{"id":28039,"date":"2018-02-08T10:22:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T18:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=28039"},"modified":"2018-02-08T11:43:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T19:43:16","slug":"third-party-toner-versus-oem-why-do-business-with-the-oem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2018\/02\/third-party-toner-versus-oem-why-do-business-with-the-oem\/","title":{"rendered":"Third-Party Toner Versus OEM: Why Do Business with the OEM?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two sides to every argument. In the case of offering OEM-produced toner as opposed to third-party product, office technology dealers and resellers need to weigh a number of options when managing their accounts, not the least of which is price.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s look at consumables, our state of the industry feature for February, we will take a look at the arguments in favor of using toner product produced by OEMs. Not to fear, we will offer up the third-party perspective in next week\u2019s newsletter.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joe Contreras,
Toshiba<\/p><\/div>\n

The onslaught of third-party toner and compatible cartridges has certainly created a price-competitive marketplace, notes Joe Contreras, vice president of product and solutions marketing for Toshiba. While these products may provide a lower operating cost, dealers, resellers and end users should consider the bigger picture and affect to their overall business.<\/p>\n

Loyalty and Peace of Mind<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a reseller or dealer standpoint, you have to view consumables as one part of the equation and determine what best meets the client\u2019s and your objectives,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough our MPS programs, we not only support and supply consumables for our own products but Lexmark, HP and other brands that we service and manage. What we have found is that clients prefer OEM brands because there\u2019s that peace of mind and trust factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toshiba and many OEMs offer programs that incent customers for their loyalty and provide benefits beyond simply the consumables. Understanding the available incentives and benefits associated with long-term loyalty can provide the clarity needed before locking in to long-term contracts.<\/p>\n

Bulletproof<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Charles Brewer,
Actionable Intelligence<\/p><\/div>\n

OEMs obviously have their own bias, but they\u2019re not alone in touting the virtues of their consumables. Charles Brewer, president of Actionable Intelligence, believes OEM product is inherently superior to third-party offerings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a lot of advantages. Their stuff is bulletproof; you can\u2019t get any better than OEM product in terms of image quality and page yields,\u201d he said. \u201cSome third-party firms have doctored their cartridges up, they use bigger toner hoppers to get a better page yield. But for overall operations, reliability, image quality, the OEM is the best. They also have very tight relationships with their channels. They pay a lot of money in rebates and invest big marketing dollars into the channel to ensure (dealers and resellers) continue to be loyal to OEM and not go with any type of third-party product, whether it\u2019s new build or reman. They offer strong channel programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Greg Chavers, Lexmark<\/p><\/div>\n

Greg Chavers, vice president, North America Channel Sales for Lexmark, points to a study done by Keypoint Intelligence \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad- Buyers Lab that illustrated third-party supplies did not measure up to OEM standards. The December 2016 study pitted Lexmark\u2019s Unison toner against a set of third-party toner formulations in an MS610 printer, and it found that the Unison toner \u201c\u2026consistently outperformed the third-party brands tested, providing more pages and high quality, reliable printing from start to finish,\u201d wrote Marlene Orr, BLI director, Office Equipment Product Analysis.<\/p>\n

Chavers pointed to a number of factors that can impede the success of third-party consumables. \u201cDead on arrival cartridges, significant toner leaks, poor page performance, paper jams and end-user client downtime aren\u2019t really worth any so-called savings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always best to use OEM supplies and parts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are two sides to every argument. In the case of offering OEM-produced toner as opposed to third-party product, office technology dealers and resellers need to weigh a number of options when managing their accounts, not the least of which is price. In this week\u2019s look at consumables, our state of the industry feature for February, we will take a look at the arguments in favor of using toner product produced by OEMs. Not to fear, we will offer up the third-party perspective in next week\u2019s newsletter. The onslaught of third-party toner and compatible cartridges has certainly created a price-competitive marketplace, notes Joe Contreras, vice president of product and solutions marketing for Toshiba. While these products may provide a lower operating cost, dealers, resellers and end users should consider the bigger picture and affect to their overall business. Loyalty and Peace of Mind \u201cFrom a reseller or dealer standpoint, you have to view consumables as one part of the equation and determine what best meets the client\u2019s and your objectives,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough our MPS programs, we not only support and supply consumables for our own products but Lexmark, HP and other brands that we service and manage. What we have found is that clients prefer OEM brands because there\u2019s that peace of mind and trust factor.\u201d Toshiba and many OEMs offer programs that incent customers for their loyalty and provide benefits beyond simply the consumables. Understanding the available incentives and benefits associated with long-term loyalty can provide the clarity needed before locking in to long-term contracts. Bulletproof OEMs obviously have their own bias, but they\u2019re not alone in touting the virtues of their consumables. Charles Brewer, president of Actionable Intelligence, believes OEM product is inherently superior to third-party offerings. \u201cThey have a lot of advantages. Their stuff is bulletproof; you can\u2019t get any better than OEM product in terms of image quality and page yields,\u201d he said. \u201cSome third-party firms have doctored their cartridges up, they use bigger toner hoppers to get a better page yield. But for overall operations, reliability, image quality, the OEM is the best. They also have very tight relationships with their channels. They pay a lot of money in rebates and invest big marketing dollars into the channel to ensure (dealers and resellers) continue to be loyal to OEM and not go with any type of third-party product, whether it\u2019s new build or reman. They offer strong channel programs.\u201d Greg Chavers, vice president, North America Channel Sales for Lexmark, points to a study done by Keypoint Intelligence \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad- Buyers Lab that illustrated third-party supplies did not measure up to OEM standards. The December 2016 study pitted Lexmark\u2019s Unison toner against a set of third-party toner formulations in an MS610 printer, and it found that the Unison toner \u201c\u2026consistently outperformed the third-party brands tested, providing more pages and high quality, reliable printing from start to finish,\u201d wrote Marlene Orr, BLI director, Office Equipment Product Analysis. Chavers pointed to a number of factors that can impede the success of third-party consumables. \u201cDead on arrival cartridges, significant toner leaks, poor page performance, paper jams and end-user client downtime aren\u2019t really worth any so-called savings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always best to use OEM supplies and parts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":27795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[1955,228,348],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28039"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28039"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28048,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28039\/revisions\/28048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}