A keystroke away.

Copiers and desktop computers are no longer strangers.

This summer Jeff Hale was in charge of overseeing the leasing and installation of his company's first digital copiers. As manager of office services at Borg-Warner Automotive in Muncie, Hale also listens to what many of the plant's 1,300 employees have to say about the new machines.

"We've had to do a lot of convincing," Hale says, explaining that the digital equipment will do much more than fill the role of traditional office copiers. The switch also means employees are just a few keystrokes away from sending print jobs large and small directly from their desktops to the new, networked copiers.

"The comment I keep getting is 'I can't even run a copier machine. How am I ever going to learn to send jobs from my computer?'"

Hale's company isn't the only one facing the challenge of changing office technology. Shipments of digital copiers equipped to handle computer printing increased 166 percent nationally in 1998, according to Dataquest, a provider of document-management market information.

The technology that drives digital copiers is much the same as what's inside a personal laser printer. The new machines are replacing analog copiers, which operate like cameras, taking a photo of an original over and over again depending on how many copies are needed.

While digital copiers have been manufactured for about four years, it has only been in the past year that their prices have come down enough to make them competitive with comparable analog models, say office-technology experts. Falling prices combined with the potential for digital copiers to help companies cut costs and increase productivity are fueling their popularity.

Probably the most profound differences between digital and analog copiers is that the new machines are multifunctional and connectable to computer networks, says Sue Matchett, a digital copier expert with Xerox in Indianapolis.

Because they scan documents to digital format, the new machines can copy and print, as well as send and receive faxes. Using optical character recognition, some of the latest digital models are even able to scan a hard copy to an electronic file.

The ability to connect digital printing devices to local area networks or mainframes allows users to print from their desktop to the device. This lets multiple users print to one machine, often eliminating the need for a laser or jet printer on each desk, says Matchett.

Then there is quality. The old technology yields about 300 dots per inch (dpi), while stand-alone digital copiers start at 600 dpi. Higher-end digital models rival offset print quality with resolutions of 1,800 dpi, often allowing companies to keep jobs in-house that they would otherwise outsource.

In addition, the modular design of the newer machines means they are easy to upgrade and fix. With fewer parts, a lot less will go wrong, and remote diagnostics over phone lines can keep the high cost of service visits down, says Matchett.

Xerox manufactures several general office models ranging in price from $7,000 to $40,000 and speed from 20 to 65 pages per minute, says Matchett. Among the other top manufacturers are Canon, Ricoh and Sharp.

Companies investing in digital copiers have seen their printing cost drop as much as one third, says Kelly Daugherty, vice president of sales at IKON Office Solutions in Indianapolis. IKON is a nationwide full-service office-technology company. Part of what his company does, says Daugherty, is analyze how new technology can help customers recover printing costs.

What he and his sales force have found is clients often don't know how much their desktop printers are costing. He likens desktop printers to a black hole because they are unmetered and, by the sheet, are very expensive to operate.

"We recently helped a large company that thought they had 200 or 300 desktop printers," says Daugherty. "What they had was more like 1,000."

The first step is for companies to get a handle on just what type and amount of documents they are producing. This includes photocopier jobs, personal laser printer jobs, faxes as well as the cost of any jobs that are currently outsourced but could be brought in-house. The next step is to compare the economies of scale digital copiers offer to current printing and copying costs, says Daugherty.

What many IKON clients have found is that eliminating desktop printers and leveraging their printing and copying functions saves time and money.

Just as important, but harder to quantify, is the increased productivity digital copiers can deliver, says Garry Cook, vice president and general manager of VanAusdall & Farrar, an office-technology company in Indianapolis.

Cook offers this example: An employee needs 10 copies of a 20-page report. With a stand-alone analog copier, the first step would be to print one copy to a personal laser printer. Then, the employee would walk the original to a copier, program the machine, press start and wait while it churned out 10 copies. The next step might be to finish the job off with a manual three-hole punch or stapler.

In the digital scenario, a worker in his or her office could send the job to the machine with a few keystrokes, continue on another task and pick up the copies later.

"A lot of people are used to having their printer just a chair roll away," says Cook. "But from a big-picture perspective, there are huge savings to be realized by going to a digital system."

Cook says this is especially true for larger clients, who often can reduce their document processing cost from 20 to 30 percent by going digital. Smaller and midsized companies can usually cut costs about 15 percent.

All industry professionals say there's a learning curve that goes along with introducing digital copiers to an office, especially if the device is networked.

Like the employees of Borg-Warner, many are skeptical about learning to do jobs they once took to a copier from their desktop, says Greg Cole, a marketing representative with Maxwell's Office Products in Columbus. The company, based in Bloomington, is a full-service office supplier that sells digital copiers, delivers and sets up the machines, takes care of any necessary wiring, installs printer software and provides on-site training.

The computer software that lets workers send jobs from their desktop directly to a digital copier looks a lot like the typical print menu but with many more options.

Like analog copiers, the digital machines can do the usual sorting, stapling and two-sided jobs. They can also print color, three-hole punch, handle envelopes, send one- or two-sided faxes as well as receive faxes. "Anything you can do standing at the copier, you can also do from your desktop," says Cole. "It's very user friendly."

While the latest machines can come with all the bells and whistles, Cole says it's not unusual for customers to purchase a more basic model that can later be connected to the office network or upgraded.

But for many companies, the switch to a digital, networked office isn't so easy, says Ron Clark, computer division manager of CDS Office Technologies, which has offices in South Bend and Terre Haute. The greatest obstacle to reaping the benefits of this latest digital technology is that many companies, especially larger and older ones, have a hodgepodge of personal computers and wiring, says Clark.

To take advantage of the savings digital copiers offer, companies should take immediate steps to standardize their office equipment, says Clark. He advises companies to put one person in charge of office technology. That person should have a say in purchasing office equipment, keep serial numbers, coordinate service and make sure everyone is using the same hardware and software.

Such an office-technology coordinator should also oversee the company's technology plan and what role digital copiers and networking will eventually play. This is often an area where an outside consultant can help. Like many office-technology companies, CDS offers consultant help, the fee for which can often apply to purchases.

"A lot of people make the mistake of assigning someone who has a PC at home to run their office technology," says Clark. "But this is an area that has become a whole profession."

Not quite ready for a "Jetsons"style office? A good person to talk to would be Julius Plonka, owner of Forbes Office Equipment in South Bend. Plonka doesn't sell the latest office technology. Instead, he services, refurbishes and sells the types of machines that are slowing being replaced, the typewriters and word processors that a lot of people remain more comfortable using.

Plonka knows that even in the most high-tech offices, smaller jobs like printing a single envelope are not worth booting up a computer if a simple typewriter will do. But with office technology changing so fundamentally, it's getting harder to find ribbons for older model typewriters, let alone someone who knows how to fix them.

"I fill a niche," says Plonka. "There are just a few of us left."

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Work bars and coffee bars the latest office design trend

Standup workstations - where everything including the computer is at about bar height - are helping some CEOs realize that they can be more productive on their feet than sitting. "Meetings also tend to be shorter when people are sort of standing around tables," says Dianne Bone, Business Furniture Corp. in Indianapolis.

Informal coffee bar areas for impromptu gatherings are also dotting the executive landscape. Coffee bars offer some of the most creative design, both within and outside the CEO office. These bars are particularly well-suited for specialized groups of employees.

"This area can have gourmet coffee blends and a variety of seating," notes Heather Leslie, Plus 4 Architects in Indianapolis. Videoconferencing is also possible within such a setting.

Overall, many activities have shifted from the stuffy boardroom, Leslie says.

"A casual setting can still be upscale and nice, she says."

- Bob Kronemyer