Today we’re announcing the arrival of our latest color multifunction printers featuring the groundbreaking ConnectKey™ technology.

Now available for purchase in North America, the latest-generation ColorQube® 8700 and 8900 Multifunction Printers are the first letter-size devices to be introduced for workgroup productivity on the desktop, which also feature all the advantages of ConnectKey: unparalleled ease-of-use, industry-leading security, and easily integrated solutions that help mobile professionals work in sync with today’s on-the-go demands.

Plus, the ColorQube 8700 and 8900 also provide every advantage of our unique Solid Ink technology, including low-cost color printing and renowned sustainability advantages.

And there’s great news for those who already own devices from the previous generation of the ColorQube 8700/8900 family. Now you can download a free ConnectKey firmware upgrade. No additional hardware is needed.

Xerox and the ColorQube 8900 will be featured at the Photizo Transform 2013 Managed Print Services conference providing mobile printing for all conference attendees.

Visit the ColorQube 8700 and ColorQube 8900
product pages on Xerox.com to learn more about the many advantages of Solid Ink teamed with ConnectKey, and to download the ConnectKey firmware upgrade if you’re already a ColorQube 8700/8900 owner.

In a PC Magazine review posted on April 29, the Phaser 6600/DN Color Printer received an editor rating of ‘Excellent’.

The reviewer cited the printer’s “Relatively high-quality output [and] ample paper handling for a small office or workgroup with heavy-duty printing needs” as cornerstones of the device’s overall excellence.

For small business owners who hope to control costs by producing more marketing communications material in-house, image quality is a paramount requirement. Whether you’re a Realtor who wants to create your own house-listing flyers or a florist who’s producing a Mother’s Day mailer, the photographs you include must accurately display the subject matter’s true visual qualities.

From the review: “Photos in my tests were above par, and just short of consistently true photo quality. More than half of the photos in our test suite were high enough quality so if you mounted them in a frame behind glass, they’d pass for the level of quality you’d expect from typical drugstore prints.”

Output quality is also critical for graphics and illustrations—any instance in which consistent accuracy is a must, such as your company logo.

As noted above, the reviewer also called attention to the Phaser 6600 Color Printer’s standard paper capacity, which at 550 sheets “lets you refill the drawer with an entire ream of paper even before it’s fully empty.”

Whether working at a frenetic small business or a busy workgroup within a larger company, we all know what a hassle it is when printing is interrupted by an empty paper tray.

If you’re in the market for an ultra productive color printing solution, I encourage you to read the complete PC Magazine review and then visit the Phaser 6600 product page on the Xerox website for more detailed information.

Today a colleague from the Xerox Netherlands office, Dharminder Biharie, shared a compelling post on our Digital Printing Hot Spot blog about direct marketing best practices.

You can read Dharminder’s entire piece here: http://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/.

Direct marketing is a powerful tool for small businesses, but it must be well-planned and properly executed. If you’re in the marketing communications business and are trying to convince customers to let you develop and implement their direct marketing campaigns, you need to demonstrate real, applicable expertise. What better way to do so than via your company’s own marketing efforts?

If you’d like to learn more about the ways in which Xerox can help your small business gain a direct-marketing competitive advantage, click here to learn about the power of personalization with our XMPie variable data software and the graphic-arts-class Phaser 7800 Color Printer.

By Nathan Van Ness, Xerox Corp.

Now that we’ve had more than a week to shake the post-holiday blues and settle back into the workplace groove, I think the timing’s appropriate to discuss the ways in which the recently passed “Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” might impact America’s small businesses.

By no means is this a backdoor attempt to shove politics into our happy little blog. But because we’re here to provide tips, helpful information and food for thought for small-business owners, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least comment on what the future might hold for small businesses as a result of Congress’ 11th hour agreement to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

A quick search online uncovers countless reports and opinions on what the deal means for small businesses. And of course the voices that disparage the Act typically lean right, while the advocates are aligned more leftward.

But I’m more interested in the facts minus the political spin, and on Entrepreneur.com I found what I consider a solid overview of specific parts of the Act that relate directly to small businesses.

I recommend reading the whole article, but here’s one excerpt that I found especially noteworthy:

“…the fiscal cliff deal involves a 5 percentage-point increase in the capital-gains tax rate imposed on the highest earners. This provision will reduce the amount of equity financing flowing to small companies. By cutting the after-tax take of equity investors, Congress has lowered the incentive of investors to provide financing. At the margin, some companies that would have attracted angel and venture-capital investment in 2012 will not be able to get financing in 2013. While only a small number of companies will lose out on this investment — angels and venture capitalists tend to finance relatively few U.S. businesses — those companies tend to generate a disproportionate number of jobs.”

That’s of particular interest to me because so much of the small-business activity here in the greater Portland, Ore., area, as well as in my hometown of Seattle, is the result of high-tech start-ups receiving angel and/or venture capital financing. Had start-up financing been as limited in 1999 as it is today, it’s likely that I wouldn’t have landed my first post-college, career-oriented job at a Portland-based online retailer that relied almost entirely on venture capital to fund its hiring.

Regardless of the extent to which you expect the Taxpayer Relief Act to affect your small business, I think it’s safe to say that we’re still in an economic climate that requires a disciplined approach to business expenditures. So on that note I’ll share links to two services offered by Xerox that help small businesses affordably acquire and maintain their printers and MFPs.

Check out “Xerox FreeColorPrinters” and learn more about how we’re helping make color printing affordable for small businesses and organizations.

And if you’re already a Xerox customer—or even if you use a printer or MFP from one of our competitors—you still can take advantage of fast and easy online supplies ordering through our free eConcierge program.

Ramon Ray, Editor and Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com

At one time, experts predicted we’d gradually move toward a paper-free world. But the modern small business is far from it. According to The Economist, in the past 30 years, worldwide paper consumption has gone up by 50 percent. Even though some things can be converted to a digital format, printed communication still excels as a marketing tool.

Why are we using more paper than ever? We have more to print. With access to so much information, 24 hours a day, we are constantly finding things we need to have in front of us. This is especially prevalent among small businesses, where workers have an ongoing need to print, copy and share presentations and meeting agendas with multiple people.

As a marketing tool, printed communications have been proven to be just as effective as ever. An eye-catching presentation to a client can be one of the things that seal a deal for a crucial sale.

So, paper is here to stay, for the time being. How small businesses deal with paper is an important matter. Here are ten tips to help better market your business and increase office efficiency:

• Have at least one color device. Color has been proven to deliver a far more powerful impact than black and white. Now that the cost of color printing has been drastically reduced, the difference in price is negligible. Not only is a full-color print job more compelling, charts and graphs are also easier to render in color.
• Show your clients how important they are by using color ink, quality paper and overall good presentation materials (such as a new binder). How you present something on paper is just as important as the words you use.
• Be creative and use imagery to convey a point or key message. If you’re selling products that assist with healthy living, include images that best illustrate the health your product delivers.
• Use a spot color in a “black and white” piece – it lightens things up.
• Invest in a multi-function printer (MFP). These devices can boost productivity, free up precious office space and simplify how everyday tasks are done.
• Scan important documents. By taking advantage of your MFP’s scanning capability, you can have better control of your filing system. Group all documents from the same project in one file and scan them into one file on the server. As you begin to move file cabinets out of your office, you’ll free up space and make future office relocations easier.
• Enable security. Many of today’s printers come with SecurePrint, which holds your print jobs in a queue until you enter a pin code to release them. This eliminates the need for personal printers in offices while still keeping sensitive information secured.
• Utilize double-sided printing. Today’s advanced MFPs allow for easy duplex printing. By using both sides of the paper, you can cut paper costs in half while still having the paper copies you need.
• Pay attention to printer features. When comparing models, take a printer’s pages per minute (ppm) into account. While the difference between 28 ppm and 35 ppm may seem unimportant, when printing large quantities, a few extra pages a minute add up quickly. Also, be sure duplex capabilities are included, as well as wireless printing and compatibility with your other devices.
• Don’t cut corners on supplies. Off-brand toner cartridges often lack the quality of the cartridges provided by manufacturers. Even worse, these other brands can have manufacturing defects that can damage your printer. To save money, stock up on toner supplies when the manufacturer is offering specials or coupons.

 Ramon Ray filed this content as a paid contributor to Xerox. The content is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox. This article first appeared on September 25, 2012 in Xerox’s Newsroom.

IT departments, big and small, are challenged every day on multiple fronts. They wear a number of different hats from security guard for their network to environmentalist trying to keep their companies’ carbon footprint to a minimum.  All while trying to contain or reduce costs in their department.  IT professionals are similar to the one-man-band I wrote about a few weeks back on multifunction printers.

Recently InfoTrends, a leader in worldwide market research published a whitepaper on the challenges of the IT professional.  In it they refer to information security, cost savings and sustainability as some of the top challenges. These economic times have put a lot of pressure on IT departments to reduce cost without sacrificing productivity. This whitepaper encourages companies looking to meet these demands to consider Xerox Solid Ink multifunction printers (MFPs).

Download the free executive version of the whitepaper and see how Solid Ink meets those challenges head-on with the newest ColorQube 8700 and ColorQube 8900 MFPs.

Check it out and let us know what you think and if there are other concerns that could be addressed by solid ink technology.

Even with simple tools – adding capabilities often means adding complexity. A screw driver versus a Leatherman tool. A TV remote control versus a universal remote. A dumb phone versus a smartphone. And yes, a printer versus a multifunction printer (MFP).

The design of the user interface (UI) must support the capabilities offered by the product. For printers, the requirements are pretty simple. The UI offers access to reports, printer settings and potentially access to saved or secure print jobs. This can be accomplished with a few buttons and a 2-line display.

Compare that to the MFP version of the same printer. Now, supporting the same capabilities as the printer, but adding copy, scan, fax, email – a slightly larger display and many more buttons are required. We make this expanded user interface intuitive, but it is undoubtedly more complex.

Smartphone adoption has skyrocketed, bringing with it icon-based interfaces for launching apps and accessing capabilities. We now see a wider-range of devices taking advantage of this kind of intuitive interface design. With the WorkCentre 6605, a new color multifunction printer launching today, we are bringing that design to small-and-medium-sized business customers.

New WorkCentre 6605 MFP user interface

The WorkCentre 6605 MFP now utilizes a user interface that revolves around a 4.3-inch color touch-screen display, reducing the number of buttons you must sort through and offering a clear starting point when you need to get your work done. The color printer equivalent – the Phaser 6600 – maintains a familiar but updated printer interface.

Here at Xerox, we strive to find ways to make work simple. After all progress shouldn’t mean more complicated. Check out the new WorkCentre 6605 and Phaser 6600 and let us know how we did!