Printer vendor says SMBs want more colour laser offerings

Sensing that the time is right for the SMB space to embrace colour, Brother Canada has introduced three new colour laser printers and one new colour laser multifunction printer intended to meet the needs of this market segment.

The new printers include: the HL-4060CN, a colour laser priced at $499.99, the HL-4050CDN, a colour laser with built-in automatic two-sided printing priced at $579.99 and the HL-4070CDW, a colour laser that adds WiFi to the two-sided printing capability for $629.99. Also new is the MFC-9440CN, a colour laser multifunction, which adds faxing, PC-fax, copying and scanning to the printing capability for $869.99.

All the printers are network ready, with an integrated Ethernet port as well as USB connectivity, and Brother boasts printing speeds of up to 21 pages per minute in both colour and monochrome. Users can also choose from standard or high yield toner cartridges.

Marc Ruel, product marketing specialist with Brother Canada, said the speed of these new printers is a real competitive advantage.

“What really sets us apart is speed, our speed compared to our competitors is really quite superior,” said Ruel. “We’ve got a very competitive offering in terms of speed.”

Noting that Brother is a new player in the colour laser market, Ruel said the company’s decision to go with single-pass laser technology makes a big difference on the speed side. With three toner cartridges in the printer for each of the basic colours and a fourth for black, a page only needs to pass over the drum once to pick up all four colours, and still get high-resolution 2400×600 dpi output.

Brother has traditionally played in the SMB space, and Ruel says colour laser printing is now moving right into the company’s sweet spot.

“There’s a very strong migration by businesses towards smaller work groups, as well as the migration to colour itself,” said Ruel. “Everyone is looking for fast, effective, and quality affordable output, and we feel we’ve hit a very good niche with these new products.”

While the new lineup would also work well as a departmental printer in a large enterprise setting, Ruel says Brother will be continuing to focus on the SMB market.

“The advantage we have on the SMB side is we’ve always been known there, and very strong on user friendliness, but these also fit well for departmental work groups,” said Ruel. “We’re targeting the SMB space because that’s what we know well and we feel there’s a lot of growth in the colour space there.”

With the price point on colour dropping quickly, he says its no longer an exclusive tool of big business. Indeed, Ruel says colour can offer significant advantages to the SMB space, such as more professional-looking documents of a quality similar to that they’d get from outside print houses.

All the printers come with network management tools, and include the ability to password-control the colour printing capability for businesses concerned about cost. All the devices also include free lifetime phone support that’s tied to the machine, not the buyer.

On the channel side, Brother will be looking to offer mail-in and instant rebates to help market the new printers though the channel, and the company also offers various channel inventive programs. The company’s Reseller Partnership Program gives partners pricing assistance when making bids, as well as point of sale material, dedicated sales support and customizable training.

Ruel says he sees a strong channel opportunity with the new line-up, not only around the initial hardware purchase but also with instillation support and ongoing support, such as around consumables.

“If you’ve got a mono laser customer that’s looking to adopt into colour, it’s a win-win,” says Ruel. “He’s saving costs on outsourcing and you as a dealer are making a better return on consumables, because now you’ve got four consumables to return to the customers.”

While he declined to discuss specifics, Ruel added Brother also offers its channel partners very competitive margins.

“Any reseller who is interested in looking into the margins offered on the machines will probably be pleasantly surprised compared to other competitors,” he said.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

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