Small & Medium Business - Printer Learning Center

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The printer features you choose determine how your printer enables your daily business operations. The features you leave out will determine your limitations. Because your printer will likely be with you for several years, the features decision is pivotal.

Features are not just "bells and whistles." They include capabilities, tech specs and printer stats. Just because your printer can scan, copy and fax doesn't mean it meets all your business needs. Consider the following attributes and how they might impact your business:

Maximum Print Speed Maximum Print Resolution Maximum Monthly Duty Cycle Paper Capacity Networked, wireless, or USB connections

The trend toward color printing is one that is quickly becoming evident in the business world — independent of business size. Color printing is quickly becoming a standard for business documents because it: Enhances Productivity Improves Communication Captures Attention Improves Readership Assists Readers in Locating Information Boosts Sales Increases Response Rates Provides an Excellent Impression Helps Build Brand Recognition Conveys Professionalism And of course, a crisp color copy can impress clients. It's another touch that helps make your company feel like a big business. Dell is making the move to color printing easier for businesses of all sizes, with color printers starting at less than $300.

Color and the Trend Toward IT Simplification
Why do some businesses still keep separate color and monochrome printers? In the past, it was a cost-effectiveness issue: By acquisition cost alone, it was once cheaper to purchase both a color inkjet and a low-level monochrome laser printer. In terms of consumables, it was less expensive to deny color printing access to some users.

Thankfully, recent trends in the print industry have helped reduce costs and simplify business IT infrastructures. Dell color laser printers begin at less than $300. With efficient toner cartridges and a lower cost per page when printing in black-and-white than comparable monochrome printers, Dell color lasers are making waves in the business world.

This chart shows the cost per page when printing in black-and-white for comparable Dell color lasers and competitive monochrome laser printers. The takeaway? Dell color lasers actually print less expensive black-and-white pages than comparable HP and Lexmark monochrome lasers. With specs like these, you may want to reconsider limiting yourself to monochrome laser printers.

But what about color deployment and management? With smart resource management tools , such as Dell ColorTrack software, you can track and limit access to the color capabilities of your laser printer. A single networked color laser printer is clearly much more efficient — in terms of space, usability and energy — than separate printers managing output speed, color capabilities and different consumables.

For small businesses, networks are now more common than not. Where wired networks are too expensive, small businesses adopt secure wireless networks. How has this changed small business printing? It's reduced the need for multiple printers and increased usage of production laser models. Dell laser printers give added benefits when on network: They provide tools that help you manage supplies and activities from the web and grant printing rights to specific users (limiting use of color printing, for instance). Dell makes it easy for you to connect your printers to networks of all sizes. While most Dell lasers offer wired networking right out of the box, select models also have optional wireless adaptors: Dell laser printer model series 1720, 3115cn , ; Dell all-in-one printer model series 968 .

Networking Your Printer in One Easy Step
If you have a network, adding a networked printer is often very simple, given a standard network configuration and new networked printer. Many printers are network-ready. Your network will often recognize your printer as soon as it's connected, and all computers on the network will be able to print to it. Of course, there may be some initial administration time to manage user rights and access.

Wireless Printing
Wireless printing is almost as easy. It can be enabled in two ways: 

While few laser printers are wireless-enabled, many can accept a wireless card adaptor. Wireless printers must be connected to your network, usually at your router.

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