(1) A machine's set of specifications is only
one aspect of the overall project's consideration, and is considered by many
of our customers to be less important than service quality and technician responsiveness. The quality of local service from the various dealers cannot and never will be measured by any testing
firm. Unfortunately, the quality of service varies greatly from
market to market and dealer to dealer.
(2) Laboratory testing is different from
the real-world evaluations we perform. As opposed to testing only one
machine of a given model, we have as many as several hundred of each model
out in the field with our various customers.
(3) Virtually all customers have a mixed
networking environment, meaning a combination of NT, Netware, Appletalk,
AS/400, UNIX and mainframe protocols. None of the companies that conduct
testing subject equipment to all of these environments. Our testing
background enables us to assist our clients in setting up comprehensive live
testing in their own facilities to ensure 100% network compliance before
entering into any contract.
(4) We feel that accepting free machines
from manufacturers for testing, and receiving free service from their
headquarters experts, would put us in an uncomfortable situation with regard
to consulting, which is where we wanted to go with our business model. There
is no fear that our business will be compromised by giving out negative
information to consumers.
(5) Unlike the millions of consumers who
subscribe to general-interest magazines, there simply aren't enough business
consumers to support an office equipment test reporting service. Therefore,
in order to stay in business, testing companies are forced to depend on
revenue from equipment manufacturers. It is a well-known fact within industry
circles that 95% of test report "subscribers" are in reality dealers or manufacturers, not buyers.
While the companies producing test reports pretend to be "independent" by
emphasizing that they do not accept advertising monies from equipment
manufacturers, subscription monies from the manufacturers keep the
positive reports flowing. In contrast, consulting money from equipment
buyers makes up 100%
of our revenue. This key difference allows us to make truly unadulterated
recommendations.
(6) In the old days of the copying
industry, machines didn't change much over their life cycles, but nowadays
digital models are constantly being upgraded with new firmware and print
controllers. A unit's performance can be dramatically affected by these
changes. A test report takes a "snapshot" of a machine, usually
very early in its life cycle. Our quarterly data accumulation from over
12,500 machines in the field allows us to track performance trends on the
available copier models.
(7) An equipment test report does not offer
consumers any advice on what price to pay or what contract protections the
customer is entitled to. Our benchmarking services help our clients pinpoint
these important areas precisely.
