Digital Printing Archives

Should Your Business Go Paperless?

Going green is a trend that is fast catching up with the corporate sector. Whether you are a startup or a conglomerate, making your office paperless offers several benefits to organizations across verticals.

Businesses across the world strive to improve their operations and maximize their profits. Cutting back on paper use is not just a viable business proposition, but also good for the environment. Apart from the economic benefits of going paperless, having a paperless business offers many other benefits, such as increased productivity, optimized workflow, enhanced employee morale and greater customer satisfaction.

Can a business truly go paperless?

Eliminating paper entirely from your office is a highly unlikely scenario. But reducing the amount of paper can streamline your business operations to a great extent. If you have efficient processes, you can start your journey of becoming paperless.

Why would a business go paperless?

Going paperless may not be a feasible option for every business, but even a small reduction can result in substantial cost savings and efficiency.

Some of the main benefits of going paperless for your organization include:

It organizes your documents – Having a paperless office improves your company’s efficiency and professional image substantially because you can quickly locate and disseminate information. It takes a lot of time to sift and search through paper documents for one single piece of information. But when you have a paperless office, all it takes is a few clicks, and the information is in front of you. You can scan receipts and invoices, sort documents, file them, and quickly retrieve them.

It makes client communication easier, faster, and inexpensive – You can maintain a customer email list to communicate sales and other special offers without the expense of printing and postage. Electronic communication also lowers storage cost because you don’t have to spend money on maintaining paper documents.

You can easily store, file, and retrieve paperless files on the go – With photo scanning apps, business travelers can conveniently back up expense reports without having to tote stacks of papers. You can also share electronic files with coworkers over the network or through email.

It offers automatic backups – When you have paper documents in your office, you can lose information if a document is accidentally discarded. But when you maintain electronic files, data is automatically backed up.

Improved data security – Documents and other sensitive data are accessible only through providing approved credentials.

It is an environmentally-friendly process – Copy paper accounts for 20% of the total paper usage in the United States. Making your office paperless not only reduces demand for tree products, it also helps you conserve energy, because you don’t need to depend so much on printers and photocopiers.

Safety concerns of electronic communication and storage

Before you seriously consider the proposal for going paperless, it is important to know the pros and cons of going paperless. Drawbacks can include the following:

System failure – Vital data can be lost should your system crash. Having remote backup is essential.

Security – Without proper security protocol in place, data can be hacked or compromised. Document management services offer content encryption, local servers and restricted access.

Going paperless is a time-consuming process – The transition can be frustrating and stressful, demanding full commitment from company officers, stakeholders and employees.

Steps to go paperless, or minimize its use

If you are still doing business the old-fashioned way, you can switch to a paperless office and enjoy the benefits.

But the biggest question is how to reduce paperwork.

Bond Street offers some recommendations:

• Bank online

• Switch to a bookkeeping software

• Use digital collaboration tools

• Invoice electronically

• Scan digital copies for record keeping

• Prepare electronic statements

• Use recruiting software

Review your current processes

If you plan to go paperless, review your current operations processes and find out appropriate alternatives so that the transition is smooth. You may need to use an electronic signature service (an e-signature – also known as a digital signature – is any way of signing a non-printed document), online invoicing and payment services, and other applications that can replace your existing paper documents. You will need to train your staff so that they can properly use the new system.

If your company is considering going paperless, DocuServe has the resources to keep your data secure. We offer industry-leading cloud-based solutions for every aspect of your organization.

Contact us to learn more.

eServe - Digital Age of Enterprise Learning

Introducing the Digital Age of Enterprise Learning. Introducing eServe.

Tags : Corporate Training Digital Printing eLearning

In the enigmatic words of Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a’changin’.”

The Internet has revolutionized the world in all spheres – from the way we communicate and shop to the way we learn and train. Thankfully, this has also opened up plethora of new avenues for education. With eLearning, Internet technology is being employed in a way that makes learning anywhere, anytime and at any speed.

Isn’t that such an exciting concept? No matter where you are at in the world or in the learning cycle, education can meet you where YOU are – not the other way around.

Also, while companies worldwide adapt and grow with e-learning applications, so do the applications and products themselves. There are tools to manage administration, automation, certification and micro-credentialing. Now, there are tools to manage content creation too!

Both the LMS and LCMS are enterprise wide-applications which enhance the flow of information from learning development teams to staff and new learners worldwide.

On that note, we are exciting to announce the development of our very own LCMS (Learning Content Management System). While the LMS (Learning Management System) manages people, the LCMS is a platform manages the content they consume.

And just like the flexibility of the LMS, the LCMS works anywhere, any time and at any speed – allowing you to cater the content to YOUR organization’s needs, rather than the other way around.

Want to know more?

Watch this introductory video to eServe – a tool designed to bring enterprise learning into the digital age.

WHAT IS THAT?

Tags : Digital Printing Graphic Design

A nostalgic look at tools used every day in the graphics industry. Let’s just say in a time NOT so long ago… If you were involved with printing you knew about hot type vs. cold type, what galleys and headline type were. Do you know what CompuGraphics machines were used for, or when you would use Pro White? Usage of letter press vs. offset. Or that offset required everything to be pasted down, with rubber cement until waxers were state of the art. Type galleys, headlines and position only (PO) photos where adhered to boards to be shot by a production camera, which exposed the film which were developed into negatives. The negative where stripped into forms/flats. Photo where shot separately, photos needed to be shot with screens placed at precise angles. Different screens created different dot size and resolutions. These screened negatives were used to replace the PO images on the flats. The flats where used to transfer the images to plates. The plates hung on the presses, which using an offset process to move ink from a plate to a cylinder to the paper.

Business forms were pre-printed with carbon paper tipped (glued) between multiple copies. Organizations would buy the forms at an office supply stores and then take them to a printer for imprinting their company information centered at the top of the form. Creating a custom form with even consistently, spaced lines took talent and skill, now its copy and paste. A presentation for a large group meant creating a set of 35mm slides, each one shot from reflective artwork created and colored by hand, now its pick a PowerPoint template and go. With this in mind I thought I’d share a few images and see how many followers know what they are and if they have used them for creating finish works.

Have these images got you reminiscing for the good (not so) old days? Share your thoughts with us, over the next few weeks I’ll post more images. I hope you enjoy looking back. Please share your images and stories with us, you photos will be included in the follow up post.

Jump back to 2014, DocuServe is a Digital printer, with a state of the art Electronic Pre-Press Department to handle all your production requirements. DocuServe has been packaging customer content for since 1994. Re-engineering its deliverables as commerce changed over the years. Consistently pushing it’s digital print engines beyond what’s expected, DocuServe grew into media: CD then DVD to USB drive. To publishing online via PDF file. Now we can take those stogie PDFs and make them in to user friendly e-Books. This e-book can be Web based or delivered off line, all dependent on your organizations requirements.

Cloud-Based Content Control Opens Up Opportunities for Publishers in All Industries

With eServe, your organization can experience all of these benefits without risking theft, loss or damage to your intellectual property.

eServe is an ideal solution for:

Traditional publishers who need to embrace secure digital publishing to court new readers.
Organizations that want to deliver marketing materials across platforms in a more readable and accessible form.
Researchers who are looking for a convenient, and secure, way to deliver content.
And more!

Docuserve is a Digital printer, with a state of the art Electronic Pre-Press Department to handle all your production requirements.

The Pitfalls of Unsecured Digital Documents

Tags : Corporate Training Digital Printing Encrypted Digital Media Information Security

Over the last few years, I have seen dozens of conversations in professional training forums about digital content delivery strategies, including what formats are most effective, what is required to deliver them, and how these digital formats can be securely encrypted.

Questions like:

Is there any value in a do-it-yourself solution to remix existing third-party material and custom content for delivery to any tablet or mobile device?

What are the benefits of timed content delivery?

I’m researching delivery options for a new learning curriculum. Can anyone share any lessons learned on different delivery models?

Is there content that can be taught most effectively only through a certain medium, such as elearning using mixed digital content vs. traditional classroom training, for instance?

While training professionals should understand these issues and create learning experiences in appropriate mediums, delivery considerations often distract them from what they most need to focus on: creating the content. While many enterprise companies have brought this function in house, small and mid-sized businesses are often without a reliable solution and are winging it. These companies often create simple, easily broken password-protected PDFs and call it a day, leaving their intellectual property up for grabs by their competitors.

When asked about these practices, my colleagues share stories that would give the company legal department pause. If your company’s content and people are what gives you the market edge, why would you leave your playbook in the other team’s locker room? The main response is about time and money. When there are so many options to consider- from ebooks formats and timed- access, to print and sharing considerations, many training professionals don’t have time to wade through the options and develop an organizational strategy.

If the resource isn’t in house, and your company values content security, it makes sense to find a partner who can help you develop an approach to content delivery and security, doesn’t it? What’s your strategy?

Topics: Secure Content

DocuServe

Category: Digital Printing

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