Whitepapers

E‐invoicing: Ready for Prime Time 

Despite today’s digital age, of the 30 billion invoices sent and received in Europe every year, more than 90% are in paper format. This is not only labour intensive and error prone, but comes at both a financial and environmental cost. Such manual operations slow invoice reconciliation, leading to poor relationships with suppliers and buyers and, potentially, poor cash flow management.

Electronic invoicing enables businesses to remove manual processes, speed up invoicing cycles and eliminate non‐value add activities – reducing costs by up to 70% and improving green credentials. However, adoption has been held back by a complex, fragmented market and confusion about interoperability and legal standards. As not all businesses can afford to move to e‐invoicing at the same pace, deployment can become a long drawn out process.

These challenges can be overcome by outsourcing the total invoice management process to a managed service provider. Paper and digital invoices are received and converted into electronic format, whilst invoices are sent in the customer’s preferred format. This enables a business to immediately benefit from e‐invoicing whilst providing a gradual transition to electronic invoicing for its buyers and suppliers.

This paper discusses the challenges posed by inefficient manual invoice processes, the need for e‐invoicing and how an organisation can focus on its core business by handing over invoice processing to a managed service provider.

E‐invoicing: ending the paper chase

It is hard to believe that, in the 21st century digital age, one of the most business‐critical documents, the invoice, is still created and sent in paper format. In 2010, of the staggering 30 billion invoices sent in Europe, only 10% were electronic invoices.

The reliance on manual processing of paper invoices is one of the greatest challenges for accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) departments, being expensive, time‐consuming and prone to error. In a global economy where many other business processes are being automated, inefficient financial processes can put a company at a significant competitive disadvantage.

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Ricoh

Memory Technology Evolution: An Overview of System Memory Technologies

Introduction

This paper gives you an overview of the memory technologies that we use in HP ProLiant servers, and describes how we evaluate these technologies. It also briefly summarizes the evolution of server memory and explores the different dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies.

Processors use system memory to store the operating system, applications, and data they use and manipulate. As a result, speed and bandwidth of the system memory controls application performance. Over the years, the need for greater memory bandwidth has driven system memory evolution from asynchronous DRAM technologies to high-bandwidth synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and finally to today’s Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM technologies. Our challenge going forward is to continue to increase system performance by narrowing the performance gap between processors and memory.

The processor-memory performance gap occurs when the processor idles while it waits for data from system memory. In an effort to bridge this gap, HP and the industry are developing new memory technologies. We work with the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), memory vendors, and chipset developers. We evaluate developing memory technologies in terms of price, performance, reliability, and backward compatibility, and then implement the most promising technologies in ProLiant servers.

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HP

Stay Secure - Helping You Protect Critical Information

Threats to information appear more and more frequently, and the risks and costs associated with them are increasing. A breach in the security of your documents can result in:

  • Unauthorized use of sensitive information
  • Stolen, compromised or harmful disclosure of intellectual property and trade secrets
  • Fines and litigation

The threat is real and the stakes are high. What used to be a problem only for large businesses is now a concern for everyone, as new regulations are established and criminals become more sophisticated. Computer Security Institute (CSI) estimates the cost of a successful attack averages $345,000 (CSI Survey 2007, www.GoCS1.com), with 46 percent of companies reporting a security incident in the past 12 months.

Where are your vulnerabilities?

If you’re not controlling physical and electronic access to your multifunction devices (MFDs), almost anyone can launch attacks against your network and information assets. Those attacks can be as simple as someone picking up documents left in the output tray, to malicious worms pulling sensitive documents off your network. Attacks can originate from some surprising sources:

  • A phone line attached to your MFD can be used to access your network.
  • Viruses disguised as print files can enter your printer.
  • Malicious e-mail can be sent from an MFD, with no audit trail.
  • The web server that manages your MFDs and printers is vulnerable to attack.

Maintaining your security is an integral part of our product development blueprint. Security is built into every device during its design phase, providing you with a range of products that offers security appropriate to your business, regardless of its size. Our comprehensive approach to security is based on four strategic pillars:

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Xerox

Focus on Security Xerox and the P2600 Hardcopy Device and System Security Working Group

Introduction

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers created the P2600: Hardcopy Device and System Security Working Group in 2004to develop security standards. The focus of the Working Group is to identify and document security issues and threats, and then provide recommendations to manufacturers on how to mitigate these security risks.

The goals of this activity are to:

  • Define security requirements that include all aspects of security for manufacturers, users and others on the selection, installation, configuration and usage of hardcopy devices and systems including printers, copiers, and multifunction devices and the computer systems that support these.
  • Identify security exposures of hardcopy devices and systems and instruct manufacturers and software developers on appropriate security capabilities to include in their devices and systems and instruct users on appropriate ways to use these security capabilities.

What The Working Group Provides

The aspects of hardcopy device security that are covered in the standard are:

  • Authentication
  • Authorization
  • Physical Security
  • Device Management
  • Information Security
  • Integrity
  • Privacy
  • Auditing / Monitoring
  • Network Security
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Xerox

Security Features of Lexmark Laser Printers: Overview

Executive Summary

Printers are complex network devices that require careful consideration regarding security. Lexmark’s printing and networking products include a wide array of security related features. This document discusses those features and provides an overview of their benefits and their implementation.

Any device that is placed on a network must be evaluated with respect to security. How does the device protect itself from unauthorized access? Does the device expose the network to any form of vulnerability? What sort of information does the device process, and what are the security considerations related to that data? These and many other questions are appropriate to ask of any networked device, including networked printers.

Networked printers operate independently on the network and can be focal points for sensitive information. Securing them is sometimes comparable to securing other conventional networked devices such as computers: the need for controlled network access and the need for secure remote management are largely the same for printers and workstations. In other areas, the security considerations around printers are substantially different: they generally don’t run conventional operating systems, they don’t have network file shares that need to be secured, they probably don’t need or support antivirus software, etc.

This document will define the major areas of security concerns related to printers, and provide an overview of the security features of Lexmark’s printers that allow the devices to be deployed, managed and used in a secure manner.

Applicability

This white paper applies to the following Lexmark products:

  • Lexmark C522 laser printer
  • Lexmark C524 laser printer
  • Lexmark T640 laser printer
  • Lexmark T642 laser printer
  • Lexmark T644 laser printer
  • Lexmark C780n laser printer
  • Lexmark C782n laser printer
  • Lexmark W840 laser printer
  • Lexmark C920 laser printer
  • Lexmark C935n laser printer

This white paper does not constitute a specification or warranty. All rights and remedies concerning products are set forth in each product’s Statement of Limited Warranty.

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Lexmark

Xerox® Secure Print Your Peace of Mind for Confidential Documents

Afraid of using your Workgroup’s printer or multifunction device for sensitive documents?

Most people don’t use workgroup devices for printing private or confidential documents due to fear of security.

Xerox has the answer

Use the Xerox® Secure Print feature. If you don’t want your confidential or private documents to be left in the output tray, open for viewing, or even taken by someone else, Secure Print allows you to control the print timing of your documents. You can now optimize your print solution by using a workgroup device to print all your documents, without worrying about security!

Here’s an example:

You need to print your company’s product roadmap or an employee’s development plan. In the past, you may have used a personal printer to print these types of files. With Secure Print, the workgroup printer becomes your own personal printer! Print the file, and in the print Properties section, select Secure Print from the menu (this varies from device to device: see your user manual for exact instructions). Select a passcode of your choice and send the job to be printed. The job is held in the job list until you release it. At the device control panel, type in your passcode and the document prints. You control when the print takes place! Best of all, if multiple jobs are held using the same passcode, they are all released for printing at once – making it easy and quick for you to collect your jobs.

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Xerox

The New Workplace Reality: Enterprises Must Capture The Soul And Spirit Of The Emerging Worker

Executive Summary

In March 2013, Ricoh commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the importance and business impact of document and process support at the point of service. To explore this topic, Forrester Consulting conducted in-depth surveys with 250 global customer service strategy and operations decision-makers as well as 36 customer-facing individual contributors. We found that customer-facing workers are seen as a strong differentiator by companies coming out of recession. This is a big change; customer-facing employees have now become the target for investment and process improvement. We surmise that, without investment in new technologies and processes, organizations will be facing a new competitive landscape at a substantial disadvantage.

We found that poor customer support often stems from inadequate time to focus on the customer and inadequate document and process support that would allow more human-centric interaction. Current systems consume too much human bandwidth with low-value tasks and rain energy from workers that could provide a richer customer experience. Furthermore, the workforce is losing its most experienced employees: roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach retirement age every day for the next 19 years in the US alone. Younger workers and their customers entering the workforce will need to improve basic document services such as entering data, searching for information, copying and printing receipts and materials, and leveraging emerging mobile, collaboration, and cloud-based solutions. This transition opens the door for a new generation of employees who think and work differently. Enterprises that do not capitalize on this transition will be at a competitive disadvantage.

Key Findings

Forrester’s study yielded three key findings:

  • Customer-facing workers are seen as a strong differentiator by companies coming out of recession. Customer-facing workers are viewed today as key assets to differentiating and growing business. 64% of global customer service strategy and operations decision-makers think that investing in customer-facing technology is valuable because customer-facing employees are a way to differentiate their company and are critical to improving the customer experience.
  • Gaps in systems and document services do not allow time for a rich personalized experience. Decision-makers believe that customer-facing workers could be more effective with more time available to personalize the customer experience. Poor information access and time spent capturing, searching, printing, and filling out documents and forms that do not add value absorbs valuable client-facing time and are major limitations in supporting customers today, with a significant opportunity cost to the business.
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Ricoh

C-Suite and Line of Business Leadership in Transforming Business Critical Document Processes

Executive Summary

The rising tide and diversification of business critical information that organizations need to manage is well documented. Existing business information management processes constrain the ability to hit financial targets, cultivate innovation and provide superior customer service — all essential to maintaining a competitive edge and growing business.

Businesses do have at their disposal newer technologies such as virtualized, cloud-based storage and SaaS applications and more flexible information management alternatives like Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Managed Document Services MDS).

However, the successful transformation of business critical document processes requires the recognition that design and execution is no longer a challenge for the CIO and IT alone. The transformation of information management requires the participation of other C-suite executives as well as Line of Business (LoB) domain experts and functional managers.

This White Paper examines how a growing number of CIOs are successfully engaging other CXOs in transforming information processes; and communicating the relationship between optimized business critical document processes and achieving strategic corporate goals. At the same time they are recruiting LoB process domain experts and functional managers to ensure effective design and successful implementation of any process transformation. The LoB domain experts and functional managers have a vested interest in an optimized future state.

It is the linkage to strategic corporate goals, and this engagement at multiple levels of the organization that will drive business information management optimization and, ultimately, build a culture of continuous improvement.

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Ricoh

Hard Disk Security for Printers, MFPs, and Copiers - What Resellers Need to Know to Advise Their Customers.

It’s common knowledge that computers store information on hard disk drives. What’s not as well known is that some printers and most multifunction printers (MFPs) and copiers also contain hard disk drives that record and store data. Residual data that may remain on the disk after printing, copying, etc. could pose a risk.

Your customers’ data at risk

Recent reports on the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes demonstrated the security risks to data stored on MFP hard disk drives. In their reports they recovered dozens of pages worth of confidential information stored on MFPs, warehoused in several used equipment facilities.

The purpose of this document is to help Xerox Resellers become experts on hard disk security. Understanding the potential risks and safeguards—and the advantages Xerox products provide—will help position you as a valued consultant for your customers. 

Printer, MFP and copier hard disks 

Digital information is transmitted to a printing device through a computer, over a network, by scanning, or through a telephone line. Most of the time this data is stored on a hard disk drive so the device can print quickly and multitask—provide more than one function (print/copy/scan) at the same time.

How your customers can protect their data

From the introduction of our first digital products, Xerox recognized the potential security risks of stored data. The robust safeguards built into many of our products like Disk Image Overwrite and Data Encryption, ensure data security from installation and setup, through the productive life of the product, to its eventual recycling or disposition.

Disk Image Overwrite

The Disk Image Overwrite feature “scrubs” the disk drive in accordance with stringent specifications established by the US Department of Defense (DoD). This option became a standard feature on nearly every product in the Office portfolio in 2006. 

The Disk Image Overwrite feature can be customized to remove all data from the disk according to customer needs:

  • Immediate—automatic data overwrite as soon as printing is complete.
  • Scheduled—automatic, daily data overwrite.
  • On Demand—executed as needed, prior to disk removal, or for end-of-life device disposition.
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Xerox

Transforming Information Management to Increase Revenue and Improve the Customer Relationship

Executive Summary

Successful companies are constantly seeking ways to increase sales, to innovatively develop new sources of revenue and grow their customer relationships in order to protect and expand existing revenue streams. Rapid access to timely and accurate business information is essential to these initiatives. Without it, opportunities are missed, sales cycles take longer or stall completely, and customers can be alienated and lost.

Significant business information, particularly customer-facing information, is still initially captured in hardcopy form. Paper documents remain a significant source of business critical information for iWorkers, second only to email, and ahead of digital forms and documents. And document workflows and processes that contain relevant customer information frequently cross organizational boundaries, for example between Sales and Finance, or Finance and Customer Support.

Whether paper or digital, documents are key components of effective customer engagement. Customer facing functions like Sales and Customer Service require this information to better understand each customer, satisfy customer inquiries, close sales and promote add-on business.

This White Paper illustrates how these iWorkers, as the primary agents of customer engagement, can better achieve goals of increasing revenue and customer satisfaction with more effective and timely access to business critical documents. We’ll look at the benefits of making the right information available at the right time, the information bottlenecks and deficits that make it difficult for them to do their jobs, and ways to address making important, relevant information available and easier to use.

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Ricoh

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