A few weeks ago I stopped by to check in on a current costumer.  We were chatting a bit about his business and as he walked me out he said, “I’m happy with my current equipment you provide, but if you guys sell 3-D printers I might be in the market for one of those.”  This stopped me in my tracks and as he began explaining the advancements in 3-D printing for home and small business use, I was blown away.  He told me one example of Jay Leno using a proto-type 3-D machine to make molds of classic car parts that are no longer available.  He then takes those molds and has a car part fabricated.  Of course, there have been huge CAD machines that use 3D drawings to cut out car rims and larger items, but the cost of these machines is astronomical.

The type of 3-D machine my customer was talking about was a more affordable desktop machine that opens up a world of possibilities for small businesses and creative types.  This peaked my interest and I began reading a little bit about desktop 3-D printers.  I read a great article the other day written by Chris Anderson in the September issue of Wired Magazine entitled “The New MakerBot Replicator Just Might Change Your World.”  You can read it online here.  The article focuses on MakerBot and their CEO Bre Pettis’ two new models of desktop 3-D machines.  They discuss the two different models MakerBot has coming out, one at $2,100 and the other around $2,799.  The article also delves into the competition in the 3-D print marketplace, advancements and opportunities.

Just imagine designing a piece of jewelry or a really cool toy on your laptop using any number of 3D software applications available.  You then print the piece on your 3-D printer and can hold and inspect that item in your hand!  If you want 1,000 or 100,000 made you can then send your design to be manufactured.  If you are making unique custom items you can print them all at home or in your office.  Pretty amazing stuff, right?!

I don’t know if we will ever get into the 3-D printer business.  I do know that you can call Ryan at Standley Systems for all of your current document workflow needs, 405-574-1153.

As long as the personal computer has been on the market, companies have been challenged with constant changing and updating of technology. One month after you purchase a new piece of technology it seems to be already out of date and something better has taken its place. One mistake, when making a new purchase can greatly affect the productivity and compatibility within your organization. Unfortunately, since technology and company’s needs do change so rapidly, mistakes are easy to make.

The latest trend that empowers organizations to control cost, compatibility issues and ensures the right devices are in place is managed services. This allows organizations to adapt on the fly to their ever-changing technology needs.

Managed Services is widely acknowledged as the best model to adopt for technology outsourcing if you have a long-term outlook. Widely tipped as the holy grail of technology outsourcing, Managed Services model is an attractive proposition both to vendors as well as the outsourcing organization.

Information Technology Outsourcing

Everyone today takes electricity for granted as a staple of business. It is a monthly cost that simply never goes away. But yet electricity is actually a managed service. In much the same way, many decision makers are beginning to understanding that technology is a constant staple of today’s business. It is a constantly changing necessity, not only to exist, but to prosper.

Standley Systems has been providing solutions for Oklahoma businesses for nearly 80 years. We are currently providing managed services for many organizations throughout the state. Standley Systems is continually investing in technology and personal to help organizations transition to cost effective managed services. If you are interested in gaining greater control, increasing efficiencies and improving your bottom line give me a call.   Brad Hall / 918-949-8554.

As more and more people use mobile devices for work, the demand is also growing for the types of productivity tools they used on PC’s and laptops.  One tool they need is a convenient and secure way to print when and where they need to from their mobile devices.

Because of the increased use of tablet devices such as the iPad as well as smart phone devices, printing has been problematic for most people.  Printing from such devices in the traditional office has previously meant investing in a special printer designed to work with specific mobile devices.

One of the other challenges of mobile printing is that it has meant downloading special apps that work only with specific brands of printers and require users to go through a multi-step process in order to just print a simple document.  It is restrictive and time-consuming.

Printing technologies need to adapt to meet the growing population of mobile devices and the users who rely on them.  This requires a transition to flexible on-demand printing that empowers mobile employees to access and share their digital content.

Standley Systems has the solution:  EFI PrintMe Mobile

This solution allows you to print anywhere, anyway.  For more information, contact:  Sherri Kell at 405-779-1700 or skell@standleys.com.

My daughter and her husband came to stay with us a few days recently and I thought that it would be an ideal time for her to go through all the “treasures” that she had left behind when she went off to college so many years ago.  Since she arrived in a relatively empty SUV, we could finally clean out her room and surrender custody of those items deemed to be significant.

When I came home late Saturday evening, I was shocked to discover eight large trash bags full of treasure bound for recycling.  There was another stack of items designated for the Salvation Army. Many of those items did not originate in my daughters room but instead came from two of the many closets that my wife and I use for storage.  She instructed me to go through those items and decide what we could discard.   It was like a stroll down memory lane!!!

Along with what can best be described as vintage clothing (my Levi jeans size 32×34 – yes they were my size once!), there were several boxes of documents.  The mortgage on our first home purchased in 1978.  My 1977 pay stubs from Montgomery Ward showing that I deserved an annual salary of $14,000.  Some receipts for repairs done on our 1973 Camaro along with parts of our tax returns from 5 different years and on and on. I know what you are thinking.  Sounds like Dave could be on A&E’s “Hoarders”.    But you never know when you might need that original movie ticket stub from “Jaws”.

Well unfortunately I am not alone in my hoarding of documents. For years Standley Systems has been engaged in helping our clients create and reproduce their business documents.  Those documents are usually stored somewhere and that somewhere takes up a lot of space and can become very expensive.

While those documents may have once been properly filed and carefully labeled, after a few records searches in subsequent years, you get the invoice for the brake job for the 1973 Camaro in with the payroll records for 2012.  A delivery receipt is mistakenly filed with 2009 Insurance Claims and an employment application is with the pictures of last year’s office Christmas party.  How much time is wasted looking for documents that are missing or misfiled?

There is a better way!

DocuClass offers the solution to your document storage and retrieval pain. Some of the benefits of a DocuClass solution are

• Process improvement and automation (streamline critical processes)
• Find documents and information faster
• Reduce operational costs and increase productivity by using resources more efficiently
• Document integrity through multi-tiered security and versioning
• Organize and manage documents of all types throughout the entire document life cycle

If you would like to know more about how Standley Systems and a DocuClass solution can secure and streamline your document management needs, give me a call at 405-574-1187.

Look at your phone, not your desk phone or home phone, but your mobile phone. Is it a flip phone or one of those candy bar looking things? Probably not, most likely it is a smart phone. Maybe it is an iberrydroid or some other trendy touch screen, music box, uberpixel camera device that can also make phone calls, if needed.

The truth is that the simple phone has metamorphosized into a digital tool. It allows us to keep up with social networking through tweeterbook, play videogames while waiting at the doctor’s office and can keep adults and children occupied with a gazillion apps that are available.

The smartphone can also do another thing, it enables us to work, to answer emails review spreadsheets and submit proposals from anywhere at any time of the day. It has allowed us to become a mobile office everywhere we go.

But, where and how will we print from these devices and why does it matter?

Here are some scary stats:

• Smartphone’s account for over 25% of all mobile phones worldwide
• 49.7% of American mobile subscribers are smartphone users
• 101.3 million Americans have smartphone service plans
• By 2013, 75% of America’s workforce will be Mobile enabled

With this increase in the Mobile workforce and the ability to work from smartphones and tablets, let’s not forget the growing tablet market, there needs to be a simple way to print from these devices to networked printers and multifunction devices, aka copiers, right?

Well there is and there are multiple ways to do it. Utilizing cloud technology Savin has created HotSpot Printing. It is a simple way to send prints via email form a mobile device to a cloud based network for retrieval from a HotSpot enabled printer’s and MFP’s. Also on the horizon is kiosk printing, a secure and convenient way to allow for mobile printing in addition to access to Facebook, Google Docs, Dropbox and Microsoft SkyDrive accounts through self-service print kiosks.

For more information on mobile print technologies give me a shout at 405.694.3703 or email me at abrown@standleys.com.

eWriter

Software that’s as easy as 1. 2. 3.  That software that pleases everyone.  IT, Purchasing, and the End user.

1.    Flexibility to Customize

Design, implement and deploy your customized AutoStore solutions using Standley Systems Professional Services team.

Customization can include open SDKs, forms, validation scripts or modules – whatever is needed to leverage the most from your AutoStore software.

2.       Reduce Training Time & Costs

AutoStore is easy to install and to use – so you can scan, index, convert and distribute documents in no time at all. Simply define the documents you want to capture and then apply that to as many Savin multifunction devices on the network as you wish. You’ll be up and running with a minimal amount of training.

3.    Enhances Information Security

AutoStore has a number of security functions that let you gain control over the flow of information that enters or leaves your company: authenticate users right at the point of capture, encrypt documents as they are processed, and enable business process audit trails with reporting features. You can also capture documents from secure FTP sites and archive into secure FTP sites.

If you would like the Flexibility to Customize, Reduce Training Time & Cost as well as Enhance Information Security.

Contact

Linda Helmer

405-816-6410

lhelmer@standleys.com

A few years ago my wife decided it was time we remodel our master bath.  In selecting the new fixtures that would adorn our new bathroom, after a great deal of deliberation by my wife, she chose what I would describe as a “designer toilet.”  I was quickly corrected and informed that it was a “commode”, not a simple everyday toilet. This designer toilet was very sleek and fashionably elegant with graceful lines and the latest in water saving toilet technology. That choice set in place the continuing conflict between me and the toilet… I mean commode.

The problem is not what the toilet looks like.  The problem is what’s in the toilet.  As part of the design process the artisan who dreamed up this product decided that the water tank didn’t really need to be spacious. He went for the minimalist look with a water reservoir that enhanced the users bathroom experience.  Of course that minimalist design required that the tried and true water fill-valve that has worked flawlessly for years be redesigned to fit into such a limited space.

Soon after installation the fill-valve began to fail.  The water saving design of the commode actually led to water wasting as the valve would never shut off completely when the tank was full. It had to be replaced.  With a bank account now depleted by this elegant new bathroom, I was “encouraged” to fix it myself.  That began the process that has now repeated itself 3 more times.

So what’s my point?  There are some things in this world that we need to consistently work.  From our commodes, to our cell phones, to our office technology, these products have become entrenched in our lives and we need them to work.  We don’t really think about them until we need them and they aren’t working properly. Then we are in a panic.

As we make our choices for office technology and solutions or even a commode, we need to consider more than how it looks or how much it costs.  We need to ask “Will our supplier be our partner or just a product provider?”

If you would like to discuss how Standley Systems is committed to forming a relationship rather than just making a sale, contact David Hand at dhand@standleys.com or 405-574-1187.

Wide Format Printing

What if I told you we had a device that combines document & photo printing, video calling, directory services and digital signage all in one?

Today’s workers rely heavily on sophisticated mobile and cloud based tools – both inside and outside the office – to stay connected.  The merging of mobile and cloud based technologies is becoming the most significant enabler of business productivity, and now you can print straight to a kiosk anywhere you are.

Users are able to send print jobs (including documents and pictures) to any kiosk printer by simply uploading to the web, sending an email with an attachment, print using a drive or from a mobile app.   

Check out this video for a quick demonstration:

As you can see each kiosk printer has a unique email address assigned to it, which you can find from a populated list of nearest kiosks.  After submission, a secure release code is sent to the user.  Documents are not released until the user enters the release code on the keypad at the printer, which keeps print jobs private.

Users are also able to access Facebook, dropbox and Google Docs to print pictures or documents. 

Here is how you do it:

Another great feature of the kiosk is maps & directions. 

View the demonstration here:

For more information