and will continue to serve businesses for years.
But inkjet platforms have become increasingly capable in both office and production environments.
Manufacturers have invested heavily in technologies designed to reduce:
- energy consumption,
- heat,
- mechanical complexity,
- maintenance,
- and consumable waste.
For certain applications, particularly extremely high-volume environments, inkjet economics can become compelling.
The important point isn’t that inkjet is universally superior to toner.
It isn’t.
The point is that customers should compare technology based on their workload rather than simply replacing their current copier with a newer version of the same thing.
A company printing 1,000 pages per month and a company printing 500,000 pages per month should not necessarily be evaluating the same technology.
Don’t Overbuy the Machine
The copier industry has historically been very good at selling features.
Customers are frequently shown:
- larger screens,
- faster processors,
- advanced finishing,
- booklet makers,
- saddle stitching,
- folding units,
- high-capacity feeders,
- Fiery controllers,
- oversized paper capabilities,
- additional trays,
- and higher print speeds.
Some businesses genuinely need them.
Many don’t.
A company printing mostly ordinary Word documents and PDFs may have very little use for expensive finishing equipment.
Before purchasing an accessory, ask:
How often did we use this feature on our previous machine?
If nobody knows, the answer may be “almost never.”
Right-sizing a copier fleet can create significantly more savings than negotiating another few dollars off the monthly lease.
Don’t Assume Higher Speed Means Greater Productivity
A 70-page-per-minute copier is not automatically better for an organization than a 50-page-per-minute machine.
Actual employee productivity can depend on:
- first-page-out time,
- scanning speed,
- document feeder performance,
- warm-up time,
- processing speed,
- reliability,
- user interface,
- network performance,
- and distance from employees.
For normal office printing, the difference between 50 and 60 pages per minute may be almost meaningless.
Yet higher-speed machines generally cost more.
Buy based on actual workload—not the largest model the salesperson recommends.
Ask What Happens When the Manufacturer Discontinues the Product
Every copier eventually reaches end of life.
Customers signing five-year agreements should understand what that means.
Ask:
Will parts remain available throughout my agreement?
How long after discontinuation does the manufacturer support equipment?
What happens if a critical component becomes unavailable?
Will the dealer replace the machine if it becomes unrepairable?
The answer should ideally be established before the equipment fails—not afterward.
Image courtesty of Reddit.
Compare Dealer Capability Across Your Entire Geography
This becomes particularly important for organizations with multiple locations.
A dealer may provide phenomenal service in one city and subcontract service somewhere else.
A national organization with offices across five states should ask exactly who will service each facility.
Request:
- technician locations,
- response-time commitments,
- subcontractor information,
- escalation procedures,
- and service coverage maps.
“National service” can mean very different things depending on the vendor.
Ask Whether Supplies Are Genuine OEM, Compatible, or Remanufactured
Customers should also understand exactly what consumables are included.
There are genuine OEM supplies, compatible supplies, and remanufactured supplies.
Third-party supplies aren’t automatically bad, but customers should know what they’re receiving.
Ask the dealer:
Are all toner, ink, drums, maintenance kits, and replacement components genuine manufacturer products?
If not, ask what is being substituted and whether it affects the manufacturer’s warranty.
Transparency matters.
Most Importantly: Buy the Organization, Not Just the Machine
Copier buyers often approach the process like they’re purchasing a television.
They compare specifications.
They compare brands.
They compare prices.
Then they choose a machine.
But a copier is different.
You may interact with the machine every day for the next five years—and rely on another company to service, supply, finance, and support it throughout that period.
The better buying decision is therefore:
Equipment + Manufacturer + Dealer + Service Organization + Contract + Financing Structure.
All six matter.
A phenomenal manufacturer cannot overcome a terrible service provider.
A great dealer cannot completely overcome unreliable equipment.
A low equipment price can be overwhelmed by expensive service charges.
And an attractive monthly payment can hide an enormous previous lease payoff.
The entire structure needs to make sense.
Questions Every Copier Buyer Should Ask
Before signing another copier agreement, ask your vendor these questions:
- Who actually manufactures this equipment platform?
- Is any portion of this product private-labeled or OEM sourced?
- How long has this platform been on the market?
- How long will parts and firmware support remain available?
- Who owns the dealership providing my service?
- Are technicians employees or subcontractors?
- Where is my nearest technician located?
- What is the average service response time?
- What happens if the machine cannot be repaired?
- Are supplies OEM or third-party?
- Are there minimum print commitments?
- Can service rates increase during the agreement?
- Who is the leasing company?
- What happens at the end of the lease?
- Who pays return freight?
- Does the lease automatically renew if notice isn’t provided?
- What security updates does the manufacturer provide?
- What happens if the manufacturer or dealership is acquired during my agreement?
If a vendor is uncomfortable answering these questions, that itself is valuable information.
The Copier Industry Isn’t Disappearing—It’s Evolving
Printing remains an essential business function.
Schools still print.
Hospitals print.
Manufacturers print.
Government agencies print.
Construction companies print.
Law firms print.
Financial institutions print.
Production environments may print millions of pages.
But the economics, technology, manufacturers, and distribution channels surrounding that printing are changing.
OEMs are becoming more interconnected.
Traditional manufacturer boundaries are becoming less obvious.
Inkjet is expanding.
Dealers are consolidating.
Manufacturers are restructuring.
Software and cybersecurity are becoming increasingly important.
And long-term contracts deserve far more scrutiny than they once received.
For the end user, this evolution actually creates an opportunity.
Businesses don’t need to become copier experts.
They simply need to become better-informed buyers.
The next time you evaluate a copier proposal, look beyond the logo printed on the front of the machine.
Find out who built it.
Find out who services it.
Find out who finances it.
Understand the contract.
Understand the technology.
Understand what happens five years from now—not just what the monthly payment is today.
Because in today’s copier industry, the name on the front of the machine may be the least complicated part of the transaction.
Visit CityBlue Technologies‘ website.
