Multifunction Devices

The world is focused on recycling. One of the best places to start may be with your office laser printers and multifunction systems.

Here are three simple steps to cutting waste and saving money: continue reading...

• Recycle Paper Put recycling bins next to your printers and copiers. Most municipalities have recycling services. You can also use recycled paper in your printers and copiers. Make sure to select a good quality of recycled paper that is rated for laser printers and copiers.
• Duplex Printing A great way to immediately cut paper usage is to set your printers and multifunction systems to default to duplex (two-sided) printing. This is especially helpful for long print jobs because duplex printing literally cuts your paper usage in half.

All too often, we hear and even use terms assuming others know exactly what we mean. One term used in the document industry is workflow- but what does it mean?

According to Wikipedia

A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations...

The flow being described often refers to a document that is being transferred from one step to another.

A workflow is a model to represent real work for further assessment, e.g., for describing a reliably repeatable sequence of operations. More abstractly, a workflow is a pattern of activity enabled by a systematic organization of resources, defined roles and mass, energy and information flows, into a work process that can be documented and learned. Workflows are designed to achieve processing intents of some sort, such as physical transformation, service provision, or information processing. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workflow ) continue reading...

Everyone knows how bad the economy was this past year and this downturn caused many companies to put their IT strategies on hold. Others however, saw this as an opportunity to be proactive and begin implementing automation and moving forward with new ways of getting the job done. As we head into the New Year, look at these strategies to think about re-organizing and working smarter. continue reading...

1. Be proactive! While companies need to react quickly to industry trends and changing economic and world environments, they also need to formulate strategies for the future. Think about creating a team who will think ahead and make sure the company will get where it wants to go in the next few years.
2. Follow a business strategy roadmap. Don’t just jump blindly expecting the technology to magically work for you. Build a business strategy that will clarify and outline the issues you’re trying to solve. Be sure that your company is starting with a good foundation for their infrastructure that can be further built upon.
3. You don’t have to implement everything at once. In fact, it is much more practical automate your business according to a strategic plan—focus on what needs attention first. Look at your industry specific government regulations to see how they expect a company to handle information management.
4. Don’t wait to “play it safe” and have other companies experiment with new technology. If you stand back and wait for another company to make the first step and prove automation as a valuable investment, the next generation of technology will already have hit the business world. Your company will remain one step behind other innovating companies and will lose competitive edge.
5. Think about your return on investment (ROI). If you’re worried about staffing and hiring issues, realize that once automation is implemented, people used to working manually with documents can be re-deployed to other valuable tasks. While automation still needs staff to run it, the amount of personnel can be greatly reduced. This feeds right into the ROI. Create a flowchart and see how much faster your product can hit the market with new technology. That’s savings.

When a company wants to go paperless and begins to scan the contents of their filing cabinets into a document management system many are surprised to find many files previously thought to be lost.

When it comes to document storage, filing cabinets are simple things with no brain. We’re provided a drawer and a key and the rest of the work is left up to us. There’s no advice on where to put documents, we’re not told exactly where certain documents can be found, documents aren’t automatically routed to the right people in workflow, and our key certainly can’t be taken away to stop our access to the files.

Filing cabinets have gained the reputation as the office “Bermuda Triangle” of lost documents. Over the years multiple people in the office file, misplace and not return documents to the filing cabinets. As people organize to their own standards and methods, documents are inevitably filed in the wrong places and the next time a file is needed, it can’t be found. continue reading...

ARMA—the national association of Records Managers and the independent authority on Records Information Management (RIM) has made public their Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP). As ARMA says in their preamble, “As a key resource in the operation of any organization, records must be created, organized, secured, maintained, and used in a way that effectively supports the activity of that organization.”

Are you interested in going paperless? Do you want to see how document efficiency can help your office go green? If your business is interested in the concepts behind records management, or is looking to implement document management software, this website is a great way to start obtaining information. continue reading...

Fax Servers and Multifunction Printers offer a lot of the same capabilities and are a great tool for any office.

A Fax Server is a set of software running on a server computer that is equipped with one or more fax-capable modems attached to a telephone line or a software modem emulator that can transmit the signal over an IP network. A fax  server’s function is to receive fax calls and accept documents from users, convert them into faxes, and transmit them, store them, or pass them onto a different user. Users can communicate with the server through a local network or the Internet.

One little known fact is that a Multifunction Printer can offer a lot of the features a fax server can. A Multifunction Printer is an office machine that can incorporate multiple devices in one so a business can have a centralized document management system. A MFP combines the abilities of a printer, scanner, photocopier, fax machine, and email and is great with handling many processes at once. continue reading...

Ramsey, N.J. – July 27, 2009 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, today announced that the bizhub PRO® C65hc was awarded the European Digital Press (EDP) Association Award for its dependable color and productivity, and brilliance in digital color.  The EDP jury, consisting of experts in engineering, journalism and independent consulting, chose Konica Minolta’s innovative printing system for its unsurpassed color reproduction as the best full color light production print system in the marketplace.

Featuring revolutionary High Chroma toner (HC toner) developed by Konica Minolta, the bizhub PRO C65hc color production print system provides an unprecedented number of colors and exceptionally bright color saturation for graphic arts companies, commercial printers, advertising agencies and other creative groups.  In particular, users will benefit from the large sRGB coverage area along with the facilitated sRGB color workflow. Additionally, the bizhub PRO C65hc reproduces a color gamut extremely close to the sRGB color space and also produces a far greater number of colors than any other device currently on the market. What you see is what you print (WYSIWYP) is the maxim for the new HC toner, making complicated conversion processes from sRGB into CMYK more accurate.

The bizhub PRO C65hc stands out from other products in its class due to its unsurpassed color quality, its impressive media flexibility and comprehensive inline finishing options.  The system processes up to 65 color letter-sized pages a minute and easily manages media of up to 300 gsm.  To facilitate selection, the bizhub PRO C65hc comes in different configurations, targeted to the most frequent customer finishing requirements.  In addition, HC toner requires lower fusing temperatures than conventional toners while also producing lower C02 emissions. continue reading...

Digital cameras have become a necessity for businesses. They’re inexpensive, easy to use and create a message that cannot be expressed with words. Of course getting the pictures onto a marketing statement or proposal is another step that needs to be addressed. Businesses are now using color multifunction systems to print color digital photos at blazing speeds at a fraction of the cost of slow photo printers.

Personal Photo Printers vs. Color Multifunction Systems (MFPs)

· Personal photo printers are slower than MFPs taking multiple minutes to print a photo compared to an MFP’s speeds of up to 45 photos per minute.

· Most personal printers do not allow you to print on letter-sized paper, limiting you to a 4 X 6 size. MFPs conveniently let you print high-resolution photos on normal 8.5 X 11 size paper.

· Photo printer paper is expensive and cost per photo can be from 25 to 80 cents per page. MFPs can reduce that cost. continue reading...

By Daniel Dern

Canon U.S.A. announced March 3 four new black-and-white multifunction laser copiers in its imageClass line, intended for use in small and home offices: the MF6540 ($599), MF6590 ($699), MF6595 ($999) and MF6595cx ($1,145). All four models are scheduled to begin shipping to retailers in April.

By replacing separate single-function machines with a higher-speed MFD (multifunction device), smaller offices or branches can reduce the cost and complexity of managing several devices, according to Canon. Commonly cited benefits of consolidating and replacing slower, single-function devices with MFDs include reducing the amount of table or floor space required; service costs and labor; the number of types of consumables such as paper and other supplies that need to be stored; and the per-page cost of consumables.

By Daniel Dern

Canon U.S.A. announced March 3 four new black-and-white multifunction laser copiers in its imageClass line, intended for use in small and home offices: the MF6540 ($599), MF6590 ($699), MF6595 ($999) and MF6595cx ($1,145). All four models are scheduled to begin shipping to retailers in April.

By replacing separate single-function machines with a higher-speed MFD (multifunction device), smaller offices or branches can reduce the cost and complexity of managing several devices, according to Canon. Commonly cited benefits of consolidating and replacing slower, single-function devices with MFDs include reducing the amount of table or floor space required; service costs and labor; the number of types of consumables such as paper and other supplies that need to be stored; and the per-page cost of consumables. continue reading...

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