Intermec Easycoder 3600 End of Life
Did you know the Intermec Easycoder 3600 is end-of-life?
by Timmy Thermal
The Intermec 3600 is going into End of Life at the end of the year, which poses the question – Are you prepared?
I was watching a movie the other day. It was an interesting piece. The main protagonist only had 2 months to live, so he went around trying to complete everything on his bucket list before he passed. This got me thinking of what would I do if I had only two months to live. I decided nothing. This is due to the fact that whenever anybody is told they have two months to live they always live longer, and I would rather go out in a high then go out after selling everything and wasting all my money on my bucket list.
This is technology blog though, so how does this relate to technology? Well, it has to deal with End of Life and preparing for it when it happens to your printer.
The Intermec 3600 is being placed in End of Life at the end of this year, so we have 6 more months of service left before it will be put on the non-serviceable list at Intermec. What is there left to do? Well you have a couple options. You could work the machine to death in the next 6 months to try and make use of what’s left of service by getting as many pieces replaced as possible, which is solid plan on paper, however it does have some detrimental flaws. For one, you are putting a lot of stress on your printer, and even though you do get new parts, any parts that didn’t get replaced have been exposed to all that stress and are now likely to break leading to downtime. Every time something breaks, you add time that the printer isn’t doing anything and sitting idle. There is also the cost of buying all these parts to consider, which can really add up.
Another option is replacement. Intermec offers a fine line of printers that you can buy to replace the 3600. In fact, they even suggest the PX6i as a viable replacement to the 3600. Even that plan has some flaws though. First, you have to implement a new piece of hardware into your already established system which is time consuming, and may cause additional training of employees. Second, the cost we discussed with the first option once again comes up. The cost when replacing a unit includes the purchase of a new unit along with possible hidden costs in wires or connecter that are needed to hook the printer up to your system.
The third option is a service from a reputable company. There is a period of time after the End of Life that there are parts still out there. This allows for companies such as MIDCOM to be able to still offer service. MIDCOM offers multiple options for the repair and coverage of your printer, at affordable rates. One quick, pain free, informative call is all that it takes to get your printer repaired or covered. There is no penalty for calling, so there is no reason not to.
The End of Life date of the Intermec 3600 is approaching, and unlike being told you only have 2 months to live, it isn’t an estimate, and it isn’t up for discussion or change. The End of Life date is final. Which just leaves one question – Are you prepared?