LAN vs Personal Printers

Hopefully, your request for data has room for (anecdotal) words of experience. We have only recently (in the last two years) begun to network our PCs. If you put the printers on the LAN, 1. all users on the LAN can have access, 2. you can cost-justify better and faster printers with more features, since (for example) 20 users who print no longer need 20 individual printers. 3. It is easier to monitor supplies and service on fewer printers. Fewer devices also lowers supply and maintenance costs. 4. Reducing the number of 'personal' printers increases the amount of individual workspace. The principal drawback is user convenience which can be minimized by good planning.

I do not want to indict the whole industry, but over the last10 years, we've experimented with 'refurbed' toner cartridges from several different vendors, for Genicom, HP, and Lexmark printers. ALL had a significantly higher defect rate than the authorized cartridges did. Some brands had 20 to 30% more failures! In many cases, we required additional service calls because of bad cartridges. Useable life also was lower than the 'authorized' ones. Because of these factors, I've concluded that there is no real cost savings here, especially if the consistent quality of your output is a consideration.

I can't provide 'data, per se, but I can offer up some opinions based on my experiences.

I am strongly in favor of using LAN printers where and when ever possible. Most people don't generate enough print volume to cost justify a local printer. There are exceptions - where privacy is concerned (HR departments are big on this as are higher-level executives), where practicality is concerned (the only printer is on the other side of the building), where the application won't print across a network (some don't - check on this), where a specific type of printer is required (impact, magnetic ink for checks, etc.), or where it would cause you more headaches to put the group on a shared printer than keep them with local printers.

Be carefulusing reconditioned print cartridges. Using them may invalidate your warranty - check carefully. We don't use them and we tell our end users not to buy them. There really isn't a cost savings when you factor in the higher failure rate and the support costs. Reconditioned cartridges are really bad at leaking toner all over the printer. Or really good at it, depending on how you look at it.