Isn’t it odd that we still talk about speed in terms of horsepower?
It’s common now, even when modern vehicles have more computing power than a 1990s server room. The Artemis II was also discussed in those terms; for the record, it was estimated to have over 37 million horsepower during launch.
It’s not wrong. It’s just habit to use an old framework to talk about something new. It’s familiar. It’s expected. But horsepower no longer even remotely fits how we think of speed.
The print industry has its own version of this. For years, the A3 versus A4 conversation started, and often ended, with speed, paper size and monthly volume. How many pages per minute? Does it handle 11×17? What’s the duty cycle?
Those questions still matter. But the moment these devices became networked, the decision moved out of finance and purchasing and into IT — and IT asks very different questions. Leading with speed and feed today is a little like scoping a spaceship in terms of horsepower or judging a smartphone by how loud the speaker gets. You’re leading with one of the least interesting, least impactful things about it.
What a Printer Actually Does Now
To be fair, even our own industry took a while to fully absorb the fact that, while modern multifunction devices may look and function like printers, they’re not really serving organizations in the same way.
Now, devices can scan documents directly into document management systems. They trigger automated approval workflows. They integrate with platforms such as M-Files or Microsoft SharePoint so that a scanned contract lands in the right folder, tagged correctly, without anyone touching a keyboard.
Through sophisticated software, they can facilitate secure pull printing, meaning a document doesn’t release until the right person is standing at the machine. They can also log every print job for compliance reporting, connect to other cloud services and communicate across networks.
The printing part? That’s still important, but it’s no longer the be-all, end-all. These devices are information infrastructure. And that changes everything about how you evaluate them. Failing to adjust conversations accordingly doesn’t just create problems for sales. It creates problems for clients and client relationships.
Where Old-Fashioned Printer Conversations Become a Modern Problem
Too many businesses have no idea their print environments are security liabilities. Not because they’re careless but because nobody told them.
Today’s multifunction devices have firmware, IP addresses, onboard storage and network access. They’re essentially computers that happen to also print things. The IT team has its stack locked down — endpoints monitored, patches managed, access controlled. Then there’s the overlooked printer in the corner, still running default admin credentials, connected to the same network and the same systems and data as everything else.
Clients aren’t always asking. And too many dealers aren’t always bringing it up. That’s unfortunate, because the threat has been real for over a decade. The devices haven’t been “just printers” for a long, long time. But if the sales relationship is still built around speeds, feeds and toner orders, the security conversation doesn’t always get off the ground.
One of the many questions my sales team is discussing with clients isn’t just “Do you need 11×17?” It’s “Who will own this device from a security standpoint, and what systems and data will it access?” That question launches radically different conversations than the ones we were having years ago, and that’s just the jumping-off point.
Completely Moving Beyond the A3/A4 Mindset
We’re deploying A4 devices in environments where, five years ago, we would’ve automatically spec’d A3. This isn’t because the client’s volume dropped but because the way they move information changed.
When a device is acting, first and foremost, as a scan origination point feeding directly into an automated workflow, pages per minute isn’t the number that matters. What matters is whether the integration is clean, whether the transmission is secure and whether someone is monitoring the device as part of the broader IT environment.
The spec sheet matters. But it’s not the first and only thing we look at.
When you work through other questions first, the right device usually becomes obvious. And the client walks away understanding what they actually bought and why.
What This Means for Dealers
The dealers doing well in an increasingly competitive environment have figured out that these discussions can no longer revolve around selling anyone a printer. It’s not the right goal, not by a mile.
Let’s be honest — most clients aren’t that thrilled about buying a printer. What does get them smiling, though, is knowing their compliance documentation is handled. They want contracts routed and approved without someone chasing signatures down the hall. They want sensitive documents protected. They want their IT team focused on something more valuable than a paper jam.
The device that will end up making your clients the happiest is the one that will deliver the outcomes that transform their work week.
As is the case with conversations around print security, that reframe does more than change the dynamic. It also changes the entire relationship. You’re not walking in to talk about what the machine does. You’re walking in to understand what a business needs and then working backward to the technology that gets them there. The A3/A4 decision is still in there. It just shows up at the end, not the beginning.
You get to show up not as a vendor, but as a strategic partner. Clients notice the difference. It’s not subtle. They can always tell when someone shows up to understand their business versus someone who shows up to sell them a box.
