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When markets are down and budgets are tight, high-end advertising is just not profitable for most companies. However, you can’t run the risk of your business becoming stagnant due to loss of exposure. Luckily, there is a way to increase business without spending a lot of money in pricey advertising.

Chances are you know how important your current clients are. However, you may not realize they can be a valuable resource when it comes to increasing sales. Clients who have already enjoyed your products or services are much more likely to purchase from you again. Therefore, you must keep them updated on all services and products you can offer them.

It is easy to leverage your color-enabled multifunction device to keep your clients in the loop on upcoming promotions through in-house marketing materials. You can easily create statement stuffers that include additional information about new products and promotions. You are already paying postage to mail the statement, so why not include a little something extra? Colorful inserts double as marketing materials but only cost a matter of pennies.

If you feel an insert is not right for your business, you can turn your entire invoice into a marketing device. Through the utilization of electronic forms, you can easily add a marketing message or promotion directly to the invoice. Not only will this help to increase sales, but color invoices have been proven to be paid faster.

If you are looking for a way to continue growing despite a tough economy, look no further than color printing. Contact us today to learn how you can add color to your office.

Forms are used in almost every business process at some point or another. These can include sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, statements and other basic business documents. In fact, a large majority of your intellectual property is probably held in a variety of forms.

With electronic forms, you will be able to streamline business processes that are currently plagued by paper forms. Electronic forms come in two different varieties. One type is client or user-based while the other type is server-based.

Client or User-Based Forms
A user-based form is one of the simplest ways to improve the efficiency of information processing. Creating this type of form can be as straightforward as using a Microsoft Word document that allows a user to add text to the form, or it can be as advanced as a Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat form that can aggregate the data and automatically submit it into your workflow. Basically, this type of form is driven by the user and it increases efficiency simply by eliminating the need for the user to print, complete and then scan or fax a form.

User-Based forms offer enhanced efficiency through an increase level of automation. When a user completes a form, the information can be routed to the appropriate location for further processing or indexing.

Server-Based Forms
Instead of adding data to a database, server-based forms can increase efficiency in retrieving data from a database. This type of form translates the data from your database into a format you choose. For example, you can create a custom invoice from your accounting systems by collecting the data into a format that is acceptable to you and your end-users. Invoices and billing statements created from accounting programs are the most common server-based forms.

In addition to basic invoices or billing statements, server-based electronic forms can format the documents to print with color and graphics to suit your needs – without expensive pre-printed paper forms. You can print the design of the form at the same time as the data of the form on a low cost color multi-function system.

A Better Way

When used appropriately, user-based and server-based electronic forms can have a positive impact to your bottom line. Whether you provide your employees or customers with an easier way of processing the data they gather or create creative and personal documents from your database, using electronic forms in your organization will increase your efficiencies and have a great effect on your bottom line.

Color can allow you to communicate better. By utilizing color you will be able to communicate more effectively with your clients and actually increase your bottom line.

With a color multifunction, you can easily add color to many documents without adding extra costs. In fact, in many areas a splash of color can help improve profits for your business.

Did you know color invoices are more likely to get paid quickly? Meanwhile, color presentations or marketing materials command attention and keep your brand in the minds of your prospects or clients.

In addition to using color for your current or prospective clients, color can help communication internally as well. When preparing training materials, you can utilize color to help employees understand concepts and policies better. Color can also bring attention to important memos or flyers.

With color technology built directly into a multifunction device, you can add color to your office without adding extra cost. Not only will color printing become simple, but you will be able to avoid costly color inkjet and laser printers.

Whether you are communicating internally or to clients, the use of color will enhance the image of your company. Colorful documents create a sense of professionalism unrivaled by black and white.

Let color leave a lasting impression on your contacts. Contact us today to take advantage of color solutions that are affordable and easy to use.

Many companies are looking for a practical way to cut costs while helping the environment. In a tight economy, it is difficult to adopt green initiatives due to their expense. However, a green printing strategy will not only help the environment, but it will increase your profits as well.

What is a Green Printing Strategy?

A green printing strategy aims at reducing the carbon footprint of office printing. The two biggest areas impacted are paper usage and energy consumption. When these two areas are optimized, the environmental and economic impact can be huge.

Reduce Paper Usage

One case of paper uses approximately 60% of a tree and uses 5,690 pounds of greenhouse gases to produce. Furthermore, an average office employee consumes 2 cases of paper each year.

A simple strategy to reduce paper usage is to adjust the default settings on your printers and copiers. Automatic two-sided (duplexed) printing easily reduces paper usage by up to 50%. In addition to saving trees, this small adjustment also can save you up to $3,000 a year.

Consolidate Copier and Printer Devices

Copiers and printers use heat to fuse the toner to paper. In order to produce the heat necessary, large amounts of energy must be consumed. The average office copier consumes 285 KWh of electricity each month. A printer on average will also consume 49 KWh. This means a company with 10 copiers and 50 printers spends around $6,000 a year just to power these devices.

Many companies have realized that they can consolidate printer and copier devices with Energy Star certified multifunction systems. The smaller printer fleet requires less energy to operate, but it is still optimized to handle your document volumes. This can easily save $1,500 in electricity costs each year.

Creating a green print strategy is a great way to save our environment and save you money. Contact us today to learn more about how you could benefit.

Manual data entry is an extremely costly and time consuming process. Plus, with manual entry there is a greater possibility for costly errors.

Fortunately, you can utilize your multifunction system to automate routine data entry. Data Capture software can read the data from scanned documents and send it directly to your business applications. Automated data entry can also create index fields to search and retrieve the scanned document in the future.

How Does Data Capture Software Work?

Data Capture software uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to convert scanned data to editable text. After scanning your document, the multifunction device transfers the information to a folder where it is processed. OCR completely automates the process of data entry.

Capture software can even set up zones so information contained in a single document can be separated and then placed into the desired data fields.

Combine capture software with electronic forms and your processes will be running faster than ever. In order for the data capture to work, your documents need to have a similar format every time. This makes electronic forms an easy way to set up your documents for automatic entry.

Data capture offers the possibility of replacing manual data entry in many areas of your business. Delivery tickets, supply orders, invoices, and even payroll checks can be automated through data capture.

By automating your business processes, fewer people can do the same amount of work. This will reduce costs and improve service. To learn more about how you could benefit, contact us today.

Few things are more frustrating than a broken printer. Your company relies on documents to drive business processes. Therefore, having a printer down or a scanner not calibrated correctly can be a drain on productivity.

Fortunately there is a solution. Our Managed Print Services program will continually monitor your fleet of printers to maximize productivity and reduce unneeded costs.

Proactive Service Response

Constant monitoring of your printer fleet allows us to respond proactively to your service needs. If a printer is out of service we are notified immediately. Oftentimes, we can fix most issues remotely before you even realize there is a problem. In other events, we will dispatch one of our certified service professionals to your location to get you up and running again.

Automatic Supply Restocking

When a printer runs out of toner, it usually leads to expensive rush delivery charges in order to get the device stocked up again. With our Managed Print Services program we can automatically ship supplies to your printers as they are needed. This can reduce inventory costs and ensure your team will have the supplies on hand so to be their most productive.

Preventative Maintenance

Preventative maintenance of your printer fleet can reduce possible downtime immensely. With our Managed Print Services program we will make sure that your printers are maintained properly with our recommended maintenance kits. This helps extends the usable life of the valuable printers you own.

Ongoing Optimization

Business needs are constantly changing and often print devices are not updated with your needs. Managed Print Services creates printer fleet reports to help identify usage trends which allow you to assign printers and update technology in a sensible way. By doing this you will be able to optimize productivity and reduce costs.

You can stimulate your productivity with our Managed Print Services. Best of all, you can also stimulate your bottom line. Most of our clients realize meaningful savings from our programs. Contact us today to learn more.

In today’s fast paced world, nearly every document passed through your multifunction device at some point during its life cycle.  Did you know that almost every multifunction device has a hard drive that captures an image of that document and stores it?  This means if you lease your equipment, the next user could tap into your company’s confidential information simply by downloading free software from the internet.

Your customers trust you to keep their sensitive data secure.  They are willing to give you social security number, credit card numbers and a variety of other confidential information because they know you will keep it safe.  Nearly every multifunction device since 2002 includes a hard drive.  Therefore, it is very possible that you have an unknown security nightmare on your hands.

Toshiba understands how important your company’s intellectual property is to the success of your business.  Therefore, Toshiba has taken measures to make sure the hard drive that you have come to depend on will not become a security issue later.  In fact, Toshiba guarantees that you will be secure even long after you have your device.

With End-Of-Life Security, Toshiba will scrub your device to remove any information that may still be stored within the hard drive.  This will ensure your documents do not end up in unauthorized hands.  Toshiba also offers advanced encryption functionality that allows you to encrypt and decrypt your data on the fly.  By encrypting your data, you will limit unauthorized access to your important information greatly.  

On top of scrubbing and encryption, Toshiba offers a Data Overwrite Kit that ensures nothing is stored on your multifunction device.  This will prevent the storage of your documents on the device and make it much easier when it comes time to update to a newer system.  Plus, Toshiba can provide network security solutions for printers and MFPs on complex office networks.

Toshiba makes it easy for you to secure your devices.  An EncompassTM Security Assessment utilizes all of Toshiba’s security technologies and expert personnel to put together a plan for your devices and data.  All points of vulnerability are assesses and a security plan tailored to your specific needs is created.  Plus, Toshiba dealers will help you implement the plan efficiently and effectively.

We are proud to be an authorized Toshiba dealer.  To set up a plan to keep your documents safe, contact us today.