The Datamax Thinking Blog

Workplaces perform at their best when operations are efficient, and all business-critical files are easily accessible (to the appropriate people) and fully secured.

Our hallway closet was in shambles.

Embracing the out-of-sight, out-of-mind methodology, the space had become mostly avoided all together, serving more as a receptacle for any miscellaneous item that desperately needed a home. Books. A mismatch of clothes. Retired running shoes. Old laptops. Mementos from the early 90s. The collection of junk stacked up on one another, dangled from shelves or absorbed dust on the closet floor. 

Underneath all the manual processes, workarounds and network-related deficiencies lies an infrastructure in disarray – not unlike a closet crammed full of clothes collecting dust.

Home organization guru Marie Kondo has created enormous buzz with her Netflix series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” 

Kondo’s unique methodology for decluttering clients’ living spaces, as quirky as it may seem, is fairly simple: Clients take all their personal belongings, put them in a pile, hold each one up, and ask themselves – “does it spark joy?” If not, it’s time to discard.

Recently-announced features from uniFLOW Online demonstrate 5 key advantages for organizations looking to improve productivity and enhance security in their print environment. 

Athletes will go to extensive (even preposterous) lengths to capture and preserve that competitive edge.

Former Giants Pitcher Steve Kline once wore the same ball cap all season without washing it. His reasoning? The dirt kept him grounded “and reminded me where I came from.” Famous big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton, whose day starts at 5 a.m., consumes three strategically-planned breakfasts every morning to optimize both energy and recovery.

As your SMB heads into Spring Training, and you analyze your current technology roster - from document workflow to network infrastructure - what are some fundamental moves you can make to better your 2019 season forecast? 

The first glimpse of spring has arrived.

As my beloved Texas Rangers report to Surprise, Ariz. for Spring Training this week, it’s a time when baseball enthusiasts’ minds drift from the bone-chilling winter months and begin romanticized forecasts for their favorite team and the sunny April days ahead.

Ask yourself a simple health-related question about your fleet: “Do you have the freedom to focus valuable budgets on delivering real health care – not just administering it?”

Healthcare organizations conduct health exams continuously every day. But how often do they assess the health of their print fleet?

How well, under the microscope, do they examine the specific print workflows that move administrative tasks forward and manage costs along the way? How well do they track multi-function printer activities while mitigating unauthorized access to sensitive patient heath information?

What is a picture of good print fleet health?

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. 

“Since the burden of requesting service is mine, my vendor isn’t managing much — let alone my account.” — Jene T., IT Director

The late folk country singer Guy Clark, a Monahans, TX native, once noted: “You look out over the West Texans plains, and you can see 50 miles. Stand on a tuna can, you can see for 100.”

For organizations managing a large fleet of copiers and printers, you need 100-mile visibility of your provider's service and support methodologies. Rather than being confronted with a series of storms on the road in front of you (increased downtime, communication issues, inaccurate billing) you should expect clear visibility up front from your technology partner.

“Our fleet, our workflows, and our costs are a cluster.” – Mary B., Office Administrator. 

There’s a certain chemistry involved with investigating print environments and the ways in which they interact, merge, and change over time.

Chemical synthesis is the purposeful execution of combining and manipulating multiple molecules to create one unique compound that is both unified and reliable. Much like the molecules that change through chemical reactions, major accounts are constantly affected by real world changes within and outside of your organization:

• Selling a division of your company,
• Adding a department,
• Your stocks take a hit,
• Company relocation,
• Company acquisition,
• Disaster Recovery,
• Outsourcing print or bringing it in-house

Your printing needs evolve accordingly.

We're out of toner again. Everybody seems to be waiting on someone else - or me." - Stephen M., Purchasing Manager

It’s called “The Wall,” and for good reason.

When a marathon runner – generally around mile 20 – fails to replenish his or her internal glycogen stores throughout the race, their body “bonks” into sudden fatigue.  The legs – depleted of all energy – wobble to a halt. The mind begins to shut down. Some runners even collapse.

Replenishment is a key factor to endurance.  In the duration of a workday, your copier is the workhorse athlete of your office’s workflow, running consistently at full speed to copy, scan, fax or print your critical documents promptly. If you unexpectedly run out toner, your device is down. And you’re down, too.

The MFP, in many ways a centerpiece in our workflow place-setting, continues to have an evolving role in how paper and digital files co-exist in the workplace.

The “Paperless Office:” It’s been a corporate prophecy scripted upon blogs much like this for years, as offices of all sizes gather tools and solutions necessary to tackle the digital transformation. Without a doubt, workflow is increasingly digital in nature.

However, according to numbers complied in Canon’s recent “Office Insights 2018” release, paper itself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – quite the opposite. It seems that the paperless office is a gradual, steady process of automation that enables best printing and workflow practices for the foreseeable future.