Buying new office equipment really shouldn’t have to be a gamble. But the risks many business solutions consumers take when purchasing a new office copier, office scanner, office printer or multifunction device, could place them and potentially their whole company finances in great jeopardy. To be fair to these customers, where exactly are businesses supposed to turn for sound and unbiased advice when they’re looking to renew/replace their office equipment lease or purchase new devices of their own? Well, the answer is that sadly, there is no simple answer. There’s no Top Gear for office machinery, and disappointingly, nor is there an accompanying Top Gear buyer advice style magazine. But for someone who has worked in the reprographics industry for years, there are several places that office equipment customers should know about and touch base with when looking for decent, reasonably impartial product information. So, for those of you who are currently searching for the latest and best in office equipment - be that a copier, scanner, printer or an increasingly popular MFD, we bring you our Office Equipment - Guide for the Perplexed.

1. BERTL - Who are BERTL? Well, they’re one of the most respected authorities in the industry when it comes to new office equipment products, that’s who. BERTL stands for the Business Equipment and Research Test Laboratories Inc. They’re an independent testing laboratory, with offices in Europe, who provide objective and independent product evaluation reports and comparative analysis on all document imaging devices and document management software solutions. According to BERTL,

   "[they] prohibit[s] any manufacturer control over product evaluations and base opinions, ratings and awards on a combination of rigorous analysis and research."

   For buyers of new office equipment, BERTL’s two main awards programmes are definitely worth a look. BERTL’s Best is BERTL’s flagship award scheme based on the company’s continually evolving assessment criteria. BERTL’s Readers’ Choice Award gives end-user the chance to make their assessment based on their own experiences with office equipment and document management solutions. The only issue for UK buyers is the clear US leanings of BERTL, which could be a potential concern when you consider that not all products are released in both the US and the UK and that many products will not be on sale on both sides of the pond at the same time. For the Readers Choice Award in particular, this fact would be worth bearing in mind. Nevertheless, if you see a BERTL Award awarded to a UK product, you can rest assured, you have it on pretty good authority.

2. On Demand/Info Trends - Best of Show Awards. On Demand is the celebrated US printing industry exposition which occurs annually and is one of the top five printing industry/imaging industry events in the world. As part of proceedings, for the last five years now, On Demand have been teaming-up with Info Trends, a leading market research and consulting firm, to produce the On Demand Best of Show Awards Programme. On Demand/Info Trends judges look at products from within nine different categories and announce a Best of Show and an Honourable Mention in each. While judges do not release their criteria, decisions over the past five years have been well-respected by the industry and taken quite seriously. Again, with On Demand being a US-based Expo, the same caveats apply regarding trans-Atlantic differences but again, where you can confirm UK availability for an On Demand Best of Show/Honourable Mention Awards, you can be reasonably well-assured the product you’re looking at has fairly solid credentials.
3. Buyers Laboratory Inc, most usually referred to as BLI, next to BERTL, is the other main printing/imaging industry testing laboratory, which like BERTL, produce both awards for products they’ve tested and ratings. When an OEM submits a copier, printer, fax or multifunction printer (MFP) for laboratory testing, it must withstand BLI’s rigorous three-month in-house evaluation, during which it is extensively tested for reliability, productivity, image quality, toner/ink yields, paper handling, ease of use, multitasking performance (if applicable) and connectivity performance, as well as a number of other critical performance and value factors. After this process is complete, as well as a full Laboratory Test Report, BLI also issue a rating. Ranging from highly recommended, for the very best performing devices, to not recommended, to those machines that fail to meet expectations, buyers of products which have been tested by BLI, are given a fairly accurate impression as to the laboratory’s verdict. In addition to the rankings, there’s BLI’s Pick of the Year Awards and the Outstanding Achievement Awards. With the next BLI Pick of the Year Awards due to be announced in the next month or so, for offices looking to replace their machines at the moment
4. The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) Leadership Award. It’s only in its second year but the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) Leadership Award attempts to recognise leadership across the printing and document management industry. This time around, 53 different organisations applied from 12 different countries. While, the MPSA Leadership Award isn’t quite at the same scale as other major awards, it’s clearly becoming a major influence, with this year’s news that Print Audit was awarded a Leadership Award spreading like wildfire across the industry and the internet.

It’s unfortunate that the reprographics, document imaging and document management industry has no one-stop shop, a widely recognised authority to provide product rankings and awards - as for example Which provides would-be buyers of household electrical equipment. But it’s hoped that our Guide for the Perplexed will give potential purchasers of new office equipment solutions all the information there is available on the rankings and awards that are out there, however limited they may be. Together with the desired product specifications which should form the spine of any company’s wish-list and the pedigree of the OEM’s being considered, companies and organisations looking to renew their office equipment, should have all the information they’ll need.