Editorials

Konica Minolta Wows its Channel in Barcelona

By David Sweetnam, Head of Research and Lab Services, EMEA, November 7, 2013

Barcelona, the beautiful Catalan city famous for its Gaudi architecture, irrepressible football team and tantalising tapas bars, was host to the 2013 Konica Minolta European Leadership Conference (ELC2013). Held every two years, the ELC is an opportunity for Konica Minolta’s European channel partners to get together and see where Konica Minolta is today, as well as get a glimpse into what the future is likely to deliver in terms of technology and commercial direction—plus, of course, share a glass or two as they discuss success stories with old friends and colleagues. Having been to the last two ELC conferences in Munich and Hamburg, I was yet again impressed by the event from beginning to end, with Konica Minolta presenting a solid strategy for embracing the key challenges that the imaging industry faces. The keynote speeches in the morning session from Konica Minolta Inc. President and CEO Masatoshi Matsuzaki and Ken Osuga, president of Konica Minolta Business Solutions (KMBS) Europe GmbH, set a very positive tone for the conference.

3D Printing: An Exciting Technology

The new age brings many exciting new projects and breakthroughs, one of these being 3D printing. 3D printing may seem like a brand new concept but in fact the first working 3D printer, was created in 1984 by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corp.

It has recently broken new grounds and researchers and scientists are trying to make it a widely used technology.

3D printing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects of practically any shape from a digital model. 3D printing is accomplished by using an additive method, where successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes.

Advantages of Multi Function Printers

A Multifunction Printer (MFP) is a piece of office equipment that combines a printer, a copier, a scanner and fax into one machine. MFPs consolidate assets, reduce costs, and improve workflow.

Every office has the need for printing. According to Forbes, scanning and faxing are essential to a firm's operations.

The publication stated that: "More companies rely on scanning and faxing than you would imagine, despite the prevalence of online and digital solutions."

Going Green

Becoming an environmentally friendly company is a big concern for many business owners. There are many reasons why one would want to run a “green” office.

Becoming green will help reduce your carbon footprint and significantly reduce your energy bills, while helping you develop a reputation for being an honorable company, which will create new business opportunities.

Many people might be under the impression that the only way to go green is to completely cut out printing from your business plan. But throwing away the printer isn’t practical for any office.
Companies need to focus more on being mindful of what they print, how they print, what they use to print and what they print on.

Canon Launches Therefore™ Document Management Solution in U.S. Market

By Jessica Schiffenhaus, Research Editor, October 7, 2013

On Wednesday, September 25, BLI editors joined Canon Solutions America for an open house event at MetLife Stadium, where Canon gave a first look demonstration on the company’s new document management software offering, Therefore.

While Therefore is new to Canon Solutions America, it’s been sold by Canon Europe since 2009. The product itself was developed in 2003 by Australia-based document management provider, Therefore Corporation, and is now partially owned by Canon.

Digital Duplicators: The Technology That Just Keeps on Going

By Lynn Nannariello, BLI Assistant Managing Editor, Sept. 24, 2013

The expression “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is particularly true when it comes to digital duplicators, a tried-and-true technology that has been around for decades. When BLI asked RISO Marketing Manager Suzanne Farley what has changed most over the previous generation of the company’s duplicator products, she said that the devices have become more environmentally friendly, offering such features as ECO mode. According to the company, ECO mode reduces power consumption without compromising quality. When BLI recently tested a group of RISO’s current line of digital duplicators, it, in fact, found no visible difference in the image quality output produced by the RISO EZ391U with ECO Mode turned on and that produced with ECO Mode turned off.

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Staying Compliant with Document Management

If your business is currently operating in an industry that has rules set forth by a regulatory agency, then it is in your best interest to play by the rules and make sure you’re in compliance. Specifically, if your business is operating in the health care or legal industry, it is very important that you are keeping great track of your information and making sure it remains confidential. This isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially if you are still operating with a physical filing system.

Enter a document management system from your local managed services provider. A document management system will ensure the safety of your documents from disasters as well as make sure they are safe from identity thieves. Remaining in compliance, especially with HIPAA, is a very important thing to maintain when working in an industry where people are your regular customers.

Fujitsu Limited Launches New Contact-Less ScanSnap Scanner

By Lisa Reider, BLI Senior Product Editor, Scanners and Environmental

The latest offering out of Fujitsu’s R&D department is the ScanSnap SV600, an overhead scanning solution that captures images without contact. The overhead-mounted cameras scan images from 1" x 1" to 11.8" x 17". The device automatically recognizes when pages are turned while scanning books or magazines, for example, to help move the capture process along. The multi-crop feature allows multiple documents within the scan area, such as business cards, to be scanned, cropped and saved as individual images. And according to the company, scans can be initiated at the touch of a button. As with some other ScanSnap scanners, the unit comes with ScanSnap Manager, ScanSnap Organizer, Rack2-Filer Smart and Magic Desktop. Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap, CardMinder and the Easy Book Creation utility are also included.

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Maintaining Efficient Workflows in your Office

If you are a business owner, or are currently managing a business, then you know the importance of maintaining an efficient office. Not only is a business more productive this way, you are also setting yourself up for success in the long run. Many times, business owners forget about the amount of money lost to inefficiency and unproductive work days or weeks.

When we talk in terms of workflow, we mean the specific processes that need to be followed in order to complete a specific task. Examples of this can be adding new leads to a list of sales calls, implementing a process that happens on a monthly basis, or can be something as simple as passing out a company-wide memo. Whatever the case may be, eliminating the inefficiencies in these workflows will make them flow smoother and cut costs in the long run.

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The Advanced Capabilities of Document Management

Document management is a term that is heard quite often by business owners in a wide variety of industries. As the digital storage of information is becoming more widespread and accepted, more and more businesses are starting to pay attention to some of the finer benefits and points of using a document management system. After all, storing information electronically is inherently more efficient and has the capability of being retrieved even if a business is destroyed due to a disaster.

Document management systems are designed to benefit any business of any size, operating in any industry. A small business may necessarily think they need the power of a document management system, however, when shown the vast number of improvements, small businesses learn that they stand to benefit quite a bit from a shift in the digital direction.

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