Meters and toners and phone calls … Oh my! Meters and toners and emails … Oh my! That’s what managing a fleet of copiers and printers can feel like, right? You know, your office technology provider seemingly daily calling or emailing you asking for device meter readings. Your copiers running out of toners causing you to scramble and call your suppliers and hope the toner arrives in time for that big project?
If this at all sounds familiar, we’ve got good news for you! No longer does navigating the woods of copiers, printers, supplies and billing need to be such a daunting task.
Let RK Black do the work!
RK Black’s Easy Automatic Supply and Reporting (EASR) program can eliminate the emails, the phone calls, the scrambling for toner supplies and the anxious waiting for the next toner shipments.
If your company has copiers and printers on an active contract with RK Black and supplies are included, a simple software program installed on your network will take care of all those hassles for you.
Our new EASR software will automatically send meters, eradicating any need for those pesky meter calls or emails, will keep track of toner supplies in your copiers and will automatically order new toners to be shipped to your address when supplies run low. Occasionally, when you have unusually large printing projects planned, you may have to order toner to make sure you don’t run out later as our EASR software makes orders based on current toner supply levels and average monthly volumes. Under normal use, however, you would no longer have to keep track of or order toner supplies.
In addition to receiving an email giving you status updates on toner orders, you can log in to our new customer portal to see your order status there as well.
Requirements for using the automated program
So what do you need to have the software work for you? You need:
Copiers and printers on an active contract with RK Black with supplies included
Copiers and printers on a common network
An Internet-connected server or computer on the same network to play as host to the software
Once the software is installed on your network, the software will send copier and printer data directly back to our server so we can serve you even better.
Security
Just so you know, the software does not collect, view or save any confidential data, but collects only printer and copier-related data. This data is encrypted and sent over HTTP(s) protocol, ensuring your network’s safety and security.
Let’s get started!
If you are interested in having the software installed on your network and letting technology do the work for you, call 405-943-9800 or email us at cac@rkblack.com and we’ll set you up!
From time to time, your Ricoh copier system will request for you to change your consumables and this includes you toner and waste toner bottles.
Here is how to change the waste toner bottle on a Ricoh 03 and newer 04 series copier.
The great thing is, your system will alert you whenever your waste toner bottle is approaching being full. It will have an alert that will prompt you on the lower left-hand corner of the touchscreen display.
See an alert? Don’t be alarmed. Just make the call.
When you see that notification, call your office technology supplier to let them know you will need a new waste toner bottle. Once you do this, you should receive your new bottle in a few days. For RK Black clients, the waste toner bottle will arrive in one to two business days.
Just so you know, the Ricoh system will continue operating and printing as normal until the system is completely full at which point it will suspend printing, giving you a prompt, asking you to swap out the old bottle for a new one.
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If you’ve got a print job in the queue when this happens, don’t worry. As long as you don’t turn your Ricoh copier off, you will not lose the jobs in the queue. Your Ricoh copier will maintain the queue so once the waste toner bottle swap is completed, the printing will begin where it left off.
Out with the old. In with the new.
Once the new, empty waste toner bottle arrives, you are then ready to exchange the full waste toner bottle with new empty bottle.
When you are ready to make the swap, simply open the door you’ll find immediately to the left of tray 1 and above trays 2 and 3. Behind that door you will find a black plastic box. That is the waste toner bottle.
Carefully pull the bottle out making sure to do so with a nice smooth motion as the bottle is full of toner which can easily be spilled, leaving a mess on your hands and everything else.
Then take a trash sack, wrap it around the waster toner bottle and tie it off. That way if something happens and the bottle gets shaken, jostled or dropped, you won’t have toner go everywhere.
Now that you have the old bottle out and safely secured, it’s time to put the new waste toner bottle in the system. The new bottle you should find in a plastic sleeve in a cardboard box. As a side note, if you haven’t put the full waste toner bottle in a bag, you can place it in this sleeve as an alternative it will do just as good a job securing the full waste toner bottle.
Remove the new bottle from the box and from the plastic sleeve, and turn it so the end with green handle is facing you and is the end furthest from the Ricoh copier. Then just slide it in waste toner bottle compartment until you feel or hear a click, letting you know it is secure.
Then, just close the door.
Voila! It is as simple as that!
Relax and pat yourself on the back
Congratulations! You’ve changed the waste toner bottle on your Ricoh copier and you are ready to go!
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If society today were a tapestry, much of what holds it together, especially in the business world, is technology — everything from the Internet, to email, to mobile devices and their beloved apps to all various kinds of electronic communication. Even so, woven through all of it is still the perhaps thousands-years old method of communication, traditional mail — and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Businesses still use “snail mail” for sending invoices, paying bills, communication, marketing and more. But even though the system and method of mail is old, technology has found its way into the mailroom the digital mail meter.
Here is how a postage meter can benefit your business:
Save time
Digital mailing meters enable small and medium-sized businesses to print their postage directly to their mail, saving time.
Think about it. Time is money. How much time does it take your business to drive to the post office, stand in line to buy stamps and then then to apply those stamps? A whole lot, right?
Save yourself the drive, line and apply time by using a digital mail meter at your office.
Save money
Did know as of January 2019, mail meter users save five cents per piece of first class mail when compared to traditional lick-em’ and stick em’ (or just stick ‘em) stamp users? Five cents may not be much, but if it all adds up.
*In fact, if your company sends out more than 579 pieces of first class mail per month — that’s like 30 pieces per day — multiply that by the 5 cents you save per mail piece by using a digital mail meter, that savings could pay for a monthly mail meter rental with us (with either FP’s PostBase on a 24 to 30 month lease).
To go back to the point above about saving time, the PostBase being able to process 30 letters a minute, you are now able to now complete your mailroom duties in just a fraction of the time with little to no cost to you — and actually come out far ahead when you factor in labor hours!
Give your mail a more professional look
If your using traditional stamps, while the American flag, wildflower or animal designs are great, what if you could but your company’s logo or name on your own stamp? With digital mail meters, you can! It can be printed as part of the indicia, furthering your brand and your professional look.
Easier/ faster postage tracking
With digital meters, you can download any new rate changes at the speed of your Internet connection, saving you mental space keeping track of all the varying rates and also allowing to to project and tally your postage spend.
While traditional mail may be here to stay, why not harness current mailroom technology with a postage meter to save time and save money.
If you are interested in bringing today’s mailing technology into your business, contact us!
The end of the year is just around the corner and a new year awaits.
Here are four items to consider adding to your business year end to do list as you wrap up another year in business.
Buy business equipment
If you’ve been thinking about buying new equipment for your business, whether that be a copier or printer, getting new hardware for your aging network infrastructure or investing in a VOIP business phone system, now may be the time to do it. Depending on what you buy and other factors, you may be able to deduct the amount paid in one year instead of depreciating it over several years.
We are technology people, not tax people. So check with your tax professional to see if there are any advantages to buying now, before the end of the year.
Prepare for taxes
Speaking of taxes, now is the time to get ready to file your taxes. Start going over your paperwork to see if you might have anything you need to fix before the end of the year. Talk with your tax professional to see what you can do to best position yourself and your company for filing and for starting a new year in business. For example, maybe it’s time to move from being a sole proprietorship to an s-corp or c-corp. Doing so may save you taxes for the following year, setting you up for a more successful year next year.
Clean up & organize your documentation
While you’re going through your tax documentation, it might be time to get rid of old tax-related forms and documents as they have may passed their retention dates. As you are sorting through all of that, you might as well look through any other documentation you may no longer need that is just taking up space in your file cabinets.
Don’t know what documents you should keep or which you get rid of? Don’t know their retention dates? Here’s some help with an infographic.
If you do end up harvesting files, forms and records no longer needed, don’t simply toss it all into the waste bin. Shred it, especially if any of your papers bear confidential information. Shredding your documents will help protect you and those connected with your company from identity theft and your company from HIPAA violation fines and the consequences of potential corporate espionage.
Plus, if your document shredding service provider is like us, shredding your paper ensures it will be recycled, helping to preserve our planet.
Digitize your records
As we are talking about getting rid of paper, you could take your records clean-up project a step further by digitizing your documents. Not only would you be reclaiming for yourself office and cabinet space — and maybe even document storage costs — but you also could save yourself and your organization time in making your documents instantly retrievable and accessible from anywhere while protecting them from disaster.
Need help with this project? It’s one of the many things we do. Just drop us a line or send us an email and we can help you go paperless or, at least, operate with less paper.
Hopefully these suggestions were helpful to you in preparing you and your business for the ending of one year and the beginning of a new and even better year.
As we mentioned before, we are a technology company — an office technology company. If you do decide to add to or to refresh your business equipment, we’d be glad to help you out. We can also assist you in shredding your documents and digitizing them as well. If you are interested in any of these services, we’d love the chance to talk with you.
If your business is still using traditional postage stamps for mailing bills or notifications to your customers, you better brace for a substantial price increase.
If you are using a postage meter, there is still a price increase, but not nearly as much.
USPS: First Class letter stamps to go up 5 cents
The Postal Regulatory Commission last month approved a number of changes to take effect in January — one of those changes being a 10 percent price increase for a first class letter stamps. Presently costing $.50, these stamps will cost $.55 effective January 27, 2019.
Mail meter users, though affected by the price hike, will experience much less of a price increase, their postage costs going from $.47 per piece of first-class letter mail to $.50 — representing a 9 percent savings over traditional stamp use during this USPS rate hike.
But it’s not all bad news. Among the approved changes is a price decrease for additional ounces, the price dropping from $.21 to $.15 for traditional postage stamps, and for postage meters, the price lessening from $.71 to $.70 for a 2-ounce letter.
Prices for large envelopes and postcards will remain the same.
USPS: First-Class Package Services, Priority Mail & Priority Mail Express rates to increase
If you are a business using USPS first-class package services, Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express, you should expect price increases as well, thanks to the new changes.
With it’s First-Class Package Services, the United States Postal Service is moving toward zone-based pricing. While the current shipping rate is based on the package’s weight, as of January 27, similar to Priority Mail, the price will be determined based on weight and distance. The heavier and the farther a package must go, the more expensive it will be. Retail package shipping costs on average will increase around 13 percent and commercial, by 12 percent.
Under the new changes, Priority Mail retail shipping rates will see a nearly a 7 percent rise and commercial, roughly a 3 percent rise.
Going metered mail could save you postage & labor costs
So, to our earlier point, if you are a business still using the “lick ’em, stick ’em” or maybe even just “stick ’em” type stamps for your regular first class letter, 1-ounce mailings, you could save yourself some money in postage — not to mention time — by using a postage meter.
If you are interested in seeing what kind of savings such a move could bring you, we’ll be happy to talk with you to help you determine if going metered mail will save you money.
Just click on the red button below, fill out the form and send it. One of our representatives will contact you right away.
CCTV surveillance cameras. Once seen only at banks and over the check-out desks of retail stores, now you see them everywhere — at gas stations, restaurants, traffic intersections, mini-storages and almost every business and location one can imagine.
Over the course of their proliferation, security cameras have been coupled with developing technologies, like the internet, cloud-computing and even automation to expand their capabilities, improving their ease of use and increasing their efficiency. With this augmentation of technology, these cameras, once primarly used for security purposes, are now also used for other applications such as in marketing, like for traffic and behavioral studies, and for human resources, for obtaining visual record in case of workers’ compensation claims, for example.
So if you are looking at taking advantage of this new surveillance camera technology to help your business, whether for security or for other applications, here are some tips to consider.
Place cameras appropriately for viewing area
Similar to the point above, always place the cameras where they will be able to view the space you intend them to survey. Placing them at the corners of your buildings, for example, may create blind-spots and limit your cameras’ views.
Consider your lighting
Make sure the area to be under surveillance has consistent and sufficient lighting for the camera to be able to pick up identifying details, such as facial features. Where you don’t have adequate lighting, consider using a night-vision capable CCTV camera.
Place CCTV cameras to monitor hidden entry points
Burglars typically use back windows, back doors and basement windows and doors to break in buildings. Your cameras should be positioned to view these areas.
Watch the front door
Burglars also use the front door to make entry, so install camera to watch that area too, and also any incidents of mail or package theft.
Use the appropriate security cameras for their application
Don’t get too caught up with pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras. They are great, but require more moving parts, are limited in their viewing area, even with their ability to move, and really only work best with a security officer sitting at a desk watching the video feeds and manipulating the cameras. Rather, go with fixed, wide-angle cameras set in strategic locations to view a large area. If you want, you can set up a PTZ camera to work with a wide-angle. In this case, through your software, you can tie the two camera systems together so that if the wide-angle identifies motion in a quadrant you specify, the PTZ will use its motion capabilities to turn and zoom to record the specific area for the amount of time you specify and then resume its normal view. This way, your software is your security officer, watching over everything and giving attention to events when needed.
Protect or hide your cables
Don’t leave easily reached cables exposed as they can easily be severed. A professional security camera installer will hide the cable in conduit, protecting it or at least making it more difficult to access.
Install only outdoor surveillance cameras outdoors
Don’t place indoor cameras outside. Doing so will subject your camera to moisture, bugs and other factors for which it was not designed, resulting in problems with moisture, condensation, insect nests and so on, and the resulting reduced image quality, if any you get any image at all.
Stick with wired security cameras
Unless you’ve got a large budget, don’t install a wireless camera system as a commercial grade of this variety can be quite expensive. Besides, the whole idea of video surveillance is to increase security. While wireless technology is better than it used to be, it is still more “hackable” than a wired camera system.
Secure your equipment
To the point above, if you are using an IoT (Internet of Things) connected camera system, you must be sure to secure it from outside hacking. Change your factory-set, default passwords and employ whatever security feature your system may have. Web-based cameras have long been hijacked and used to launch DDoS attacks. You want your CCTV system serving you, not malicious actors — so secure it.
Consider you video management, retrieval and storage
CCTV cameras gather information. You need some place to send the data and a way to retrieve it. Will the data go into hard-drive storage or to cloud storage? Do you have enough space to hold all the data? How will you retrieve the data should a burglary happen and you need to give the police a video file. These are important considerations you must make as you plan for your CCTV surveillance program.
Seek professional advice or services
You may be able to DIY a simple system for your home and it may be sufficient, but professional installers live and breathe video surveillance. When it comes to installing a CCTV system for your home, but especially for your business, they are experts and as such will know things to do and look for that you probably won’t. You might consider at least leaning on their experience and expertise if not hire them to work their magic for you. When you consider your time and effort, it might actually save you money to talk to a professional surveillance camera installer.
Hire only a professional, reputable security camera installer
Don’t go for cheap when looking to hire an installer. Go for expertise. Go for established. Your friend who installs security cameras as his side-job may cost you less, but will not likely not be able to help you later when he moves, gets a promotion at his real job or finds another side-gig. When you do find an installer, ask for his license. Many states require CCTV installer to carry licenses.
Generally, if you’re looking at installing a video surveillance system for your business location, do your homework first. Ask yourself why you think you need cameras and answer that. Determine what you want out of the system. Specifically, what is it you want to see?
Armed with the above tips and those answers, you should be well on the road to determining what your security camera system should look like.
R.K. Black is a state licensed video surveillance provider. If you have any questions about video surveillance or other business technology, give us a call at 405-943-9800.
