Printer Cartridge Economics -- Four Ways To Make Your Ink Last LongerWritten by Nigel Patterson
Printer cartridge overheads can be a major expense for any busy office -- and even if you're working at home, it's important to factor in amount you spend on your printer ink when assessing cost of running a home-based business. And what you spent on that bargain-priced printer may turn out to be only a fraction of what you pay annually in printer supplies.A family household may have several printers on go, each requiring its own specialist cartridges. The kids are doing their homework, researching information online and printing off reference material before drafting and printing homework papers. Digital photography is great, but grandma doesn't have a computer (let alone an e-mail account!), so you're making high quality prints of your son's graduation ceremony to mail to her. And you have to proofread some important work documents by tomorrow -- and you know you can't check text accurately from computer monitor, so ... If you're anything like me, you can't imagine working without support that a personal printer provides. But while search for reliable but cheap printer ink never ends, there are some strategies you can adopt to economize on ink use and lower your budget for replacement cartridges. 1. Use draft print quality where you can. Go to File -- Print to open box that lists settings for your printer. Click 'Properties' to bring up various options available. You'll probably find different choices under heading 'Paper/Quality' that allow you to select draft quality printing. Your document will print at a lower resolution but that may not matter for reference material that you will likely discard later.
| | 15 Questions to ask your software vendorWritten by Jay McCormack
15 Questions to ask your software vendor. Author: Jay McCormackWhen making a decision to buy any piece of software there are a number of criteria typically evaluated. One of most important elements in decision process is strength of company that builds software. In fact a survey of 19,000 customers has identified that company strength is most important factor in choosing software, with price of software being fifth most important element. In evaluating a company's strength I would suggest you ask following 15 questions, answers to which will provide invaluable information in determining viability of company, their processes and their commitment to product you are reviewing. 1.How long have you been in business? 2.When was you last upgrade released? When is next one planned? 3.What's involved in doing an upgrade? a.Can your customer's do it? b.Are upgrades included in your annual fee? c.Are they downloadable from your website? d.Is documentation (installation instructions etc) included with upgrades? 4.Are manuals available for software? 5.Does software update cost include phone based tech support? 6.What percentage of customers are current with their annual support contract? 7.Where is product heading? Technology/Functionality? When do you plan to get their? 8.When did you last put your prices up? 9.Are you planning for next realease of Windows yet? 10.Can i build my own reports? 11.Why did you choose your current development platform? 12.What does it cost to have someone come onsite a fix a problem? 13.Who does training, are there scheduled courses? 14.Can i talk to a customer who implemented in last 6 months? 15.How much have you spent on research and development in last 12 months?
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