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Below is an article written by Drew and shared on the GWBJ Insights page.

Do you ever long for the simplicity of yesteryear? Back when technology wasn’t at our fingertips and could be kept at an arm’s length. I think of the Tim McGraw song, “Back When” where he says: “We got too complicated. It’s all way over-rated. I like the old and outdated way of life.” So often we feel the pressure of new technology and immediately push back to a simpler time. While I don’t think our technological situation is overrated, I do believe there are some things that we can hold on to that some may deem as outdated, but for others may supplement how they best productively evolve with technology.

Below are just a few ways that you can supplement your digital ways and still stay productive.

Keep It Flowing

One of my favorite aspects of my job as Director of Communications is when I get an opportunity to get in a room with others (safely) and brainstorm new and innovative ideas. I find a burst of creativity through bouncing ideas around and having others throw in their opinions. The last thing I want to do in these moments of creative synergy is to take the time to type out notes, even though I almost always have to rely on notes to remember pertinent details to follow up on. While having someone to keep “minutes” of a meeting is always a good practice, it isn’t always possible or the best strategy.

I will often use tear apart sheets of poster paper that have adhesive on the back to stick to walls for brainstorming sessions. I feel these keep the energy and attention on the discussion and away from any screens and the distractions that can come from emails and notifications. It is also visually helpful to have everything in front of you and presented exactly how you want. Similarly, whiteboards provide this same type of freedom though require the space and materials which sometimes can be limited or require erasing to enable more room to write.

Meeting Facilitation

When I am running meetings, I like to rely on hardcopies not PowerPoint presentations. The three main reasons for my hardcopies are structured notetaking, attention gathering, and accessibility for all. With a hardcopy, the attendees have a flow of how the meeting is going to go and room to make notes when a thought may cross their mind, instead of forgetting it or having to interrupt the presentation before they do. As for attention gathering, if all you have is a hardcopy and the presenter, it makes it easier to implement guidelines for the meeting such as a strict timeline and rules for no computers or phones. While this may seem tyrannical to some, it can be an eye-opening experience when you are able to get your team members 100% engaged and interacting with material undistracted.

By having the disclaimer of the amount of time you will stick to and communicating it ahead of time, you will be more likely to get buy-in and enthusiasm from attendees. Finally, the accessibility piece. I have always struggled to see things clearly due to my severe astigmatism. When we rely on screens and projectors for presentations, it can cause people to check out because they may not be able to see what you are referring to. If you do feature a presentation on a screen, consider sharing a hardcopy appendix for the meeting along with a guideline with key takeaways for those that may need to follow along at either a different pace or due to other restrictions such as limited hearing ability.

Map It Out

As a content producer and having to constantly work through how to best visually display written concepts, I have begun relying more heavily on large colored notecards. While I use them in coordination with my digital notes, they offer me the flexibility of mapping out additional ideas without the boundary or graphic restrictions of a word processing document. I also find this technique helpful when studying or reading through a relevant book. I will use the notecards to reflect and make lists of various topics for further evaluation and then use it to bookmark that section in the book.

I understand that not all of these ideas are for you, or maybe none of them are, and that is okay. The beauty of the matter is there is not a wrong way to approach technology as long as you don’t turn away from it completely. If it takes a little paper to get you to be your most productive and creative self, go for it!

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Construction is one of the top performing industries in the United States. In spite of, or perhaps even because of, COVID-19, this industry has swiftly adapted to recent social and economic upheaval. As many industry sectors struggled through the last quarter of 2020, private development of single-family homes and construction for home improvements surged. “The biggest differentiator for builders and developers this year is likely to be technology in construction—specifically, the innovations that can enhance efficiency,” predicts Neda Imbimbo, CFO at BigRentz.

Innovation Leads Efficiencies in Construction

The use of drones, block chain technology, and Augmented Reality (AR) in construction may have once seemed like science fiction. But in 2021 these technologies are becoming ever more prevalent. Block chain technology, for instance, supports smart contracts. This enables multiple contractors on a project to share one system to buy, track, and pay for services.

Drones provide a literal birds-eye view—so companies can track, map, survey, inspect, and manage worksites more efficiently and safely. Using goggles, masks, or glasses, AR combines the real world and the virtual, enabling contractors to “see” the exact location, size, and style of elements like windows, doors, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical components. In the midst of the pandemic, Mobile Technology allows workers to use their mobile phone camera for applications like real-time inspections and on-site surveillance.

Large Format Printing Reduces Overhead and Increases Efficiencies

As industry experts assert this is just the tip of the iceberg, large format printing technology—with its strong track record in the construction industry—continues to flourish. “One thing that has changed over the years is the process of how construction plans are shared among subcontractors,” explains TAVCO VP Kevin Vaughn. To bid a job past, architects and general contractors had to print multiple sets of plans and distribute them to subcontractors. Now, using PDFs, “They can dispense these files digitally via an online plan room. This enables them to quickly share the file with their Subs and other parties while greatly reducing overhead,” says Vaughn.

Copiers Plus is especially enthusiastic about Canon’s imagePROGRAF TX Series, an economical large format printing solution for architects, general contractors, and subcontractors alike. Core technologies of the imagePROGRAF TX Series printers include a proprietary ink system, print head, and mechanical platform, all designed to produce images that are exceptionally accurate so the integrity of the scale remains intact on blueprints and schematics. The following features make this versatile series a smart choice for construction companies large and small, assuring fast, high-quality large format image capture-to-output.

• Integrated Design includes flatbed scanner and touch-screen monitor.
• Direct Print & Share: Cloud portal enables users to download, upload, drag-and-drop, and print files like TIFF, DDF, JPEG, and HP-GL/2 across multiple sites.
• Direct USB Printing: Simply insert a thumb drive to print PDFs and JPEGs directly from the imagePROGRAF.
  WiFi Connectivity
• Unified Printer Driver: Print to any imagePROGRAF TX system without installing additional printer drivers
  Auto CAD Optimized Printer Driver enables accurate printing of data without Auto CAD.
• Canon’s Print Plug-in for Microsoft Office to seamlessly create enlargements from Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents
• Optional Multi-Function Roll System for different types of media and sizes with up to 4,500 square feet of continuous printing.
• TX Stacker handles up to 100 sheets of ARCH C, D, and E paper stock.

With major construction projects underway in North Carolina, as well as numerous single-family homes and home remodeling projects, Copiers Plus is pleased to provide the technological expertise the industry demands.

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Below is an article written by Drew and shared on the GWBJ Insights page.

This November marks 35 years of Copiers Plus being in operation and serving clients with their office technology needs. It all started on November 3rd, 1985 in Fayetteville, North Carolina when Bob Smith decided to embark on a new journey in the industry he had been in for over 25 years. While many said he was crazy to start a business at the age of 50, he knew there was a need for good customer service and that his model of local support for customers could be effective.

During the first year, Jackie Smith, Bob’s wife joined to help with administrative duties. After a year in business, Copiers Plus began to grow, adding another generation of Smiths in the form of Tim Smith, Bob’s son, to join the sales team. Additionally, Bob’s daughter, Leslie Smith, came on board in 1988 to help with billing. As the family affair began to bloom, technology in the office equipment landscape evolved at a rapid pace. With the rise in sales and deliveries, Copiers Plus upgraded their old station wagon in for a delivery van in 1987.

The incremental but steady growth continued for the company as they began to take more and more of the office building they were in. In 1991 they added the middle office in the building and by 1995 had taken over the whole building. By early 2000, plans had been made to expand once again, with a brand new building. In order to satisfy a growing need for warehouse and office space from growing sales, the brand new 8,000 sqft building on the old Jaycee fairgrounds site near downtown Fayetteville was completed in December of 2000. The move provided the much needed resources to retain talent and house necessary supplies and equipment to better serve the needs of clients in a territory that was beginning to expand.

In 2001, the staff had increased to 15 people and in the next year the company made another big growth initiative by increasing their offerings into Raleigh. With a new office and the emerging color copier offering, Copiers Plus was readying to compete on a much larger scale. By evolving with new technology, the company was able to act as consultants for businesses by instructing them on what was coming next and how they could plan accordingly. This was definitely the case when copiers went digital. Being able to offer a solution to a customer that they could use to not only save money but also become more productive was a win-win. By marketing scanning and color printing, Copiers Plus was able to grow their workforce by 40 percent from their 2001 levels in 2006. This growth would continue that year with an additional office being instituted in the city of Wilmington.

In 2008, many businesses around the country fell victim to the recession, though Copiers Plus was able to continue their success by not only adding employees but adding an additional branch in Greensboro in March of 2008. By 2011, the company began looking into new initiatives that would be fixtures in the industry and what they found was Managed Print Services. This program emphasized the management and systemization of everything that prints within an organization, not just copiers. By helping customers eliminate costly ink-jet devices with toner based commercial options, Copiers Plus was able to bring cost savings to clients still recovering from the lean economic years.

In February of 2013, Copiers Plus became an organization with representation from the mountains to the coast, with their addition of an office in Asheville. The following year would bring about exciting changes as well, as I (Drew Smith), Bob’s grandson, joined the sales team and brought the company to three active generations. That same month, Taylor Fuqua came on board to spearhead the Managed Print Services division and help it reach the next level of outreach and innovation it enjoys today. With 2015 came two more family members joining the team, Roger Miller, the husband of Bob’s granddaughter Stephanie, and Bob’s son, David Smith. Roger joined the team in Fayetteville to help with sales while David came on board as Vice President of Administration.

With the emerging field of document solutions in the mid 2010’s, Copiers Plus began to take on another arena of offerings. By examining how their customers were handling their documents instead of just how they wanted to print, Copiers Plus was now able to increase productivity for clients and their workflows. This increased productivity allowed for higher security levels, alternatives to fax lines, and increased personalization and collaboration measures for employees through integration with the cloud. With the increased importance on the digital arena and simplified communication, Copiers Plus decided to rebrand with a new logo and website in 2017 with a rollout at a company kickoff in February 2018. With their new look and increased capabilities for their website, Copiers Plus once again was able to position themselves to fiercely compete in the office technology landscape.

To date, Copiers Plus has 51 full time employees and has been able to keep everyone fully employed throughout the pandemic currently plaguing the nation. The delivery fleet that once was just a station wagon is now up to four Sprinter vans and a box truck. The company has been awarded by Kyocera Document Solutions the Premier Dealer award 14 times and the ENX Magazine Elite Dealer award the past two years. In 2020, Business North Carolina Magazine recognized Copiers Plus as a Best Employer in NC. It has been an incredible storyline over the past 35 years for Copiers Plus, and the fun is just beginning as is the technology and hopefully, future generations.

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Years from now—once the scourge of COVID-19 is in our rear-view window—US economists and public health experts will have the luxury of musing retrospectively on the high cost, both in lives and livelihoods, of the 2020 pandemic. They’ll also look back on a residential real estate boom that provided a remarkable bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy.

Today, ten months into the pandemic, realtors are racking up figures that rival those prior to the 2008 housing market meltdown. “I’m having one of the best sales years ever,” said Wilmington realtor Zulima Devia at Re/Max Realty “It’s buyers all across the board: from first-time homebuyers to people buying second homes for vacation getaways, to people moving south or out of big cities; they want more space and to maintain safety amidst the pandemic.”

Southeast Among the Hottest of the Hot

According to a new report from real estate brokerage firm Redfin, “half of this year’s hot neighborhoods are clustered in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee.” These areas are receiving the greatest year-over-year page views on websites. The National Association of Realtors includes Charlotte, NC, and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill areas among the nation’s Top 10 housing markets in 2020.

Technology to Keep up with Demand

Along with the challenges of COVID-19 protocols, realtors must keep pace with customers clamoring for higher-end home features in more affordable markets. “COVID-19 has accelerated the use of technology,” said Devia. “The virtual open house is now the standard rather than something used just for ultra-high-end properties.”

Closings are increasingly conducted virtually with minimal contact, perhaps with just the buyer and title clerk or attorney present in one location. Even so, real estate transactions are notoriously paper-intensive. Closing documents contain sensitive customer information like signed applications, disclosure forms and financials, affidavits, assignment of liens, purchase or sales agreements. All of this must remain secure and organized for retrieval at a later time.

Kyocera Managed Document Solutions

To that end, Kyocera’s suite of Managed Document Services (MDS), optimizes realtors’ document environment, converting that endless stream of paper into digital formats. The suite breaks down into these flexible phases:

• ECM (Enterprise Content Management)
  ECM works holistically to manage information across all departments of an organization. It automates procedures, enables simultaneous work, and makes operations more comprehensible—leading to optimum control.
• Customization Services
  This component enables real estate offices and agents to customize an application or specification that slightly differs from standard ones for individual (and often-changing) business workflow needs.
• Global Services
  Kyocera’s Global Services support global customers, improving their document management by introducing a consistent cost-effective environment of hardware and services as well as efficient document workflows.

With managed document solutions, real estate agencies reduce the costs of filing, searching, and retrieving documents. This also substantially eliminates the chance of lost or missing documents.

As nearly half (46%) of Americans are considering a move this year, Copiers Plus is pleased to offer our area realtors excellence in both products and service—helping them to thrive in this competitive marketplace.

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COVID-19 has disrupted our work and family life like no other crisis in recent history. With many more parents working from home and a hodge-podge of school re-opening plans underway across the country, the concept of “Back to School” remains elusive. And whether schools opt for in-person, remote, or hybrid teaching models, parents are scrambling to keep work and school schedules on track amidst a pandemic.

“We’re all making hard choices,” said Keith Oberman, V.P. of sales at Copiers Plus. “Every decision involves a risk/benefits analysis. We’re used to applying this practice in business, but when it comes to the health and safety of our kids, of our teachers and families, it’s exceptionally complicated.”

State-Wide Choices

In North Carolina, state-wide guidance issued on October 5, 2020 provided elementary (K-5) schools a choice of three options:

Plan A.
Schools must implement important safety measures, including face coverings, social distancing, symptom screening, and cleaning. However, there is no requirement to reduce the number of children in the classroom.

Plan B.
A modified Plan B allows children to attend school in person but requires fewer children in the classroom. Both plans A and B allow local school districts to provide a remote-learning option for any child who chooses it.

Plan C.
Parents can also choose an all-remote learning option for their child if they feel this is best.

If this sounds stressful or confusing to you, you are not alone. Individual districts and even individual schools are making—and changing—plans in real time, depending upon case numbers in each community.

Expert Guidance

Still, even amidst a predominance of uncertainty, public health experts provide some simple mitigation strategies for safely bringing children and teachers back to brick-and-mortar schooling. The CDC has created a color-coded chart to simplify key indicators and thresholds for school openings.

Mitigation Strategies to Reduce Transmission Include:

• Masks
• Social distancing
• Hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette
• Cleaning and disinfecting
• Contact tracing
• Cohorts (pods) – where students and teachers remain exclusively with a small group
• Adequate supplies
• Staggered scheduling
• Ventilation
• Water systems
• Physical barriers and guides

In addition, the Strong Schools NC Public Health Toolkit outlines requirements for opening schools, including:

• Limiting nonessential visitors and activities involving outside organizations
• Creating one-way hallways and entrances
• Suspending activities that bring together large groups such as assemblies
• Creating a way to isolate students who have symptoms and ensuring they get home safely

Risks and Benefits in our Communities

A recent study from Brown University suggests that schools aren’t necessarily the super-spreader environments we fear. Further, some doctors and public health advocates believe there are “powerful arguments for in-person schooling wherever possible, particularly for younger students and those with special needs,” as discussed in the October 14, 2020 briefing by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Copiers Plus is a third-generation family business,” said Oberman, “so we’re especially aware of the difficulties families are facing now. This is uncharted territory for all of us. The bottom line? We remain committed to providing the same product and service expertise our customers deserve. Especially now.”

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