Toshiba’s New A4 Device: A Powerful Little MFP
The multifunction printer (MFP) is about as essential to modern business as the phone or the computer. Every document that’s copied, printed, faxed, or scanned relies upon the MFP to get the job done. This can make the office MFP fairly “in demand.”
Many larger enterprise environments have multiple MFPs within their offices so if one is too busy, the needy user can venture to another device; hopefully one with a shorter queue.
Thankfully, there’s a solution to ease the burden on the busy departmental MFP; the E‑STUDIO330AC/400AC from Toshiba.
These new A4 (letter-size) MFPs offer busy enterprise environments the exact same user interface (UI), ease-of-use and overall user experience as their A3 (ledger-size) office workhorses, but in a smaller footprint.
The concept of LOOM or learn once, operate many is a critical advantage in an enterprise setting because, let’s face it, there’s often little or no training provided to users. Once users figure out how to get their jobs done on one device, they certainly aren’t receptive to learning another language (i.e. a different UI).
The UI of the e‑STUDIO330AC/400AC is common to the rest of the Toshiba fleet and gives users that LOOM benefit in not just a smaller footprint, but a smaller acquisition price and thus an aggressive total cost of ownership (TCO). This enables more placements throughout the office which quickly improves efficiency and of course, user convenience.
This becomes even more important when an office has invested in integrated document management solutions as part of the daily business workflow. While some printer-based A4 devices may in fact support this type of application, up until now those presented a disparate UI and thus lacked the aforementioned LOOM benefits.
Another key feature of Toshiba’s new A4 MFPs is the large 10.1” screen – something that up until now has been reserved for the larger A3 class models. Contrast this large, graphical easy to use interface to printer-based devices that have a much smaller UI, likely 25% the size – or less.
An additional consideration is that printer-based MFPs inherently have a higher operating cost than the new A4 models from Toshiba. And, they can’t offer users the identical feature list as the larger MFPs. The list goes on.
The consistent UI can’t be emphasized enough. But, there is also the consistent look. Not just a consistent look, but arguably the best-looking MFPs in the industry, in my humble opinion. And, they match their larger siblings, and while this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it matters. Fleet consistency drives consistency in other areas, not the least of which are speed and productivity for end-users.
The new E‑STUDIO330AC/400AC from Toshiba is an excellent MFP for consideration whether you need one device or a whole fleet, but Toshiba offers a variety of models so you can choose exactly the model or models to meet your needs.
Bottom line, whether you choose an A3 model or an A4 model the look and the UI and the overall user experience will be the same and your users will greatly benefit from this in their day-to-day operations.
