You may not want to implement a managed print program.  If you are not ready to look at MPS, here are a few ideas that might help you reduce costs without a contract:

• Ask yourself "Do I have to print this?"  This is especially true of email.  Its much easier to save an email electronically than it is to print and archive.  There are also many times when we see lengthy printed reports, when only one page is needed.  Make sure that you need it before you print!
• Printing in greyscale can reduce the amount of ink that you use.
• How about adjusting the font?  I bet you did not know that the font you use is impacting the costs associated with printing. 
  
• Remanufactured cartridges save money and have a smaller impact on the environment.  Assuming that you have a reliable provider.  We can help. 
  
• Printing to file or PDF is easy and free.  There are many free applications that will allow you to archive without spending money.

Take a few of these ideas.  They will be a good start to helping you manage your print.

There are only two days before our learn lean workshop.  There are only a few seats left.  This interactive workshop will help you:

• Identify possible broken processes
• Leverage essential tools that recognize and eliminate waste
• Learn the value of communicating process change and how to reach all levels of your organization
• Empower employees to make improvements themselves

Click here to learn more and to get signed up!

Print Management, Managed Print Services and Enterprise Printing Services are essentially the same thing.  Just to be extra confusing, our industry tried to come up with as many different terms for the same thing as possible.

Print management is all about managing the inventory, logistics, purchasing, distribution and output related to documents in the office.  And to throw another term in there Managed Document Services takes this all to the next level.  The idea behind all of this, do more with less.  Save time, save money, and create a print strategy.

Why create a print strategy?  Print is just like any other process in the office.  As a company grows a broken process stays in place until someone steps back to take a look from 40,000 feet.  It multiplies when the company grows.  Adding people to the process exposes issues even further.  Print is no different and the majority of the time the true cost is unaudited.

So, take a step back and let us help you look at the big picture of print management.  To learn more about how we can help click here. 

When does Managed Print work the best for you?  When the solution is looked at before the product.  I have seen too many single vendor solutions where one department has had to suffer to fit the "solution" into it's environment.  A true managed print solution would never knowingly put a customer in that situation. 

A priority for a print management evaluation should not include a dealer that does not have options.  Having worked with many different manufacturers it has become clear that each manufacturer has its strengths and weaknesses.  Of the many vendors that we work with, not one does it all well.  There are holes.  Next time, or the first time, you evaluate your print fleet, ensure you get the best solution.  Talk with a managed print provider with options!

What is your New Years Resolution?  If you said, “Improving Business Process and Increasing Profitability”, you came to the right place.  Let’s start with a few areas where we see waste in the office.   

1. Transporting documents from one area to another
2. Documents or Emails Waiting in an inbox for approval at various stages
3. Passing on incomplete information. This is a Defect that requires rectification at a later date.
4. Pick up, put down, pick up, put down, pick up…this is   Over-processing
5. Delivering an order to production that will produce the wrong thing is a Defect.
6. Waiting for the customer to provide the correct information

Our goal is to help you get leaner in the office.  If you struggle with any of these areas, then come join us at our Learn Lean: Business Process Improvement Workshop and shed those office pounds away!  If you want to learn more about improving your business processes now then please call your local Applied Imaging office located in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Big Rapids or Muskegon.

We are closing in on a big anniversary.  Here is the logo to commemorate our 25th year!  We feel fortunate to have worked with so many great clients over the years.  We could not have achieved this milestone without you.  As Mike Riordan would say, "The best is yet to be!" 

Options are good.  Especially when it comes to managed print services.  Taken from a Lexmark article "MPS is a mix of software tools, services and custom solutions and strategies that have the power to transform your organization".  Lexmark's four steps to print management are optimize, manage, improve, and innovate.  The fourth step is where organizations find big savings.

We are fortunate to have four of the leading vendors as partners.  Each one has it's strengths and weaknesses.   Having the flexibility and capability to look at four of the top five gives Applied the ability to tailor a solution to each situation.  Many times a solution with a mix of vendors allows you to take advantage of the best possible offerings and maximize your savings.

Here are a few pictures from our Detroit (Novi) showroom.  We are excited to have the equipment installed and operational.  Look forward to seeing you out here. 

Automated workflow makes it possible to complete more work in less time with fewer employees while providing a mechanism for ensuring your information is complete and handled in accordance with prescribed policies. Our workflow solution ensure even the most complex business rules are followed and makes it that much easier to share vital information between the various departments of your company. Administrators can use workflow to view not only the status of work in progress but also an audit trail of past actions.

Often used in conjunction with workflow, Electronic Forms provide a standard means of initiating requests, notifications and other business processes by allowing users to complete and submit online HTML forms that become available for immediate retrieval and routing.

Ricoh –

User Tools > Facsimile Features > Key Operator Tools > Forwarding

Now turn on forwarding and select the destination that you want the faxes forwarded to.

Canon –

Settings/Registration > Function Settings > Receive/Forward > Common Settings > Forwarding Settings

Select the desired forwarding setting and Press Validate/Invalidate.