Blog

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.

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

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when all, but the most progressive industries would have scoffed at the notion of latte-sipping, pajama-clad American workers toiling away in their home offices. Not so in 2020. Last year’s Global State of Remote Work determined that U.S. employees are 66% more likely to work remotely in full-time positions than their counterparts across the globe. Millennials and Gen Z’ers, who now comprise the majority of the American workforce, count the comfort of working from home as “a necessary perk.”

The Downside

Yet, for all of the recent reports on the efficacy of remote working, there is a significant downside. A New York Times report warns that social isolation is growing epidemic, with both young and older Americans increasingly at risk. Working from home can be lonely. What’s more, because work-from-home jobs offer flexible hours, work-life boundaries can (and often do) get fuzzy. A recent study found that nine of 10 millennials check their work-related email outside of designated working hours. And though videoconferencing is increasingly popular across most industries, there is no true substitute for face-to-face collaboration and camaraderie among colleagues.

With these cautions in mind, we hope the following guidelines will help you create an efficient home office, whether you use it for full-time work, running a family business, or just catching up on the bills.

Home Office by Design  

Whether designing your home office from scratch or retrofitting an existing room, two guiding principles prevail: (1) Less is more (2) Multi-purpose/multi-layered. Seamlessly incorporating efficient workspace into your home demands pre-planning and creativity. In choosing the best space to set up shop, you’ll need to consider traffic flow and your ability to block out distraction.

Form and Function

Home office furniture should complement the other rooms in your house, but also serve your workflow to best advantage. With space typically at a premium, you’ll want to organize both vertically and horizontally (e.g. make use of floating shelves to get books and office equipment off the desk, and vertical file folders to hold important papers). When you think of the amount of time you spend here, a comfortable, ergonomic chair is one of the best investments you can make.

Home Office Technology

Once you’ve gotten the physical space for your home office squared away, the next step is choosing technology that best meets your needs and budget. The workflow experts at Copiers Plus are ideally suited to recommend process strategies and technology solutions to manage documents and data, including the Kyocera line of mid- or low-range printers. Designed for small work groups or individual users, these products include features such as:

• Full-color printing
• USB host interface to support on-the-go printing and scanning
• Standard wireless printing and Wi-Fi Direct
  Apple AirPrint®, Google Cloud PrintTM, KYOCERA Mobile Print, and Mopria® compatible for mobile printing solutions

Staying in the Loop

Professionalism is key to the success of every remote employee. No matter your job and industry specific applications, communication is essential. To that end, it’s likely you’ll also require one or more of these essentials:

• Laptop/tablet hybrid
• Connect to Cell leverages Bluetooth® wireless-enabled technology to place and receive cellular calls through a home phone system.
• Bluetooth headset
• Conference call speaker
• High power wireless router
• Micro-cut Shredder

Along with these high-tech and higher-priced items, never underestimate the value of inexpensive products to keep the clutter at a minimum. Cord organizers and bins to conceal papers and binders are a must. Last but not least, seek out an eye-saving task lamp that you can adjust for your (varying) work environment.

Technology is vital to companies that want to exist today and to a larger scale thrive in the years ahead. Drew Smith of Copiers Plus shares insights into the role technology helps his company — and his customers — do business today and plan effectively for their future.

What role does technology play in serving your customers?

Each of our customer’s infrastructure is different and continues to change seemingly daily with new technological advances. It is our job to adapt to each environment and offer solutions that will bring value to their office communication. One way we are able to achieve this is by integrating with the different software programs and applications currently used within their organizations. In addition, our ability to tap into the variety of expertise our vendors offer is critical in making sure the most versatile technological options are available and executed for our customers.

What technology trends are impacting your industry?

The ability to integrate with cloud applications is a top trend in our industry today. With the rise of mobile workers and non-traditional workplaces, it is pertinent that organizations have access to their documents wherever they are and whenever they need them. By allowing synchronization with cloud applications, users are able to ensure they are always working on the newest version of their documents and can collaborate with co-workers seamlessly.

What is the biggest challenge faced by your customers that your technologies help them overcome?

Governmental compliance, document security, and workflow bottlenecks are the biggest challenges our customers are currently facing. With the ever-changing landscape of technology, questions constantly arise on how to stay compliant and ensure your documents are safeguarded both internally and externally. We are able to help by looking into the document workflows of our customers to uncover their liabilities and see where we can increase transparency. One example is making sure each user in the organization has an individual login to copiers and devices within the organization. By allowing custom access, we are able to allow users access to their individual cloud accounts, folders and shared organizational software such as SharePoint, while also providing the organization with an audit trail of users that accessed specified devices, activity logs, and the time documents were scanned, copied, faxed or printed.

How has technology influenced the kinds of job skills you seek in employees?

Our industry, like many others, has changed significantly. In both the sales and service side of our organization, the specifications of our products and our knowledge of their capabilities was the most important aspect to ensuring success with our customers. Now, we must not only understand the products and software we offer, but the landscape in which we offer them, the regulations within those realms, and the individualization we can bring to each user within the organization. That is why it is critical our employees and prospective employees are committed to continuous training to stay up-to-date on software updates, security protocols and integrations we can pass along to customers.

In what major ways has technology made your job easier in delivering quality products and services?

Today, we are able to provide prospective customers with less “risk” than ever before. With trial versions of our software offerings and free demo periods for our devices, users are able to see how the solutions we propose will work within their environment before purchasing. In addition, webinars have been exceedingly helpful in communicating complex technical applications both externally with clients and internally with our vendor partners.

What does the next wave of technological advancements hold for your business?

I believe we will see even more advances in the world of automation and cloud integration. We have shifted from selling products to selling productivity so we will be focused on ensuring users are more secure in their document handling procedures, have access to their documents quicker, and are able to easily collaborate with fellow team members.

What is your business doing to maximize the next generation of technology for customers?

We are invested in training both our sales and service team so they are able to offer the best solutions available to our clients at the time. We are also ensuring we align ourselves with vendors that understand the importance technological advances play on our customers’ workflows. If we were to get complacent in our knowledge and offerings, our customers’ productivity would suffer and that is a non-starter for us.

How has technology improved your customer support experience?

There have been many advancements over the past couple of years that have allowed us to respond quicker and more effectively to our clients. One is our ability to remote into our customer’s device and automatically update firmware. In addition, we have software that automatically tracks the meters on networked devices we deploy so our customers don’t have to manually send in meter readings each month. Low toner levels and other maintenance-related alerts are now sent directly to our team without customer initiation being necessary. Thanks to these notifications, oftentimes we are able to have toner delivered to customers before they even know they need it.

Does your business employ automation technology, and if so in what capacity?

We utilize automation technology in our service department by having real-time data flowing in and alerting us when we need to make adjustments and take necessary action in the field. Though we welcome automation in most instances, we still believe in a live person answering each call to our organization.

What challenges does your business face with regard to protecting customer data, and what cybersecurity technology do you employ?

Customer data lives within most documents in an organization. It is how you manage the permissions and flow of these documents that make the most difference. We deploy services and applications that safeguard our customers against threats by focusing on the liabilities within their current landscape. Ensuring organizations don’t allow unvetted access to their devices and that they restrict or monitor usage is a key way we advise them to protect their data.

Want to learn to stay ahead of the technology curve and safeguard your data? Give us a call at 800-648-7081 or schedule an appointment with us here.

Download as PDF

Church bulletins are an essential tool for welcoming first-time visitors and members to your church community. Even in the digital age, there is no disputing the church bulletin is an important component in how a church communicates. A study by Thom S. Rainer confirmed that most churches still use some form of a printed bulletin, and most guests expect to be handed something by a greeter when they enter the church.

Also called a worship folder, worship guide, or information guide, these printed pages are likely the one thing visitors and members will take home with them. The professionals at Copiers Plus can help you produce the ideal printed communication for your unique fellowship community. Just like that perfectly-placed tennis serve, they’ll help you to find the ‘sweet spot’ with customized managed print solutions.

Just the Basics

In the era of the 24-hour news cycle and an ever-growing avalanche of social media, we all suffer from information overload. Limiting your church bulletin to the “basics” will help to avoid key frustrations of this medium:

• Complaints about what content is included and excluded
• Content that is old and dated
• Content presented in an unprofessional layout
• Content with grammatical errors

According to an analysis by church management specialist Rich Birch, “The largest churches tended to have the smallest bulletins.” Birch recommends the following “essentials” be included:

• Website and social media information, so guests know where to find you online
• Physical address and phone number, so they know how to come back
• Welcome message, targeted at first-time visitors
• A tear-off card that guests can fill out and drop off for follow-up
• Event calendar that filters out all but the most important events, catering to the majority
• Ample blank space for note-taking, and to let the eyes breathe

That Special Touch

While these standard components are critical, your church’s mission is both universal AND unique; to that end, it’s equally important to deploy language and design that reflects the unique culture and demographics of your congregation. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to shape an overall tone that is loving, welcoming, accepting, and inviting. You may include an Order of Service to guide new-comers, or mission opportunities that highlight your church’s involvement with the community and throughout the world.

No Need to Start from Scratch

Lots of free or low-cost templates for church bulletins are available:

• Bulletin Builder, a free online church bulletin design tool
• Pinterest hosts numerous church bulletin templates
• Concordia Supply: six simple church bulletin templates for use with Microsoft Word
• More than 70 church management packages include features to create bulletins suitable for online distribution or print

Whether or not your church uses bulletins, Copiers Plus can help your church evaluate and innovate communication strategies for visitors and members. Request an appointment with our team to see how your church can benefit from a communication strategy that is clear and relevant.