What’s Your Policy? Corporate Mobile Device Rules to Consider

We live and work in a mobile world, and mobile access is increasingly critical to business communications and workflows. Whether your employees use a laptop computer, mobile phone, tablet, or portable drive, a few well-executed, thoughtful policies can provide some assurance for your employees and your company.

Consider the following rules when crafting your mobile device policy.

● Devices must be password-protected. Employees may object to the inconvenience of having to unlock their device, but this is a must-have rule. Note that swipe patterns and facial recognition are less secure than a strong password.

● Stored data must be encrypted. Strong encryption—typically 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)—is a necessity to protect data on all mobile devices. Talk to your IT professionals specifically about encryption when developing your policy.

● Users must use encrypted network connections. In other words, make sure your staff doesn’t use free Wi-Fi connections! Options vary, but approved connections usually include SSL for Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections, or WPA2 for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) connections.

● Mobile devices must be stored securely. Physical theft is as much of a risk as data-only theft, so make sure to stress that mobile devices shouldn’t be left unattended to your staff.

● Lost or stolen mobile devices must be reported to the company within 24 hours. Increased exposure time means increased risk. Make sure your team knows to notify you when devices are lost, so you can take action quickly.

● Devices must have remote data wiping enabled. If it’s not possible to recover a lost device, the only way to protect company data is to remove it completely.

● No texting or emailing while driving. No business communication is worth the life of your employee, or that of another driver or passenger. Stress responsible texting in your mobile policy. As the saying goes, it can wait.

● Noncompliance has consequences. Make sure employees know that repercussions associated with violating internal data sharing rules also apply to mobile data. Accidental exposures of non-sensitive data may warrant a simple written warning, while intentional data theft or exposure may call for termination.

Embracing mobile technology is vital to competing in today’s economy. With a few smart device rules and staff training, your company can thrive in the mobile world. Call Infomax Office Systems to optimize your mobile device strategy today.

Easy Ways to Practice Green Printing in the Office

Environmental responsibility is essential in today’s office. Not sure how to start doing your part, beyond recycling paper? Read on for some easy strategies to increase your company’s commitment to sustainability by focusing on greening your business’ printing practices.

● Print on both sides — Two-sided (also called duplex) printing is one of the fastest and easiest ways to green your printing practices. By choosing this setting, your printed documents will use as much as 50 percent less paper.

● Use fast or draft mode — Fast mode speeds up printing time and dramatically reduces the amount of toner used per page. Only print in normal or high-resolution if it’s absolutely necessary—like for formal presentations and proposals.

● Print in monochrome — Black and white printing uses less toner than color printing. Even “black” text can use color toner, unless you specifically designate grayscale or monochrome printing.

● Program eco-friendly defaults — The best way to ensure green printing practices from your staff is to make it automatic. Set all printers in your fleet to default to environmentally-friendly settings to ensure the biggest impact.

● Avoid printing pictures — Unless an image is essential for understanding the content, stick to text only when printing.

● Use print-friendly formats — If you must print a webpage, look for the printer icon—typically at the top of the page—to print without wasteful images, sidebars, and menus. For PowerPoint presentations, print in handout format, with three or six slides per page.

● Share print resources — A networked device makes it possible for multiple users to share one machine. You’ll save energy by slashing the number of machines in use, and you’ll have less unused, wasted time for each device.

● Consolidate to a multifunction printer (MFP) — A single MFP can handle the duties of a printer, copier, scanner, and fax machine. Switching to an MFP will use less power, take up less space, and save money.

● Use EnergyStar-certified machines — Look for the blue star that indicates a device is as energy-efficient as possible. These models will usually include advanced sleep modes to save power when not in use, upping your sustainability efforts even when you’re off the clock.

● Recycle printer cartridges — Used cartridges can be refilled as many as a dozen times, conserving raw materials and preventing waste.

Contact Infomax Office Systems today for help putting green printing practices in place for your company!

How to Achieve Better Scanning

Quality and efficiency are at the top of the list of everyone’s scanning needs. In order to help you achieve this, we’ve put together a few tips to help you get the best results when you scan documents.

Choose Your Weapon
● Flatbed or sheet-fed scanner? Stacks of paper are handled brilliantly by automatic document feeders, while flatbed scanners are ideal for oversized documents or books.

● What’s your speed need? Usually reported in pages per minute, scanning speeds can vary widely from one device to another. Depending on your scan environment, you may need a few dozen scans daily, or a few hundred, so make sure your scanner can handle the workload.

● Specialized document format? If you’re scanning lots of business cards, receipts, photos, slides, or negatives, specially-designed guides or scanners will maximize your scan quality.

Check Your Specs
● Use the appropriate scan resolution. Your optimal resolution will depend on the initial document and your ultimate usage of the scanned document or photo. For example, screen-only viewing works fine at 72 PPI (pixels per inch), but most printers output at 300 DPI (dots per inch). Scan at a higher resolution if your image will be cropped or enlarged.

● Select auto mode. Most scanners have an option that provides optimal resolution, contrast, and file format based on input type. Indicate whether you’re working with a picture, color document, or black-and-white document, and the scanner will handle the rest.

● Tweak the histogram. Manually defining the black, white, and mid-range points in the image or document can dramatically change readability.

Prep the Paper
● Remove all staples and paper clips. Prevent foreign objects from getting stuck inside your scanner, which could necessitate repair or replacement.

● Tape up any tears. Ripped paper can snag in the device and cause further damage to the document.

● Fan the paper. Treat your paper like a deck of cards you’re about to shuffle to separate individual pages and prevent double-feeding.

Scan away!
If you’ve followed these tips, you’re on the right path for a quality scan: pick the best scanner, adjust your technical specifications, and prepare items before scanning. To make sure your scanner is working best for your needs, contact Infomax Office Systems today.

Increase the Lifespan of Your Toner Cartridges with These Simple Tips

Printing can represent a substantial cost to businesses, in some cases as much as 7 percent of your total budget. One way to reduce your overall printing costs is by stretching out your toner cartridges to get the most use possible out of them. To make the most of your toner, we’ve put together a few tips for increasing toner lifespan and decreasing overall costs.

Optimize Your Printer Cartridge
Shake it — Each printer cartridge contains toner in powder form. Over time, this powder can clump and become unevenly distributed, leading to streaks, uneven pages, and wasted toner. To extend the life of your toner, remove the toner cartridge, cover it with a paper towel, and shake to redistribute the powder.

Unclog the nozzle — Clogged toner cartridge nozzles can lead to skipping and inconsistent output. Using a damp paper towel, wipe the bottom of the cartridge. Follow up with a dry wipe and you’re good to go.

Utilize Your Print Settings
Change print mode — Draft mode, fast mode, and toner-saver mode all use less ink by reducing the DPI (dots per inch). Utilize one of these modes when content matters more than print quality; they’re often perfectly acceptable for working with intra-office documents.

Print in grayscale — Conserve color toner by avoiding “rich blacks” that use additional color to produce deep-toned blacks.

Default settings — For the greatest impact, make your ideal print settings the default for your printer(s). In Windows operating systems, go to Windows > Control Panel > Hardware and Sounds > Devices & Printers. Right-click and select “Printing preferences” to make changes to your settings that will help you conserve toner.

Listen to Your Printer
Consider your cartridge credentials — While your choice of toner cartridge (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), generic, remanufactured, or refill kits) can often save you money while reducing your environmental impact, the quality of your printing can be less predictable.

Replace the toner cartridge — When all else fails, put in a new toner cartridge.

Printer toner can be a precious commodity in today’s cost-conscious office. Make your investment last longer by maintaining toner cartridges and using smart settings like draft mode or grayscale. Of course, the best way to save is by sparing your printer and minimizing your printing. Call Infomax Office Systems today for help optimizing your print environment.

Black vs. Rich Black: Why and When to Use Each

Printing is pretty straightforward, right? You have two options: there’s printing in color, and there’s printing in black and white. Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that. Black is a sneaky print color that comes in more than one flavor: black and rich black.

What’s the difference?
There’s more than one way to create print in black. “Standard” black is printed strictly with black toner (K cartridge). “Rich” black, however, combines K with sub-tones of the other print colors (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow). This layering provides richness and depth to the color.

Why choose one over the other?
Quality — Color variation in blacks can be very difficult to detect on a screen. In contrast, when printed, rich blacks have a deep tone that pops from the page, while regular black can appear flat and even muddy.
Legibility — Layering toner to achieve a rich black can affect the printout’s crispness, especially in small font sizes, making regular black the better option in these instances.
Cost — Regular black uses less ink to print than rich black, because the printer doesn’t layer different colors of toner over the same area on a page.

When to use rich black
Solid Black Areas — Prevent blandness and muddy gray-blacks by using rich black on important print materials like brochures and posters.
Black Over Another Color — Rich black works together with the background colors you’re printing. Using black can confound the colors and let layers show through.
Large Type — Large font sizes need the same treatment as other solid areas, so use rich black for a deep—rather than one-dimensional—black.

When to use black
Text-Only Documents — Text, especially smaller font sizes, thrives in standard black.
Black-and-White Documents — Many documents, even those with images, can convey their information very well using only black ink.

Black and rich black have subtle but noticeable differences. Before you hit print, choose your blacks wisely to get the quality and legibility you want while limiting cost and conserving toner. Call Infomax Office Systems to optimize your printing strategy, including smart use of black and rich black.

Advantages of Digital Production Printing

Production printing has long been a technology available only by outsourcing projects to a select few companies possessing an intensive print infrastructure. Fortunately, today’s digital production printing technology has transformed the print world, making exceptional quality, high-speed output, and powerful finishing options available to businesses of all sizes. Read on to learn how digital production printing can make a difference for your company.

Remarkable print quality — Internal digital production printing technology is providing print quality at levels never before seen by small and mid-sized businesses. From copy number one to copy number 1,999, color and resolution capabilities of today’s machines mean that businesses can get professional results in-house.

Cost savings — We’ve said goodbye to printing plates, film plates, chemicals, and the complicated tools and costly setups that used to be required for professional print results. Toner and droplet technologies provide fast, affordable printing options and reflect actual usage, rather than per-page cost.

Productivity improvements — Digital production printing makes professional quality outputs available at the push of a button. Having quality devices meant to produce the type of documents you need to run your business smoothly on-site instantly streamlines your team’s workflows, so they can focus on content and sales rather than coordinating the production of hardcopy business data.

On-demand access — With digital production printing, you determine printing priorities. Need to make a last-minute content change? Working a late night to prepare for a meeting? Production printing guarantees that your equipment is readily available, providing you with quick access to exceptional outputs.

Prototyping and short runs — Digital production printing provides you the flexibility to print for testing and evaluation purposes. Low-volume print jobs for proofs or prototypes don’t require extra setup, and there are no minimums required.

With digital production printing, you can print what you want, how you want it, when you want it without sacrificing quality, speed, or finishing options. This is the power of today’s print technology—quality, cost savings, productivity improvements, on-demand access, and convenient short runs. If you’d like to bring the power and flexibility of digital production printing to your business, contact Infomax today. We’d love to help you leverage today’s technology to help your business thrive.

Keep Remote Employees Connected with the Cloud

The rise of cloud computing has been a boon for American businesses: communication and collaboration are now easier than ever, and productivity is soaring—especially outside of the office. We’ve put together a list of a few ways cloud technology can help keep your remote employees productive and engaged.

Ensure communication — With cloud-based services, there’s no reason to feel disconnected from your off-site employees because communication is easily facilitated via the cloud. Whether for one-on-one conversations or team meetings, video conferencing technology such as Skype and Google Hangouts enable everyone to see their colleagues during a call. Services like Join.me, Adobe Connect, and GoToMeeting make screen-sharing presentations possible. Meanwhile, ongoing conversations can run in a private Slack channel, which also significantly reduces email clutter.

Facilitate collaboration — Working together through the cloud can manifest itself in dozens of ways, from full-fledged project management suites (Basecamp, Asana, CentralDesktop) to document sharing (Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox) and other services (Trello and Evernote). Thanks to version control and detailed activity histories, everyone has access to the latest—and the same—information. Messy email chains and file attachments have been eliminated by centralized tools.

Outsource infrastructure headaches — Infrastructure technicalities can distract a company from its core purpose. Whether managing workspaces or maintaining servers, cloud-based services reduce your admin and housekeeping needs by providing unparalleled scalability, redundancy, and support.

Optimize your mobile workforce — Unlike the haphazard collection of software and devices that used to plague IT departments, strategic technology services can streamline your mobile device fleet, coordinate services, and improve security business-wide. Working with a mobile technology solution simplifies device management and reduces costs for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Manage security and safety risks — Cloud-based services are uniquely positioned to keep your data secure. Firewalls, filters, and access controls limit the encroachment of security threats, while backup systems mean that your files are safe—even in the event of human error, hardware failure, or ransomware.

These days, having your head in the cloud can be a good thing. Your business can take advantage of countless communication and collaboration tools, let specialized service providers handle the headaches of infrastructure management, optimize your mobile workforce, and manage technology-related risk. If you’d like to take advantage of all the cloud has to offer, Infomax iGuard can help with security and device management. Contact us today for more information!

4 Document Management Best Practices

Document management is a powerful tool for removing excessive paper handling from your organization’s workflows. By keeping in mind the following best practices, you’ll reap the maximum benefit from your document management system.

1. Prioritize system automation  
Take a moment to look at your current operations and determine where you want to invest your time and energy. Is the productivity of one specific department at the top of the list? Or are client-facing processes your priority? Consider a customer service document search that currently takes up to 48 hours; utilizing digital document management for that process can change your business’ response time from days to minutes. Focus your automation efforts on the area or tasks that will make the biggest impact and go from there.

2. Rethink paper-based workflows 
When moving to digital document management, rethink your approach to the paper-based processes involved. With document automation, rules and algorithms can do much of the work that used to require human management. So, as you transition to document management, do more than just replicate your paper-based processes—redesign them. With some strategic thinking, document management software can transform your business workflows.

3. Index data strategically    
Indexing is about capturing the document information that your users and programs will interface with—keywords, client names, dates, and more. When selecting document data to index, make it practical and useful. How will your end users be looking up the document? Choose fields that frame documents in ways that make the most sense for your business, and you’ll avoid bogging down the indexing process.

4. Track key metrics 
This is a tree-falling-in-the-forest issue—you’ll only know how well document management is working for your business if you track the numbers. Understand what your goals are for digital document management, establish baselines with your current system, and track your progress toward these goals. With regular data reviews, you’ll learn exactly how much time is being saved by automating a given process, and whether or not you have further streamlining to do.

Document management can be transformative for your business, so be sure to follow these best practices to get the most out of your system. To learn more about document management, or for help optimizing your existing system, contact Infomax Office Systems today.

Leasing Business Technology Equipment—FAQs Answered

Leasing business technology equipment is a viable option for businesses of all sizes. In many cases, it makes more sense for an organization to lease equipment rather than purchase it outright. We’ve put together a few Frequently Asked Questions that can help you better understand this practical and strategic option to determine whether it’s the right choice for your business.

What is a lease?
A lease is an agreement for the rental of equipment for a specific amount of time.

What’s the difference between a lease and a loan?
A lease attaches a formal contract to the use of a machine.

What’s the difference between leasing and renting?
With leasing, you’re agreeing to make payments (typically monthly) over the life of the agreement, instead of one payment for its entire duration. Typically, renting is short-term (days to weeks) while leasing is long-term (years).

When is leasing better than buying?
Leasing is ideal when you want to limit your initial cash output, since with leasing you make monthly payments over a pre-determined period of time. Leasing is also perfect for companies looking to stay on the cutting edge of technology.

What’s the average length of an office equipment lease?
Typically, an equipment lease for office equipment is 60 months.

Who owns the equipment?
Throughout and after the lease, your lessor (the company providing it) owns the equipment.

Who services and supplies the equipment?
Your lease provisions usually include bundled service, toner, part replacement, and maintenance kits. Talk with your lessor about their package options.

What happens to the equipment after the lease is up?
You may have the option to extend the lease agreement, buy the equipment, or return it to the company.

How much does it cost?
Monthly payments vary depending on the lease length and the type of machine (black and white laser printer, multifunction printer/scanner/copier, copier only, etc.).

What do I pay up front?
Like most leases, equipment leases usually start with payment of the first and last months at the time of lease signing.

So, is leasing business technology equipment right for you? Consider the equipment you need, your ideal payment strategy, and whether you want to manage maintenance or have it handled for you. Contact Infomax today to learn about our office equipment leasing options.

Do Your Part: The Big Impact of Toner Recycling

Electronic waste is one of the fastest-growing types of waste in today’s environment—and one of the most dangerous. From computer components to mobile devices, flash drives to batteries, electronic devices and their constituent parts are being used—and thrown away—more than ever before. Printer cartridges are a major contributor to the electronic waste problem. In North America alone, over 350 million printer cartridges end up in landfills each year. Not to mention, the entire process before the cartridge even gets to your office—drilling for oil, refining, shipping, manufacturing the cartridge, packaging, delivery, and sales.

With such an impact resulting from just a single printer cartridge, a little effort on your part can go a long way. A toner recycling program involving the toner cartridges you use will have a positive impact on the environment.

Disposal and Waste – Let’s start at the end—the final destination of a printer cartridge and its waste. It’s estimated that each laser printer in your office produces about 100 pounds of waste each year.  The majority of that waste ends up in landfills, where—for cartridges made from specialized non-biodegradable plastics—they take 1,000 years to filly decompose. Disposal also contaminates the surrounding environment—landfill-based cartridges can leach toxins into the ground, while incineration produces poisonous air pollution.

Production and Raw Materials – It takes approximately three quarts of oil to produce a single toner cartridge, and production of toner cartridges also takes its toll on energy and water. Fortunately, cartridges can be refilled as many as a dozen times, slashing the cost in raw materials, water usage, and energy expenditure. With consistent efforts, you can save as many as nine gallons (36 quarts!) of oil through recycling a single cartridge. Every component saves raw materials—the plastics, metals, and inks from a used cartridge can all be reclaimed and reused.

While technological strides for greener offices continue to advance, we can do our part for the environment today by simply recycling the toner cartridges we use. Consistently applied, this small habit can have a huge impact. Contact Infomax today to get a toner recycling program underway in your organization.