Four Easy Ways to Reduce Printing Costs

Did you know that by learning how to use your office equipment more efficiently, you can help your company reduce operating expenses? After a Managed Print Assessment, many organizations discover print costs as high as 3% of average annual revenues. It should come as no surprise that companies are anxious to discover new ways to reduce these costs, and responsible printing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to begin making a dent. Make Every Print Count There are plenty of pain-free methods to reduce printing costs. Here’s a run-down of some of the easiest to help you get started. 1. Look for ENERGY STAR Certifications— ENERGY STAR certified Kyocera copiers and printers are engineered to use less power. By swapping out old office equipment for new, you can reduce your energy usage and your power bill at the same time. 2. Implement a company-wide print policy— Your staff can’t hit the target if you haven’t shown them where it is. Policies that prohibit personal printing, set departmental limits, and put a stop to unnecessary printing (websites, emails, inter-office communications) can make a significant dent in your organization’s monthly print volumes. 3. Optimize your print settings— Many of today’s copiers and printers include features to reduce waste. One of the most efficient is automatic duplexing or two-sided printing. It’s an effective way to cut paper usage by up to 50%, and by making it the default setting, it couldn’t be easier to do. 4. Choose a better font— Did you know that some fonts use considerably less toner than others? Times New Roman, Century Gothic, and Calibri all require less toner than Arial. For companies with high-volume printing requirements, the savings can add up quickly.

Go Green With Digital Document Solutions

Many companies begin seeking digital document solutions to improve productivity and reduce costs. Document management solutions that deliver digital strategies like Workflow Optimization and Cloud Services do both, and thanks to these and other advances, there’s another benefit you may not have considered. Holistic Document Management Solutions When companies begin paperless efforts, green initiatives naturally follow. In fact, the two work hand-in-hand to help businesses of all sizes reduce their impact on the environment. Here’s how: Cloud Services Cloud technology allows your staff to store and access files online from any location and at any time. The benefits begin with: Retrieve your data via a mobile device, computer, or multifunction printer. Bypass printing and route your digitized documents directly to recipients, Google Drive or digital workspaces. Find your information fast with keywords and tags. Work and collaborate with colleagues from any location. Workflow Optimization Document Management software provides practical tools for automating your existing workflows. Go paperless and gain new efficiencies in your accounting department, HR, and more. Managed Print As part of an overall document management strategy, Managed Print Services can help your organization reduce costs while meeting your goal to go green in the office. Reduce unnecessary printing with built-in features on your multifunction system. Default to automatic duplexing to use half as much paper as single-sided printing. Switch to fast draft printing for day-to-day documents that customers never see. Save color printing for documents that require it. Use print preview to quickly determine whether a document contains unnecessary pages or errors before selecting PRINT. Right-size your copier fleet to eliminate redundant devices or aging equipment that uses more power than the latest energy-efficient devices.

The Search for the Perfect Printer

Finding the perfect office equipment for your everyday needs can be a challenge, but not because the perfect fit isn’t available—just the opposite! The number of choices available to your business to choose from is decidedly encouraging, but the sheer volume can make the task a little bit daunting. Listing Your Requirements Narrowing down your list of good possibilities begins by honing in on your basic needs. From there you can make a list of additional features that will help your staff perform their tasks with greater efficiency. Here’s how to begin: 1. Color or Monochrome? If you’re planning to print color customer-facing materials in-house, you’ll want to choose a device that delivers consistently superior color images. If sharp black-and-white text is more your speed, you’ll want to research the industry’s offerings of precision, high-speed laser printers. Don’t discount color altogether, however. Even the addition of a little color on an invoice is known to reduce payment turnaround times significantly. 2. Speed and Volume If your small business or start-up organization prints a relatively limited number of documents each day, don’t pay for extra power and speed. For high-volume document printing needs, however, the industry answers the call with speeds exceeding 100 prints per minute. 3. Advanced Workflow Solutions Perhaps no single device has transformed the office equipment industry as much as the multifunction printer. By combining the capabilities of four isolated devices—copier, printer, scanner, and fax—a multifunction printer is truly an office workhorse. Wireless printing capabilities to improve productivity. Advanced scanning capabilities to bypass printing for streamlined digital workflows. Mobile printing features to provide remote employees and visiting clients with a secure printing option. Professional finishing options like collating, stapling, hole-punching, booklet making, and more.

Could Your Business Benefit from MPS?

 There is a lot of talk about MPS, but at the end of the day, will your business save money by onboarding managed print services today? Like most other money saving ventures, this one is worth looking into a bit more. Let’s see how MPS might benefit your business. Increased Security for Your Business An incredibly serious concern for any business is security. Many employees, when asked, admit to frequently seeing confidential correspondence, private information, and printed documents relating to payroll. Using managed print services as your aid, you can take better security measures to prevent unauthorized eyes from viewing the wrong material. Something as simple as an ID or sign in system can allow the person printing to hold their print job until they personally have signed in to receive their printed documents; suddenly there are no worries about the wrong people coming into contact with private information. Reduced Waste When you know how much you are using when it comes to consumables, you can control that amount. By monitoring the use of paper, toner and other consumable print-related assets, you’re set up to eliminate waste wherever possible. Reduce Carbon Footprint While you’re reducing the number of toner cartridges and reams of paper you use per day, you are also reducing your overall carbon footprint. This has become a high priority for many businesses across the globe, and for good reason.

Four Ways Cloud Services Can Help Your Business Succeed

Managed Print, Workflow Optimization, Data Security and Card Services are among them. In this article, we’ll talk about the benefits of Cloud Services. Why Cloud Services? Read below to discover why your company should add Cloud Services to your office services line-up. The reasons may surprise you! You’ll Save Thousands on Infrastructure It’s no secret that small to medium businesses are big on fantastic ideas but usually a little on the lean side when it comes to budgets. By leveraging the power of cloud services, you’ll skip out on some major expenditures. With your cloud service provider doing all of the heavy lifting (servers, OS, applications), you’ll get the benefit without spending thousands. Skip Out on Setup and Ongoing Management Costs Keeping someone on the payroll to set up and manage your infrastructure isn’t necessary when you’ve outsourced to an expert in the field. You get the benefit of experienced support without the downside of keeping someone on staff. Reduce Your Energy Costs Running your own server would rack up energy costs you may not be prepared to absorb. By outsourcing to a Cloud Service provider, you’re sharing energy costs with other small businesses. You’ll help spare the environment, too. Get Optimized Performance Cloud service providers typically serve a number of other companies besides yours, which allows them more purchasing power. As a result, they can acquire high-performance systems which would be unavailable to smaller companies who try to go it alone.

Exploring the Benefits of Cloud Technology

The cloud has gone from mysterious emerging technology to network game changer. Now, businesses of all sizes and industries are taking advantage of the many benefits of cloud computing. Cloud storage is a reliable and scalable option and has become an essential business solution. Some of its many benefits include: Cost savings. Cloud storage eliminates the need to costly on-site storage, including hardware, backup, and maintenance. Reliability and responsiveness. Cloud-based platforms allow businesses flexibility and speed. Specificity. Solutions can be targeted to meet specific business objectives. Streamlined solutions. Cloud-based solutions allow you to access and retrieve data as needed, quickly and efficiently. Preparedness. Storing data on the cloud eliminates the worry around disaster-related property destruction. Resource reduction. Use of the cloud frees up IT staff to focus on other areas that need attention, such as essential business operations. Reduced downtime. Reliable technology means fewer disruptions, resulting increased productivity and cost savings. Accessibility. Cloud storage means that you can access your documents from anywhere on any device.

Does Quality Office Equipment Impact Business?

Office equipment seems like one of the things you can put on the back burner when you’re trying to save money…right? Think again. Quality office equipment can make a huge impact on your businesses – from supporting employees to providing necessary tools to professionalism to quality work, office equipment matters. Luckily, the professionals at Base Technologies can help you evaluate your office equipment needs to make sure you’re only spending as much as you need to, and not investing in features you don’t need. The Core of All Office Output Office equipment is the baseline of all office output. The quality, volume, and product is defining your brand and company to the world. Does it show your best side? Are employees able to reliably produce what they need? Creating the vision that you want people to have of your company is a key function of your printers and copiers. If you have low-quality, unreliable, poorly created products that you are sharing with people, it reflects negatively on your business. Taking Responsibility You can get back to the basics and make sure that you know the responsibility of your office equipment, your vendor, and your employees to help your business be successful. Base Technologies not only helps integrate the office equipment you need, but they also help you save money, build efficiency, leverage the investment, and optimize your office operations. Now that’s a good partnership.

The Office Equipment Maintenance Checklist for Quick Maintenance

Every office needs essential equipment to operate – copiers, printers, scanners, and other machines can be incredibly useful, and often, your business relies on them. However, these same machines are prone to maintenance issues and expensive repair problems. That’s where special preventative processes can come in handy and are often much more simple than you would expect. Printers and Copiers Printers and copiers can have problems that back up your entire office workflow but are easy to address and prevent. Don’t be at the mercy of your machines – implement training, processes, and procedures that impact your continuity of operations for the better. Have fewer hiccups with simple maintenance tricks and – the other key piece – using a reliable vendor that can support your maintenance needs when it goes beyond easy, in-office fixes. Avoid Major Maintenance Issues with These Tricks Here are five quick tricks for staying away from repetitive, ongoing repair issues. Train staff to understand the features and functions of your machines. Ensure all computers are connected to the network so that anyone who needs to print cannot wait in a queue. Monitor ink and toner levels and keep a set schedule to change them out. Clean the glass regularly – this is more important than you may think! Purchase the right copier that meets your office needs from the get-go. The right vendor can help you here as well.

Rent or Lease Office Equipment?

If you’re ready to upgrade your office equipment, you may automatically think it’s time to buy whatever you need from the closest retailer and call it good. Not quite! There are so many more options when you work with a team like Base Technologies. Don’t short your team from securing the payment style, contract, machine, and features you need with the right option for your office equipment. Main Differences The first question you may not have considered – should you lease or buy? Both are good options, depending on what you need. Here are the primary differences. Leasing – You don’t have to pay as much upfront, you can upgrade as you grow, and you can advance technology or make changes based on your contract. These are huge benefits for many growing businesses or those just starting off. Buying – Purchasing may be right for you if you are ready to make one purchase and have payments be complete, you don’t plan on upgrading soon, and you would like to be set for a while in your business without a contract. The differences are notable, but what you need depends most on your business and your vision going forward. Base Technologies can help you decide. The Best Choice for Your Business The best decision for your business is based on needs, volume, growth, payment, and more. But the best choice is always to work with a reliable vendor to ensure you’re getting what you need the first time.

Is my Copier Safe from being Hacked?

Make sure Your Copier is safe from a Hack Is your copier safe, well, in a nut shell, a multi-function device and computer are practically the same thing. The only real difference, simply one has a paper input and output feature, and the other does not. They all have display panels, touchscreens, storage drive, memory, keyboards, analog/digital lines, and notably they support the same network protocols for our daily connectivity. Let’s face it, a printer is no longer a printer, and a watch is no longer just a watch. In today’s world we see this rapidly changing ways the process in which data and content is generated. Networks, Devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are more connected than ever before. And these 2 scary hacks below involving printers tell a horrifying tale as to how connected we really are. Imagine all the repercussions the colleges faced administratively while the fear onlookers were submerged in. Imagine innocent bystanders and members of an education system unwillingly becoming part of hate crime in the click of one button. Prior to this incident, the Were hacked over 114,000 AT&T iPad user’s personal data back in 2010. It’s very said when you think about it, why would you hack a printer or database for any reason. Then again, why does someone do graffiti? Well, I guess maybe just because they can… But where does it stop? Each year the attacks become more sophisticated and larger scale breaches are pursued. How and why does a criminal decide they want to take over a printer? Well, who recalls late in 2018 when notorious YouTube sensation PewDiePie was in an ongoing battle to lead the internet in subscriptions? In an effort to boost subscriptions and outperform his competition, PewDiePie launched a newly, never heard of campaign, where 50,000 printers worldwide. Like really, how does a criminal think someone would subscribe and support their channel after he hacks their printer? And what’s very scary about this event in particular, reports have it One of them was even a receipt printer at a police station, which probably raised a few eyebrows. How can a Police Department printer be hacked? It was said that there were more than 800,000 devices were accessible on the IoT during the PewDiePie breach. All it takes is one misconfiguration and there you are, the printer is accessible on the internet. Many of us still wonder why would the hacker stop at 50,000? Or did they? Are you on the list and how long ago was that? If you’re currently thinking about your printer or staring at your watch, well then watch this footage of The Wolf Starring Christian Slater | HP Studios a high overview of what the anatomy of an attack is like. In and intense short clip Mr. Slater says “I know it’s mouthful but it’s actually really simple” makes you wonder how simple it really is to hack a printer. As we search the internet for how simple could it possibly be, we stumbled up on an entire wiki page dedicated for your printer. It’s called hacking-printers.net, have you heard about it? You can learn much about security for your printer and what threats are posed to your device there such as DoS attacks, privilege escalation, print job access, information disclosure, and you can even learn about code execution too.