Blog

With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses the world over are traveling uncharted territory as they struggle to remain economically viable and—equally important—keep their employees and customers safe and healthy. In the U.S., we’ve seen an aggressive shift to electronic payment systems such as Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal, a direct response to the unprecedented spread of infection and virus-related deaths. And while cash has been at the heart of the American economy for over 200 years, seemingly overnight, this has changed for businesses and individuals alike.

Enterprising retailers, restaurants, and service providers are deploying strategies for contact-free (or limited contact) transactions, all anchored by electronic payment systems with no cash changing hands. Simultaneously, technologies like PIN pads at grocery stores for credit card payments and Square—that staple of craft fair vendors and other micro-business owners—are suddenly suspect. Who wants to touch a surface that so many others have touched? This April, the regional grocery chain Publix Supermarkets, Inc., and its GreenWise Markets, rolled out contactless payment via Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, for all of its 1,243 stores across the Southeast. Publix CEO Todd Jones cited safety and efficiency for this major shift in operations after resisting the move for years.

New Opportunities

Touting digital payments as quick, clean, and easy, Fintech (financial technology) firms view the current crisis as an opportunity to promote and implement faster and safer financial transactions. And while banishing cash altogether may not yet be feasible (or necessarily prudent), Fintech thought leaders envision electronic payment systems accelerating across all sectors of commerce. With innovative technologies already in the pipeline, this transition seems imminent.

Business Process Automation (BPA)

“We see this segue to electronic payments systems as a natural progression in business process automation,” said Tim Smith, General Manager at Copiers Plus. “So many of our customers are already using technology to automate repeatable, day-to-day tasks. Accounts payable and receivable are prime examples. Anytime a business can streamline a process, particularly when it comes to reducing or eliminating paper and bolstering best practices, efficiency is going to improve.”

Three Key Elements for business process automation include:

• The process requires consistency across the organization
• The process is repeatable
• The process needs to be free from error, every time

“But it’s not just about replacing paper with PDFs,” said Smith. “The goal with process automation is to produce a system that’s transparent, error-proof, and cost-efficient.”

Laserfiche, a multi-national leader in intelligent content management and business process automation, provides an exceptional case study for transforming the paper-intensive accounts payable method for the city of Boca Raton, Florida.

As the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS continue to distribute urgently needed stimulus funds to Americans under the CARES Act, direct deposit and pre-paid debit cards will be favored over paper checks. At this time of uncertainty, these modes are undoubtably both faster and safer.

“On a macro level, it’s easy to see how electronic payment systems can make a huge impact,” said Smith. “But even on a local level, we see how nimble the professional, retail, and service sectors have been in this public health crisis. Copiers Plus stands ready to partner with these innovators as we face the ongoing business and human impacts of Covid-19.”

If you would like to learn more about how your organization can implement innovative business process automation we would love to help! Reach out to us at 800-648-7081 or via the button below.

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

With the onslaught of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, workforces around the globe are deploying new technologies to accommodate quarantined employees in efforts to deliver vital services and—when possible—keep people working. As U.S. health care professionals fight to save lives and reduce the spread of this deadly virus, IT professionals also play a crucial role, helping every sector of American commerce to reshape and retool operations. Now, more than ever, personnel need to collaborate efficiently as they work from multiple locations and “meet” in virtual spaces to deliver cohesive messaging.

In recent times—with the U.S. job market booming—HR staff rushed to distribute handbooks of company policies for onboarding new employees. Now, it’s far more likely employers are delivering messages heralding layoffs or limited hours.

“In this unprecedented public health emergency, generating updated policies and procedures is the first step for any organization,” said Kevin Oberman, Vice President of Sales at Copiers Plus. “Document management (DM) software provides a seamless transition from a print-driven task like this into a much more streamlined process.”

As the COVID-19 epidemic progresses, information continues to arrive via federal, state, and local authorities, seemingly daily. “Business leaders have to respond quickly and accurately,” said Oberman. “This applies to internal and external communications, alike. Document management is a powerful tool in this context. Like all over the country, our customers—many of them small to midsize businesses (SMBs)—have been suddenly forced to revamp policies and procedures to incorporate all the new COVID-19 regulations. At the same time, they still have to ensure they’re meeting the operational needs for the company, and staying in compliance with industry regulations.”

Guiding the Way

DM software encompasses a wide range of features and functionalities. Automating processes for generating and disseminating new policies and procedures is only one. The professionals at Copiers Plus are available now to help you evaluate your current paper-based process and deploy a DM solution that best meets your needs.

Big Benefits

DM systems for paperless policies and procedures like Ademero’s deliver capabilities to:

• Disseminate critical information to an unlimited number of recipients
• Centralize policy and procedure documentation
• Review and approve workflow processes online
• Maintain a full audit trail of your documents
• Securely transfer files of unlimited sizes
• Generate deadline notifications and E-mail reminders
• Simplify and facilitate collaboration
• Eliminate physical documents
• Eliminate human error

In addition to improved efficiency, DM systems can also act as collaboration tools, enabling business to:

• Access on-site and cloud-based solutions to keep you in compliance when storing, retrieving, managing, and sharing critical business documents
• Seamlessly integrate with programs such as: OneDrive, OnBase, Google Drive, DropBox, QuickBooks, Evernote, SharePoint, among others

While DM software has been trending across all sectors in recent years, the current COVID-19 crisis highlights the importance of pivoting toward paperless systems that prove more efficient, secure, and cost effective. Security features like data encryption, system event logging, and customizable permissions and access make DM an excellent future-facing investment for any business.

At Copiers Plus, we’re confident our nation and community will weather this storm. In the meantime, we’re here to help businesses through, positioning them for a return to prosperity and good health. If you would like to learn more about how you can foster an environment of collaboration across your organization, reach out to us at 800-648-7081 or via the button below to schedule your free assessment.

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

With Tax Day 2020 just around the corner, certified public accountants are burning the midnight oil. Tax season for the 654,375 CPAs nationwide may be their busiest time of year, and it’s also a key driver for incorporating new technology in the office. The bottom line: whether you’re a sole practitioner or a member of one the largest accounting firms in the world—think Deloitte with 94,367 global employees—customer service is still the primary goal.

Paul Franklin, chair for accounting programs in the School of Business and Information Technology at Purdue University Global, describes a profession increasingly under pressure to work harder and smarter; he references a 2018 report where “83% of accountants said clients demand more from them today than they did 5 years ago.”

Key Trends in Accounting for 2020

To that end, the profession is moving quickly to embrace disruptions to how accounting service providers have historically operated. Technology trends include:

• Big Data and Analytics
• Automation and Artificial Intelligence
• Cloud Accounting for Small to Midsize Business
• Outsourcing (of accounting duties)
• Social Media (as a source of talent and clients)
• Mobile Computing (aps)
• Connection Convergence (video conferencing)
• Data Entry Automation
• Customization and Personalization

Working Toward a Paperless Process?

While these shifts are inevitable—each enhancing internal efficiencies and customer service—one reality remains: accounting firms are still required to retain paper copies of many documents in-house, and are mandated to submit paper copies to the IRS and state agencies. According to Dan Moore, CPA, at AICPA ENGAGE 2019 in Las Vegas: “Some people are working dynamically with the information in its electronic format. Some people are working with paper returns. Small firms in particular have been slow to abandon paper, especially because so many clients still submit physical tax documents.”

Even firms that have reached the holy grail of a near-paperless office, will still need a contingency plan if a disruption of cloud and Internet services occurs.

Multi – Function Printers and Managed Document Services: Perfect Together

As accounting firms have begun to spend less time processing documents manually, Copiers Plus anticipates a shift to a workflow-centric model and automation (e.g. consider integrations like electronic signature software).

Large or small, the same key question applies: How are staff accessing, storing, and securing documents? Once answered, Copiers Plus specialists can help firms to leverage their existing investments of multi-function printers (MFPs) by incorporating Managed Document Services (MDS), proprietary, customizable software like Kyocera Document Solutions. This software optimizes the entire document output process—capturing, archiving, and producing a workflow that is intuitive, efficient, and customized to each end user through secure access protocols. Further, Kyocera analysts find that MDS can reduce output costs by up to 30%.

Copiers Plus has also partnered with OnBase by Hyland. OnBase Workflow is an automation engine and electronic routing system that empowers organizations to process work faster and more efficiently. The system embeds a robust set of point-and-click configurable rules and actions, so that business processes can be quickly automated without custom programming. In the financial services industry, OnBase, assures regulatory compliance, improves client service, and enhances productivity.

So, as Tax Day 2020 looms, Copiers Plus wants to make sure you are ready. Request an appointment with our team to ensure your organization is able to adapt to the influx of new technology and workflows that arise.  Give us a call at 800-648-7081 or fill a form online through the button below to set up your meeting today!

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

It’s difficult to imagine a more paper-intensive workplace than a law office. No matter the size, every law firm or practice relies heavily on paper documents and hard copies. And while law firms have historically lagged behind in adopting new technology, investments in U.S. legal tech reached $1.2 billion in 2019.

High Stakes

A significant portion of this spending is dedicated to cybersecurity—enhancing protections for firms’ and clients’ sensitive and private information. Integrating security solutions across equipment and platforms is essential in every industry, but law firms face unique challenges. On a daily basis, staff at law firms handle Personal Medical Information (PMI) subject to legislation such as the HIPAA act, or financial documents that fall under the Sarbanes-Oxley act, designed to flag corporate fraud. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Paper Please!

In the legal profession, documents provide the best means to contextualize and formalize opinions, filings, motions, and agreements. Case notes and research generate even more printed pages. Within this document-intensive environment, industry researchers estimate that law firms spend around 3% of their revenues on printing and copying related expenses every year. Team members at Copiers Plus are uniquely qualified to help firms identify inefficiencies in their current systems and maximize their expenditures on Managed Print Services (MPS).

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Typically, smaller law offices—and even some corporate firms—purchase desktop and multi-function printers (MFPs) piecemeal, either when an equipment lease terminates or when an older device is deemed obsolescent or inoperable. This leads to mismatched equipment and processes for different departments within the practice. What’s more, even firms with an in-house IT staff face a host of ever-changing cybersecurity threats.

Benefits of MPS Providers Like Copiers Plus

• An MPS provider can guide firms in choosing the best printing/copying equipment, based upon volume and applications for each department.
• An MPS provider will ensure that printers and copiers are secured, and also enforce security policies across the fleet of devices. With the addition of options like LRS® MFPsecure/Print pull printing—that work in tandem with Kyocera hardware—individual print jobs are held on solution’s PersonalQ until the user is ready to print on any equipped Kyocera MFP in the office.
• An MPS provider helps firms to reestablish control over their print operations and reduce the total costs associated with document production and copying.
• MPS providers enable firms to anticipate a consistent budget for printing, copying, and transmitting documents.
• MPS providers conduct regular preventive maintenance services, reducing downtime on equipment and the resulting bottlenecks in workload.
• MPS monitors all the equipment in your fleet. This helps not only to assure MFPs never run out of supplies, but also keeps track of every printing job so that billing for client copies is streamlined and completely transparent. At many firms, more than half the hard copy production is from print. With a Cost Recovery Print Manager like nQueue, firms can capture all its printing-related data.

If you would like to further assess your Firm’s office technology and the possibilities available for growth in your workflows, we would love to help! Schedule your free assessment with one of our representatives at 800-648-7081 or online through the button below.

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

With the ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19), many offices are asking how to effectively stop the spread of germs and keep employees safe. Keeping office equipment like your copiers and printers sanitized and practicing social distancing is critical to ensuring your staff can stay productive while also limiting risks of spreading germs.

Office Equipment Sanitation Practices

• Wipe down the touchscreen, buttons and any other commonly touched places on the device with a damp cloth. Most household cleaners are acceptable to use except pure bleach. It Is also imperative that you do not spray anything directly on the device as it could seep into the inside of the machine and cause costly problems.
• It is a good idea to have a hand sanitizer station next to your office’s shared copier so staff can clean their hands after each use.
• Setting aside a few times a day to wipe down the copier with alcohol wipes is a good practice to implement.
• If the shared copier is in high demand and you do not have a printer in your office, one way to practice social distancing and ensure you still get your prints made is to utilize your copier’s job storage. Go into your printer properties and find the job storage option. This feature will allow you to pull your print job from the device at a later time when the foot traffic has gone down.
• Each work environment is different. For some, masks and gloves may be readily accessible and encouraged. If so, incorporate them into your interactions with shared devices.
• Consider using the shared copier at certain points in the day versus every time you may need to scan or print. By doing this, you can limit the amount of times you could be exposed to germs from a shared device or interactions close by.

What to Avoid

• Try to be cautious of the environment around you and limit the amount of close interactions you have with people when utilizing your equipment. If there is a line at the device, stand back at least six feet until the person has completed their session.
• Bleach on your copiers and printers is not recommended and can damage the devices. Though household cleaners with bleach are acceptable.
• Avoid cleaning the internal units of a copier, especially with any type of liquid.
• If you are sick, consider staying home or avoiding the shared copier or printer if possible.

While there is no guarantee that these practices can keep you from contracting the coronavirus, they will help you put your best foot forward in protecting yourself and others who may be more at risk. If you have further questions about how to utilize your office equipment in the wake of the coronavirus please reach out to us online or at 800-648-7081.

Coronavirus Infographic