The Datamax Thinking Blog

What is a Multifunction System?

According to the Multifunction Products Association, a multifunction system (MFP) is defined as “office equipment for paper management connected to a PC or network that handles two or more of the following functions: printing, scanning, copying or faxing.”

Document costs increase every year thanks to the growing volume of information. These costs include everything from printing and copying to the infrastructure needed to store and retrieve critical information.

For over thirty years we’ve been moving towards the lofty goal of the paperless office. But as the volume of computer data grows, so too does our paper usage.

Are you looking for ways to improve and streamline your business processes? A great place to start is to evaluate your current business practices.

When one thinks about threats to organizational security, the words hackers and computer viruses come to mind. In this world of network attacks, printers, copiers and fax machines are easy to overlook. These systems can store trade secrets, financial and medical information, and valuable information like customer lists or pricing schedules. Loss of this information could be devastating.

There has been a movement to incorporate new document capture technologies into businesses worldwide. Why would you spend hours patiently keying in information from delivery tickets, sales orders and remittance stubs when you could automatically extract information from scanned documents?

By Jamie Bsales, Associate Editor, July 28, 2009

The most expensive liquid in the world may be the ink located in the cartridges used for ink jet printers.  Did you realize that it costs around $2,800.00 a gallon for this ink?  With expenses like this, it’s not surprising that many new computers now include a color ink jet printer for free—the computer company will probably make more of a profit on replacement cartridges than they did on the original computer.

Some people may ask why most businesses are beginning to implement an electronic document management system when hard copy documents have driven businesses for years?