Office Document Strategies Blog

  Sometimes we come across some great articles which offer real value to others.  Recently I was reading the blog of a colleague called Art Post who is a sales professional in the office document strategies industry.  He is located in New Jersey.  His two recent blog articles are so timely and right on the mark, that I though it would be worthwhile for our readers to be directed to them.

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, MFP, Copier, office document strategy

The Green revolution is getting well entrenched in many offices. How many times have you seen the e-mail footer that says, "Save some trees.  Please don't print this e-mail unless absolutely necessary."

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, document management, MFP, Document, Printer, toner, office document strategy, Office

When you decide to add a printer to your IT network does the brand matter to you?

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Topics: Printer, toner, cost of printing, IT network

I find myself constantly working with software tools to improve my document production or in my marketing role.  It is remarkable what can be found if you go looking for a solution to a problem, and sometimes even when you are not looking.  Managing your documents and information takes a variety of actions.  These are some of the IT and computer tools which I have found valuable.

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Topics: Computer, Software, software tools, Document

Document management is a long established tool of business.  For many people though it remains a world of smoke and mirrors.  One of the reasons for this is the proliferation of acronyms which the industry has spawned.  It seems that keeping language precise and understandable was intentionally avoided and creating terms which are often little understood became the norm.  In an attempt to clarify a little we offer our collection of 10 definitions or explanations of common document management terms.  To help we have referenced wikipedia to obtain some of the short definitions.

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Topics: document filing, document management, Document

Are you puzzled with the who, what, where and why of document scanning and management? You have heard or read a lot about document management- but  exactly what is a document management system- and why do you need it? 


Wikipedia defines a Document Management System (DMS) as a computer system ( or a set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. Smeadsoft defines it as the imaging, storage and retrieval of documents and information scanned into an electronic system. This includes both documents and files orginally created in electronic format as well as paper documents, photos and other items scanned into digital form and saved with keywords.   Both definitions start with STORAGE of documents.

If you want to store documents away- never to be looked at again - then get a brown cardboard box, fill it with paper, seal it up with tape, and store it in the basement- and in 20 years when you move- open it up- and finally decide to throw it out. Rather extreme case in point. Because if you really have documents that you will never have the need to look at again- shred them now.   But most documents do have to be looked at again for numerous reasons.   In your company is there any one type of document that seems to have the most “handprints” on it.  Are invoices passed around for approval and payment processing? Is customer correspondence shared with different departments? Are meeting notes distributed to several team members.    Where to start- I’ll share my experience with Accounts Payable.  
 

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Topics: Scanning, document filing, document management, Document, office document strategy, shredders

   When someone talks about office documents the image that usually comes to mind is a piece of paper.

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Topics: technology tools, video, document management, office document strategy

Much has been made about the CBS News report on digital copier hard drive security.  I have had discussions with several of our clients who were asking if they should be concerned.  We have advised them this is a manageable process.  In some ways it is similar to  shredding paper documents when they come to the end of their useful life.

 

The concerns raised have been known for several years and are similar to concerns with computer hard drives at the end of life of a computer.  None of the brands we carry were part of the subject of the report.

Multifunction printer manufacturers have responded to the need to provide security in several ways:

•  some have made removable hard drives available as options
•  all major manufacturers offer some form of security option which will provide levels of encryption and file removal
•  there are reformating options which are available through the service settings on machines which will overright the hard drive and return the device back to factory settings.

As a vendor of these devices we provide various levels of response to meet the varying needs of our clients:

1. at minimum we reformat drives at the end of a lease and return the multifunction copier back to factory specs.
2. for some brands we can remove the hard drive from the device, connect it to a computer and use drive overwrite software to wipe the data more securely.
3. for clients who have concerns about security during the active use of the device we will configure equipment with the encryption options available from our suppliers, Kyocera, Samsung and Ricoh.
4. if clients are exceptionally concerned about the potential of data on hard drives then we will offer to the client the ability to "buy" the hard drives from the device and we will put new drives into the device before returning.  The costs of this option will vary depending upon how the manufacturer has dealt with their hard drive design.  In some instances the drives have proprietary boot formats and are only available from the vendor leading to a more costly replacement.

While we have not experienced the level of data exposure that was shown in the news coverage the issue of client data security is important for every business. Responding to ensure procedures are in place to protect this information is important to everyone concerned.  When laptops, cell phones or desktop computers are recycled at end of life it is important that users are aware that all of these devices have non volatile memory locations which need to be cleared and data removed.  Print devices of all types which use hard drives to carry out their work are simply subject to the same precautions.

Working with your vendor to establish the right mix of security, cost and information protection is an important part of any acquisition in this digital world.  

Lee K

 

  Did you buy the data security kit with your new MFP?  Is this a concern for you? 

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, Document, Copier, colour multifunction, privacy, colour multifunction printer

There is a lot of discussion in the printing industry these days about managed print services.  According to the Managed Print Services Association this concept is, "Managed print services is the active management and optimization of document output devices and related business processes".  To date the focus of these concepts has been the large enterprise, organizations with hundreds or even thousands of print devices.  Over time the concept is working its way into the SMB space where organizations with a few printers or multifunction printers can begin to think along the same vein.  

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, MFP, Document, cost of printing, Managed Print Services, MPS

 

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Topics: Colour printer, colour multifunction printer, sales