Hello to our loyal ADF Savings Readers! We’ve enjoyed sharing stories, news and more about ADF, workflow and print to mail operations with you here, however we will now be migrating all content over to our sister blog, InfoPrint Insights. Please check out the InfoPrint Insights blog and visit us there for all the latest.
http://infoprintinsightsblog.com/
Thank you again for your loyal readership – we look forward to seeing you at InfoPrint Insights!
Best,
Ricoh
We’re so busy getting ready for Graph Expo coming up next month and have so much exciting news we can’t wait to share with you. In the meantime we wanted to share some great content from our friends at the InfoPrint Insights blog, as they’ve been keeping busy with a lot, especially in the Utilities Industry.
Check out the posts below, and we be sure to check back in as Graph Expo gets closer and let us know what you’re most excited about seeing at the show!
By Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager
This week we headed out to beautiful San Diego for the annual National Postal Forum (NPF), a great and educational event that addresses the biggest pain points in mailing today – including cost savings and operational efficiency enhancements. NPF is one of my personal favorite events, and there’s always a lot of learning and networking that goes on that makes attendance here undeniably useful and beneficial. It’s especially interesting for us at InfoPrint Solutions because it allows our specialists to focus on our workflow solutions, and not just our print production hardware capabilities.
NPF attendees check out the reprint generation demo in the InfoPrint Solutions booth
Many folks that walked by our booth this year were surprised to see an inserter there, but after they saw what it was there to do, most were simply surprised. We had a really impressive automatic reprint generation demo with Kern that displayed easy-to-manage reprint workflow technology that lets customers automatically validate an inserter’s final job status and identify damaged mail pieces. Customers can then choose how to handle the error without any complicated reprocessing, saving labor costs and improving the workflow environment. The demo touched a large pain point for many people – it’s a process that’s often complicated and really time consuming – so seeing how simple it can be with this solution resonated with a lot of folks. One customer said they’ve been working to fix their reprint process for nearly six years on and off, and this offering makes it simple and easy. Others also expressed their surprise, simply saying, “I had no idea you could do that.”
For many companies, mail is a major cost driver, and optimizing workflow from document generation to mailroom operations is an important part of that. Understanding that is one of the reasons I like NPF so much – we’re able to really showcase our expertise in ADF and workflow optimization to the more than 2,000 mailing industry attendees, many of whom are large mailers and executives that oversee both print and mail.
Check out more information here: http://infoprint.com/internet/ipww.nsf/vwWebPublished/exp_workflow_en
by Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager
Next week we’re heading to the National Postal Forum, and we’re pretty excited. San Diego in May – good pick for those of us caught in the off-season. This should be an interesting show, despite the fact that there’s not a lot of worthwhile news out there right now for first class mailers, other than the seemingly usual uncertainty around IMB and the threat of increased postage rates.
Two reasons:
Despite my predictions for a business-as-usual show – this event will be particularly exciting at InfoPrint Solutions’ booth, #606 – where we will be presenting two industry firsts:
Yep. And only a tiny little printer for reprints.
Kern inserter ready for NPF
This is a nice, compact Kern inserter mounted with the Kern eyeV camera system. While there’s many different ways to configure inserter integrity – including direct interaction with a database driven inserter -this compact system will make a nice show demo and really speak to small to medium size mailers looking to achieve the integrity and efficiencies currently experienced in larger environments without breaking their budget.
Stop by and see it in action, and read more in the full pre-show release here.
See you there!
By Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager
With Apple’s ® iPad™2 now flying off the shelves, the ability to manage print environments from mobile devices has resurfaced in the hearts and minds of many. With tablets like the iPad continuing to storm the market it’s clear that they will soon start finding their way into more business environments, but is production print management one of those? Realistically, not anytime soon – at least not more than a status/reporting capacity.
While the device is sleek and sexy, and the desire to remotely access print management applications and processes sounds appealing, ultimately the customer demand for this kind of service is still relatively low. Specifically, from an IT and business perspective, what many companies are willing to do from a mobile device is still limited, and for two key reasons.
First is an issue that likely won’t shock you – security. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that more than 50 applications uploaded and distributed in the Google Android App Market contained malicious security threats – something Google didn’t catch because they don’t inspect Android apps before they are published. This recent event highlights many of the security concerns still associated with mobile computing for the enterprise and mid-market companies, where information and data are critical. If that data is compromised through a mobile application security flaw it can have major implications such as regulatory and compliance fines. And what if the whole device is stolen? Can it be securely wiped or locked? How is that information safely restored to the print environment then?
The second issue preventing wide adoption of mobile and tablet-based print management is the scope of work that could actually be done on this kind of device. While managers could do baseline tasks like reviewing and releasing a job that is awaiting approval on the go, or calling authorizing simple reports or information the range of activities and ability to manipulate process is limited. Companies aren’t likely to develop or set up new programs or jobs via a tablet device. The processes that matter most in print management are too involved and complex to be handled just via an iPad at this point in time.
Both of these concerns lead me to believe it may be a while before tablets like the iPad take over the print management environment. In the meantime, companies should certainly begin looking at their options and how they may be best utilized in the future. Before you know it, tablets will have taken over, and you’ll definitely want to be prepared.
What do you think?
Twitter: @adfsavings