The dedicated team of scribes here feel that through collaboration, we can strategically identify technology challenges and properly disseminate our carefully crafted ideas on overcoming them.
Perhaps without coincidence, our top read blog for 2018 was on the topic of “effective collaboration.”
Collaboration: It’s a key word in defining how the Datamax Thinking Blog operates. We remain committed in our pursuit of “educating, collaborating, and sparking ideas for maximizing the technology that matters” - be it office equipment, document workflow, network security and many business technology initiatives in between.
The dedicated team of scribes here feel that through collaboration, we can strategically identify technology challenges and properly disseminate our carefully crafted ideas on overcoming them.
In doing so, we undoubtedly learn a lot every year. We hope that readers of the blog can say the same. With that, as we look forward to another year of collaborating, of sparking ideas and, essentially, for educating, we take one final look back at the most read blogs published in 2018:
1. Seven Common Ground Rules for Effective Collaboration
My front yard flowerbed is perpetually on the brink of being overtaken by weeds.
Just as quickly as I can remove the Greenbrier vine, the pesky East Texas weed is already poking its way back through the soil, wrapping around my boxwood shrubs and Azaleas (whose blooms have me daydreaming about the upcoming Masters Tournament). Regular care and maintenance is a necessity if I want to achieve desired growth in my yard.
Providing Managed Services or even Copier Service can be a lot like my flowerbed.
Any organization’s habits need constant attention. Beyond just the risk of becoming stale, the way we do business (the tools we utilize and our regular methodologies) can become ineffective and unsightly without regularly checking in on them.
Regular collaboration is a powerful tool in staying fresh within your organization and within your industry. Read more.
2. Diagnosing Your Data: Is your Tech Stack Compliant with GDPR?
On May 25, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was officially enforced, representing a watershed moment for consumer data protection and privacy moving forward.
This legislation, designed to better unify and protect data privacy for European Union citizens, applies to those within EU-member countries, so US-based companies may not think that this overseas legislation is relevant to their everyday business. These companies should think again: The GDPR could be very relevant to you and the way you currently collect and store data. Read more.
3. A Real Gem: Minimize Copier Obsolescence with Canon’s Unified Firmware Platform
According to a recent report, the average new car loses 27 percent of its value after the first year. It’s a course of action that commences the minute you drive it off the lot. For decades, copiers shared in this vulnerability. As new models were introduced, previous versions were perpetually more obsolete with every new feature released by the manufacturer.
Canon's Unified Firmware Platform changed all that. Read more.
4. The 3 'I's of Proactive Service: Ensuring Dominion Over the Domino Effect
There’s an old Bizarro comic strip showing an older man leaning up against the Patient Registration desk at a doctor’s office. “I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes!” he scolds the receptionist.
“Down the hall. You want ‘impatient registration’” the woman replies.
Comedy aside, customers today are tired of waiting.
Embracing proactive, preventative measures is the new standard in customer service. As organizations move at exceedingly faster paces, downtime becomes exponentially more difficult to absorb. Read more.
5. Web-2-Workflow: Raising the Bar in Production Print Automation
Much like athletes are becoming bigger, faster, stronger every year with the advent of technology (more aerodynamic bikes, lighter shoes, high-performance swimsuits), print operators today feel the same performance pressure (shorter runs, increasing demands, more submission channels) as technology continues to "press" forward.
Perhaps no print entity feels such pressure quite like the Central Reprographics Department (CRD), or in-plant Printer. Read more.
6. Go Vertical, Grow Vertical: 3 Rungs in the Vertical Market Ladder
Author Anthony T. Hinks is quoted as saying “it’s when you’re going vertical that you leave the other players standing.” The game of basketball, an athlete mid-dunk, may immediately come to mind. But these words very much apply to business.
Vertical Marketing – a sales method in which vendors offer goods and services specific to an industry, trade or profession - goes beyond products in a box or prepackaged sales tools. It’s a mindset, the duel effort of zeroing in on a specific market’s shared challenges and objectives, and finding relative solutions that produce long-term results. Read more.
7. DIY Print Production: Why We’re “All-In on In-House”
In finding an effective process for getting your own high quality printed materials out the door, it’s hard to bet against the house. Particularly, your own.
Whether it's printing envelopes, marketing brochures and banners, healthcare manuals or business cards. Whether you’re producing fast-turnaround, lower-length jobs or massive, one-time runs, more organizations are discovering the distinct advantage of going "All-In on In-House" production. Modern digital technology makes internal production easily accessible. It puts you in the driver's seat of print deadlines. In ensures security for you and those you serve. Read more.
8. Avoid Facing the Great Divide Between Service Level Expectations and Reality
In my time as a Solutions Sales Specialist, I played a lot of “20 Questions.”
My steady stream of inquiries to clients had a strategic intent. The client's answers provided key nuggets of information for:
- digging into client current (and future) needs
- discovering operational challenges
- planting new seeds of opportunity
- ensuring expectations were being met at all times
If there was a gap between my client's perception and reality, it was my job to stand in it. Read more.
9. 4C Educators Should Seek a 4C Business Technology Partner
As educators further pursue the ideal 21st century learning environment, one won’t dig far without uncovering the 4Cs.
The 4Cs – critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication - have been adopted and implemented into the curriculum of school districts and professional development programs for years. Established by the National Education Association and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these four components are a guide post for choosing specific tools, software and curriculum for the modern day, technologically advanced environment of today’s youth. Read more.
10. Drowning in Documents? 5 Scenarios that Calm Workflow to a Gentle Current
Do a simple Google search for "Document Management," and you’ll see the cliché images with limited search time. The piles of paper stacked on the boss’ desk. Documents swirling across an office. Even business people swimming in paper documents.
It’s true. Many offices are overwhelmed by paper documents. Also, when compared to a Document Management solution, it is inefficient and costly. Estimates are that 11% of your paper files will be either lost or misplaced. Organizations often find that by digitizing their workflow, their documents begin working for them, rather than the opposite. Read more.
Moving into 2019, we look forward to educating, collaborating, and sparking ideas for maximizing the technology that matters. Interested in keeping up with the Datamax Thinking Blog? Subscribe in the form at the top right of this page!