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Do You Copy? In the market for a new copier? Consider a multifunction printer.

By Amanda C. Kooser

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Chances are your business's workgroup copier doesn't look like the behemoths you see at the local copy shop; it's more like a multifunction on steroids. Most work-groups don't need the muscle of a large stand-alone copier, so a multifunction printer with a solid duty cycle can handle all your printing and copying needs in a single compact device. All the machines in our chart come equipped with at least Ethernet connections for sharing on a network.

Duty cycle can be a misunderstood figure. Think of it as an indication of the robustness of the machine. The $1,499 HP LaserJet M3027 MFP, for example, lists a duty cycle of up to 75,000 pages per month. It also offers a handy reference figure of a recommended monthly print volume of 2,000 to 6,000 pages. That's more realistic for most workgroups. If you truly need to crank out 75,000 pages per month--every month--then you'll probably need to look into a very high-end device to handle that kind of workload.