Why Brother is not a bother.

I was recently asked the question, "Why do you offer a discount for clients if they use a Brother printer?".

"Less pain", was my response. I've found that in over 26 years of providing IT support that printers are often the devices that cause the most pain. Printers are often an afterthought and not considered important in IT installations, until, of course, you need them!

Brother HL-L2375DW

Brother MFC-L9570CDW

Of course, if I really want to reminisce I can reflect back to the pain of programming (the then super fast!) 9600 baud modems using the command prompt on DOS computers or dealing with the weird cabling diagrams for some of the concurrent DOS terminal boards. Thankfully, there's a lot less "grind" in IT today. 


One of the companies that have constantly made life a bit easier for IT  (when it comes to installation and use) is Brother International.

Not that I spend too much of my time thinking about printers, but I really like Brother printers because they just work. They're reliable and they last a very long time and somehow survive in some appalling conditions. Next time you walk through a warehouse or a mechanic's workshop, the odds are that you will find a Brother printer or fax machine. Through the layers of dust and the heat, these printers somehow just keep on keeping on!

Brother QL820WB

Brother FAX-2950

Next time you're waiting at reception, have a look, in many offices, you'll notice a Brother QL series label printer. 

Why are they so popular? It's because Brother supplies their proprietary P-Touch® software which is VERY EASY to use P-Touch® even integrates with Microsoft® Excel and Word and is very reliable. 

Brother has a range of labels for most situations and environments. Did you know that in hospitals and nursing homes these printers are so popular because get this, you can label beakers, dishes etc and put them in the dishwasher? Here's the thing, the labels don't fade!!! Everything from mailing/address labels through to tagging of electrical cables. Really practical solutions to everyday problems (I mean who sits around thinking of this stuff??).

If you're a developer or someone with some programming skills you can download the Brother Software Development Kit (SDK) that will allow you to programme direct interaction with the QLs. Even better yet, give Brother a call, they may have a solution available from a partner company (such as mine!).

On top of all this, on the rare occasion that you need it, Brother's support is second to none! In Australia, Brother has one of the best support teams I've ever encountered. Fortunately, I'm not on first name terms with them as I haven't had to call them often enough for us to establish a relationship!

So, less pain is worth a lot to me. A great deal. I don't enjoy spending my time dealing with Printer issues (Windows® updates are enough of a pain).
When I install a printer I don't want to spend an hour on Google trying to find some obscure driver for some printer that probably should never have been manufactured! 

Brother RJ-3150

Here's the amazing thing, Brother have installers for Apple, Android, Windows and get this, Linux! You may think "who cares?". Well I do because I run two PCs with Linux, in my household, we have Apple, Android, three flavours of Windows and yes Linux (Xubuntu). The engineers at Brother must be real geeks, and that's a fantastic thing! Their quality control team must be right on top of everything because I have never, let me repeat NEVER, had a Brother installation fail on me.


If you have clients who need to print out on the road, even just occasionally, check out Brother's mobile print range. The mobile printers range from A4 (yes you read that right A4!) through to 50mm. They have most situations covered! You can actually purchase perforated A4 paper rolls for the A4 printer, with a neat protective roll case! Imagine, the Brother engineers sit around thinking about this stuff "How can we make this work out in the field?" and that is priceless!

Brother PJ-773

So, back to the original question. "Why?" It's simple, "less pain". In fact, Brother also has a programme to work with software developers to provide integrated and enhanced printing solutions. 

Life is too short to waste configuring printers. So yes, I charge less to clients with Brother devices, because there's no pain for me.