An Office Manager's Guide to Office Technology

Everything You Need to Know About Investing in the Right Business Technology for the Ontario Office

Office managers have incredibly busy schedules. Answering phone calls, responding to emails, keeping track of employees across their department and restocking office materials are just a small component of their day-to-day job. 

On top of that, an office manager is also typically tasked with ensuring their department has the right technologies in place so both themselves, and their team, can efficiently print, scan, copy and (possibly) fax documents.

These office technologies are crucial for the efficient operations of a department:

With that in mind, we’ve created this ultimate office manager’s guide to office technology to give your Ontario-based business insight into what technologies you need to be more efficient and how to select the right technologies for your unique requirements.

We hope it can help you save money and boost business performance!

What’s New in Office Technology?

What’s New in Office Technology?

In today’s competitive market, your business needs to find an advantage wherever it can. The right business office technology can ensure your organization gains new efficiencies in its day-to-day operations. 

The workplace of today looks dramatically different, and investing in the appropriate office technologies can help your company maximize business performance. But what are the latest office technology trends?

Multifunction printers Vs. desktop printers

In recent years, many companies seem to be moving toward investing in several desktop printers for specific employees or teams, as opposed to one large multifunction printer that serves the entire office. This is likely due to the increased importance of portability, as team members work from both within the office and from home. 

Bring your own device (BYOD)

Bring your own device is an office technology model in which an organization authorizes employees to bring their own personally-owned device instead of using an official company-provided one. The idea is that BYOD will enhance the productivity and flexibility of employees, but companies must strongly consider the security risks and additional complexity that comes with such a model.

More businesses will make the move to VoIP 

Making the transition to VoIP represents a huge opportunity for businesses to improve their operational process and realize significant efficiency gains, all while saving money. With an increased number of businesses more concerned with flexibility and allowing their employees to work from anywhere, we are expecting a big uptick on the implementation of VoIP phone systems. 

A focus on contactless office office hardware

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we think about touching shared surfaces. The office of 2022 will be characterized by touchless technology, and the way teams use shared hardware will change as well. We expect to see a shift towards touchless printing and copying, through technologies such as swipe cards, mobile print release and voice recognition.

Read more…

5 Must-Have Printer Features That Will Improve Office Efficiency

What to Look for in an Office Printer Solution

What to Look for in an Office Printer Solution

Having the right printer will significantly improve your team’s productivity, and reduce printing costs at the same time. That means your team is more efficient, and your organization saves money that’s added to its bottom line.

If your printer is no longer meeting your company’s requirements, performing poorly or has out of date technology, it’s likely a sign that it’s time for your business to invest in a new device.

But what do you look for? Here are a few of the top questions to ask when looking for a new office printer solution:

1. Will it meet my departments’ needs?

Conducting a print analysis can help you better understand what you need from a new printer and what features you require. Some key points you’ll want to keep in mind are the type of ink that the printer uses, the printer's print speed, how many employees will be using the printer, the memory size of the printer, the printer’s cost per page, the size of the printer’s paper tray and the quality of print that it provides.

2. Is the printer secure?

Like most organizations, your business likely deals with a huge amount of sensitive information. Just like computers, office printers can be vulnerable to cyber threats and the theft of sensitive information. When purchasing a printer, make sure you invest in a solution that has the security technology you need. This will better protect your sensitive information and ensure your printer doesn’t become an access point into your network. 

3. Can I mitigate contact on the office printer?

If you are looking to reduce contact on your office’s shared devices, you’ll want to look for a printer with features that allow for contactless use. Some printers can be integrated with mobile print release software or even have voice recognition software installed in them so your employees don’t have to touch the device every time they want to print a document. 

Read more…

3 Ways to Tell When Your Business Needs a New Printer

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Multifunction or Desktop Printer: Which is Better for Your Office? 

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How to Reduce Spend on Colour Printing

How to Reduce Spend on Colour Printing

Did you know that printing expenses from copiers and printers are one of the largest unmanaged costs for small to medium-sized businesses? 

In fact, Gartner estimates that total print costs, including hardware, maintenance, supplies and support comprive between 1-3 percent of a company’s overall revenue. Yet, despite this, 90 percent of North American companies have no idea what their annual printing costs are.

Where many businesses go wrong is that they invest in cheaper devices without realizing that the low acquisition costs are often offset by higher costs per page service agreements. 

These service plans allow customers to spread out the cost of operations supplies, parts and labour costs into more manageable amounts over a longer period of time. Support companies take the average of these costs and spread the charges down to cost-per-page

This means you only pay for the cost of toner, parts and labour by the amount you use on a page.

Yet these service plans don’t monitor the amount of toner put onto a page, meaning no matter how much toner you print on a document it will be the exact same price as every other document. 

This gets even more complicated when we bring colour printing devices into the equations. While blavk and white devices usually only have one service rate, colour devices typically have two rates (one for black and white and one for colour).

To dramatically reduce your printing costs, look for a printing provider that uses tracking technology to determine how much colour toner you use. By only paying for the colour toner you actually use, you could save anywhere from 30 to 50 percent on your printing costs - in comparison with a typical two-rate service program.

Read more…

Is Your Business Paying Too Much for Printing?

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What to Look for in a Office Photocopier

What to Look for in a Office Photocopier

Copying a document should be simple, right? You load a document, push copy and out of the photocopier comes however many copies of the document that you wanted to share with your team.

Unfortunately, for many businesses it’s not that easy. We still talk to teams that are using outdated photocopiers and poorly maintained devices that take ages to copy a document, experience regular paper jams, leave streaks and lines across the document and print out wrinkled pages.

This is inefficient and costs businesses a huge amount of money that could have been used elsewhere. 

Having the right photocopier mitigates these issues. A high-quality and fast photocopier will seamlessly copy documents at a fraction of the speed, and will result in less waste for your team. 

Here are a few key things to look for when investing in a new photocopier.

1. Copy volume

When looking for a photocopier it’s important to let your supplier know an estimate of your monthly print volume, so that they can better recommend a product that meets your requirements. The more you overwork a photocopier the more money you will have to invest in servicing it, and of course you don’t want to waste money on a device that’s well beyond the capabilities you actually need.

2. Pages per minute

Pages per minute, or PPM, is the number of pages a copier can produce a minute. If you have a high copying volume then you'll want a faster copier with a higher PPM to boost the productivity of your team. Typical photocopier speeds usually range from around 20 PPM to 150 PPM.

3. Duty cycle

The duty cycle of a photocopier tells you how many copies the machine can create a month. For instance, a copier with a duty cycle of 50,000 can produce a maximum 50,000 copies every month. This, combined with your estimated copy volume, will give you an idea of how much stress you’ll be putting on the device.

4. Print resolution

Are you just copying informal internal documents for your team, or are you copying highly-graphic flyers to send out to customers? This will determine the quality of print resolution you’ll need from your photo copier solution.

Read more…

How to Choose the Right Photocopier for Your Business

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What to Look for in a Document Scanner for Your Office

What to Look for in a Document Scanner for Your Office

Digital transformation is the key to success in today’s market. That’s why businesses are trading in their filing cabinets and paper documents with electronic documents instead, using scanners to scan and store important business documents.

A document scanner can open up more space in your office, improve the security of sensitive information, and ensure you have an electronic copy of important documents so they won’t become forever lost.

But how do you choose a scanner for your business? Here are a few key questions to ask that will help effectively narrow your search for the right device.

What documents are you scanning?

The documents your business needs to scan are the main consideration when selecting a scanner for the office. While most scanners are capable of handling most forms of paper documents, you’ll need a specialized photo scanner if you are scanning photographs and over high-resolution documents. 

How many documents do you need to scan?

Businesses that only do occasional scanning can get away with less sophisticated and less expensive scanners, but if scanning frequency is high then your business will need a scanner with high-volume and batch scanning applications. High-speed scanners will dramatically improve the productivity of teams that scan often.

What operating system are you using?

Most scanners work well with PC software, while fewer are available for Mac. When purchasing or leasing your device, make sure it’s compatible with the operating system your organization uses. 

What resolution and colour depth do you need?

The standard scanner resolution of 600 to 1,200 dpi will do for the vast majority of documents, but for businesses that need to scan photos and other high-resolution documents you’ll need a resolution of at least 2,000 dpi. Of course, the higher the resolution the more expensive the scanner will be. Also make sure to take into colour depth. Low colour depth for your typical document is fine, but for photos you should aim for at least 48-bit colour depth. 

Read more…

How to Choose a Document Scanner for Your Small Business in Ontario

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What is a VoIP Office Phone System?

What is a VoIP Office Phone System?

Last but not least in our list of crucial office technologies we have the business phone systems. What companies require from their phone lines has shifted dramatically in recent years, especially with the move towards remote work.

In fact, some companies have shifted away from phone lines entirely. For employees who only need to communicate with their internal team, communication and collaboration software will likely be the only tools they need for interaction - especially if they work in a small office.

Yet for employees who work remotely, are customer-facing or work in large teams where the ebay way to contact someone is to give them a quick phone call, a dedicated phone line is crucial to their job. 

Cloud phone systems, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), have grown in popularity in recent years. Voice over internet protocol is a type of technology that digitizes your analog phone signal and instead of sending it through a local telephone company, sends it over the internet. 

With VoIP, employees can make phone calls both from their handset within the office or from home by using an application on their own personal smartphone. The result? Employees now have the ability to communicate with customers and clients no matter where they are working from. 

Companies that use VoIP phone solutions can benefit from:

  • Reduced overheads
  • Higher-quality phone calls
  • A better caller experience for customers, due to advanced features
  • The ability to support a remote workforce
  • The opportunity to scale their phone system seamlessly, as needed
  • Software integration that allow for insights into call activity
  • The automation of common customer queries
  • Improved collaboration among teams

Read more…

What are the Benefits of a Business VoIP Phone System?

Hosted VoIP Vs On-Premise: What's the Difference

What to Look for in a VoIP Phone System for Your Office

What to Look for in a VoIP Phone System for Your Office

Implementing the right phone system can improve team productivity, enhance the customer experience and save significant amounts of money and time (through better call routing) for your business.

But with more options than ever before, what should your company look for in a VoIP phone system? We’ve listed some of the key considerations to look for when discussing solutions with VoIP providers:

Assess what features you require

VoIP phone systems are feature rich. Some of these features come for free, and others come as an extra billable on your service plan. Before committing to a solution, consider which features you need. This could be anything from international calling, business text messaging or call routing for customers.

Calculate the total cost of ownership

What will be the overall cost of ownership for the VoIP phone system? Ask a provider to supply you with an estimated cost of the solution over the next three or five years. To do this, they’ll include monthly subscription costs, feature upgrades and any hardware costs. 

Will the solution integrate with your other systems?

When VoIP integrates with your company’s other systems, you can access huge productivity benefits. Your team members will be able to sync information between systems, streamline workflows and access real-time data while on a call. VoIP systems can integrate with a whole range of software, from Salesforce to Dropbox.

Is the VoIP provider reliable?

Unlike traditional phone lines which are typically maintained by a company’s IT team, VoIP is maintained by the provider. That means you want to work with a provider that offers reliable service, consistent call quality and dependable customer service. 

Read more…

VoIP Phone System: 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a VoIP Provider

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Should You Purchase or Lease Office Technology?

Should You Purchase or Lease Office Technology?

When it comes to purchasing technology for your office, one of the biggest influences in the decision making process is cost. 

There’s two aspects of this decision. Firstly, you want it to be a cost-effective solution so you don’t end up spending too much money. But, secondly, you want to ensure you invest in the right solutions so that your employees have the tools they need to be productive and efficient in their day-to-day jobs.

How expensive the device you choose will likely depend on your requirements, how much you use it, your quality expectation and how many users will be using the device on a regular basis.

If your usage and quality expectations are on the high end of the scale, it’s possible that the device you need will be fairly expensive. For example, some high-end laser printers can cost upward of $10,000, compared to monochrome printers that can cost as little as a few hundred dollars.

With that in mind, your business usually has two options - lease or buy.

Buying office technology 

When you buy office technology it’s:

  • Less expensive in the long run
  • You can run maintenance on your own schedule
  • You don’t have to sign long term contracts

But you will have to also deal with:

  • The initial purchase cost for the device
  • Surprise costs if the device malfunctions

Leasing office technology

When you lease technology, your business will benefit from:

  • Far lower upfront costs
  • Access to up-to-date equipment that you might not have been able to afford up front
  • Knowing exactly how much your monthly costs for the device are

But you will also have to deal with:

  • A higher outlay over the long term
  • Being locked into a contract that you’ll still be paying for if you stop using the device (unless you buy yourself out of it).

Read more…

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