Have you ever found yourself re-typing a document for electronic filing or emailing? Or perhaps because a hard copy was lost, entirely?
Most of us have at one time or another.
But what if I told you that the hard copies of your documents (both typed and hand-written), could be scanned and uploaded to the cloud, at which point they could be emailed, edited or searched for?
The truth is that technology has made transitioning to the cloud an easy process.
And high cost of paper document management paired with the ease of digital, thanks to the advanced Ricoh technology, should make the decision a no-brainer, even for small businesses.
Let me explain.
The Cost of Paper Filing Systems
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, finding a lost document typically costs a company $122. In addition, it’s estimated that over 7.5 percent of documents are lost completely. That means if your company works with, hypothetically, 10,000 documents, about 750 of those will be lost. Some of those documents may have to be recreated, which means wasted man hours searching for documents and then recreating them. Those costs can quickly add up.
Still not convinced?
What if a customer calls in with a question about a specific invoice? The customer service rep would have to walk to storage, find the invoice, walk back to their desk and return the call. If the customer needs a copy of the invoice, the document would have to be scanned and, eventually, refiled. This entire process could easily take 20 minutes.
For just one question.
This doesn’t even begin to get into the expense of wasted man hours searching for documents that are misfiled or the cost of filing cabinets and the space they waste within your office.
It’s time to take your business online to save yourself the high costs of paper management and storage and streamline your business.
Ricoh’s Integrated Cloud Environment
Ricoh’s Integrated Cloud Environment, also known as “ICE,” is designed to give you more productivity from your Ricoh multifunction printer without adding the headache of complicated software. And this, added to the fact that it’s a cloud service, means you can get up and running with little or no IT involvement.
So how exactly can ICE improve your productivity?
Easily Transition to Digital
There’s no need to waste valuable time retyping documents. ICE has uses automatic OCR and file conversion. That means all you have to do is scan the hard copy of your document, select the folder where you want it saved, and it’s immediately accessible via the cloud.
Not only that, those newly scanned documents are searchable and have editable text. This means you can actually work with documents that originally were in hard copy.
Say goodbye to re-typing forever.
This feature is especially useful in environments where hard copies of paperwork are still found in abundance, such as schools or law firms. Both typed and handwritten documents can be uploaded to the cloud where it can be searched for, edited or shared.
Save Easily to Your Favorite Cloud App
Have you ever had to find tedious workarounds to upload documents to your favorite cloud apps, like Google Drive?
With ICE, not only is that possible, but extremely easy!
If you use services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Salesforce, or any of the other 20+ services that ICE supports, you can save time by scanning and saving directly to those destinations. Just select the destination app, adjust the settings and scan your document.
You’ll be amazed at how much time this saves you and how easy it can be!
Printing from Your Mobile Device
Like many of us, you’re probably attached to your smart device most of the day. It’s like carrying a little computer with you, wherever you go. So, naturally, you want to have much of the same functionality from your mobile device as you would from your computer, including printing.
Fortunately, with ICE, printing from your phone or tablet is as easy as sending an email.
Literally.
To print, just send an email to the cloud, attaching the files you want to print. A release code will then be automatically generated and emailed back to you. Simply enter the release code at any ICE-enabled printer, adjust the settings and hit print.
You don’t have to worry about whether you’re connected to the right printer. You don’t even need to be connected to the network!
Add Automation Specific to Your Business
What makes this technology especially powerful is the ability to buy packages for organizations that face unique challenges. We offer packages for both education and law offices, as well as an advanced office package.
The Legal Package, for example, helps to prepare documents for e-filing and also includes Bates Stamping for when there is a requirement to number documents with unique identifiers.
Are you ready?
Are you ready to let go of expensive document management processes once and for all?
With the help of Ricoh’s Integrated Cloud Environment (ICE), you can:
- Easily scan hard copies into the cloud where they can be searched for, edited or shared
- Save directly to your favorite cloud apps
- Print from your mobile device
- Add automated processes specifically for your unique business
And you can do all of this with little or no help from IT!
Many new Ricoh multi-function printers are already ICE-enabled. However, if yours is not or if you’re unsure, contact us today. We are happy to help you figure out the best package for your business.
For documentation on Ricoh’s cloud workflow solutions, click here.