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MULTI-FUNCTION DEVICES: Multiplying Business
Falling prices helped as much as greater functionality and features. Overall,
the inkjet variety continued to outsell laser MFDs
Multi-function devices no longer resembled their avatars of yesteryear.
During the year, the devices gradually became an important component of the
workflow process, rather than just gadgets that could do more things than one.
Also, MFDs managed to dispel the common myth that if one of their functions go
down, the entire unit stops working.
Going great guns
Among other reasons, good purchases from corporate houses and the government
contributed in making MFDs a much sought-after product. Even the SME and SOHO
segments were seen adopting this product with vigor. This was primarily because
of the integration that the devices offered and low initial cost of acquisition.
While smaller workgroups typically went for inkjet varieties, bigger
organizations opted for lasers. Therefore, it came as no surprise that the
inkjet variety outsold the laser version by a huge margin.
| DRIVERS OF MFD SALES |
| Single-point solution |
| Ease of use |
| Increase in productivity |
| Simpler processes (for instance, fax directly from a PC)
|
|
|
An important factor for the inkjet’s success was its low cost of
acquisition. Ease of maintenance and color printing—against predominantly
black and white laser printing—also worked in the former’s favor. End of
day, the numbers did the talking.
Evolving MFDs
In 2002-03, the market saw new MFD models being rolled out. These had the
capability to e-mail, send faxes over the Internet or i-fax, and were equipped
with virtual mail boxes for users. The MFD evolved to be the communications hub
and emerged as a device handling the entire data communication in an office.
Most devices that were rolled out in the market came with some level of
redundancy built in, which meant that if one function of the machine went down,
it would still continue to perform other tasks.
Vendors in the MFD space too went into overdrive to ensure that the value
proposition of the product was communicated well to the end-customer.
Criticality of support
Since MFDs evolved to more mission-critical tasks, the need for service and
support became prominently highlighted. The challenging task for both vendors
and partners in building an effective support infrastructure was to enable the
service engineers to make a transition from a copier mindset to an IT mindset.
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