Using on-premise fax servers for production faxing, you will need physical fax servers and telco fax lines at the corporate office and your disaster recovery center. For departmental offices and at remote offices, you may need more fax servers or at a minimum, individual fax machines and phone lines.
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Blindness affects more than 21 million people in North America. The World Health Organization estimates 246 million people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment – with 39 million of those classified as blind. What’s more, according to the National Eye Institute, the number of people who are blind or have low vision is projected to double in the next decade. For the visually impaired, the ability to access bills, statements and other transactional documents means greater independence. For companies, accommodating customers who are visually impaired is not just good business, it’s required by federal legislation. To promote compliance and support forward-thinking corporate initiatives, many organizations are seeking solutions for the delivery of billing statements and other transactional documents for visually impaired customers in alternate formats. 508 Document Accessibility Compliance In 1998, the US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. This requirement is being extended to include all public agencies that interact with the public. PDF/UA – “Universally Accessible” What are some options to consider in order to better serve your customers with visual impairment? Most recently, Universally Accessible PDFs, or PDF/UA documents, have been developed for people with disabilities who require assistive technology to communicate. According to Dr. Judith Dixon, the consumer relations officer for the National Library Service for the Blind, universal document accessibility means employing all of the above. “An accessible PDF document is quite accessible for people who have the right equipment,” says Dr. Dixon. “But it is important for any company to know their constituents. Not all people have computers, or can use them effectively, so other alternatives need to also be used and considered.” What Can You Do? We have one solution that helps provide alternatives. Our flagship document generation software, DocOrigin, now integrates the design and creation of PDF/UA, meeting ISO 14289-1 and WCAG 2.0 standards for PDF documents. As the “Baby Boomer” generation continues to age, the number of people requiring the use of assistive technology increases. With PDF/UA conforming files, readers and assistive technology, these individuals and others with disabilities can have equal access to online information. In particular: PDF/UA compliant documents contain tags that identify content according to structure, allowing documents containing images, form fields, tables, lists and other information to be rendered properly utilizing a number of different assistive devices such as screen magnifiers, text-to-voice devices and braille keyboards and readers. Click here to learn more about PDF/UA, and how worldwide legislation seeks to guarantee equal access to information for all. Moving Forward DocOrigin makes it easy to comply with standards set out by PDF/UA by building compliant documents as part of the document design and generation process, negating the need for post-processing software or intervention to render documents according to these standards. Want to know more? Contact us today for a free demonstration of DocOrigin and it’s easy to use PDF/UA capabilities.
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As we enter the New Year we’ve peered into our crystal ball and engaged our team of technology analysts to determine four important predictions for the future of business documents for 2017. What will be the trends to look for? What strategies will take the spotlight? And where should you put your efforts to make a difference in the New Year? Here are four mobile document predictions to consider. Number One – The Workforce Is Going Mobile Today, 68% of U.S. adults have a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011. Indeed, mobile computing grew by over 80% just last year alone and tablet computer ownership has edged up to 45% among adults. What does this data tell us? Our prediction is that the Mobile Workplace is going to be the new norm for 2017. Businesses have already accepted the trend of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and this year will be a year of opportunity for companies to take advantage of devising strategies to make the most of this trend. Customers, vendors and employees are going to need to view and interact with all business documents from their mobile devices. This means many legacy document design and generation software solutions will be rendered obsolete. Products like DocOrigin, which support adaptive or responsive form design for multi-channel document presentation, will rule the market. It will no longer be enough just to have a responsive web site, companies will need responsive documents that adjust their presentation on the fly, based on the device the viewer uses. As technology gets more mobile, it will become next to impossible for companies to restrict employees from using their own device. So now is the time to evaluate the mobile workplace and how it needs to work for your company. The key is building an environment of trust in your company… and that means trust in both your employees as well as the technologies and methodologies you put into place. Number Two – Automating Content Strategies Digital marketers already use automated tools like HootSuite and others to schedule posts across a variety of platforms. As technology improves, automated solutions will help companies and marketers create, publish and manage content with the push of a button, complex scripting will not be required or acceptable. Transactional documents companies currently produce will now be used to improve customer communications. Companies are already producing order acknowledgements, packing slips, statements, etc which customers and vendors receive. These documents are important to the receiving party, they contain important real time info the reader needs to see. The use of these documents to communicate relevant ads, safety messages, and warnings will become more prevalent in the near future. As the market becomes increasingly competitive and companies try to scale as fast as possible, automating content will help big businesses save time and money. Small companies can benefit from automated content too, as it gives small businesses the appearance of having a large footprint. Intelligent content strategy can help you keep up with the growing number of channels and devices your customers are checking for content, as well as meeting demands for up-to-date content. Number Three – Optimizing Across Multiple Devices Mobile devices, particularly smartphones, are where you’ll find your customers nowadays. Not only is it important for businesses to take their digital marketing strategies mobile, they need to optimize a consistent marketing strategy that works across multiple devices. For example, customer communications need to be optimized and properly scaled for mobile devices, desktop computers and tablets because you never know what device your customer might be using. As you develop a strategy, remember that by implementing a cross-device strategy you can reach the same customer on multiple devices and also reach a broader audience. Number Four – Personalized Marketing New businesses pop up every single day, but the ones that succeed are the ones that personalize their brand in their customer communications and marketing campaigns. Brands need to do more than create content for the sake of content. Centering your digital marketing strategy on a purpose can help create a compelling narrative that will resonate with consumers and differentiate you from your competitors. It’s estimated over 627,000 new businesses open each year, so having another way to stand out from the crowd definitely can’t hurt. What are your predictions for 2017? Did we hit the mark or are there others you would add to the list? Don’t be shy. Contact us today and let us know what you think.
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A Great Time for Eclipse, DocOrigin, CCC Here is a quick review of the conferences we participated in during the last half of the year. PDF Days – PDF Association Conference – Berlin – June Steve Luke, Eclipse Corporation CEO and Alex Reiss, Eclipse Corporation CTO attended this conference at the amazing new GLS Campus in the heart of Berlin. Over 150 attendees from all over the world attended in 2016. We were happy to be a part of the world’s top PDF event. Some of the topics explored were: PDF in the mobile device context, Accessible PDF/UA documents and forms, Responsive PDF, Electronic invoice solutions and a complete review of the DRUPA fair. To view slide decks and video recordings of PDF Days Europe 2016, please click here. PDF Days Europe will be in Berlin again on May 15th and 16th, 2017. Hope to see you there!
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By ALEX RIESS While printed documents like invoices, notices or statements are just one piece of the puzzle of doing business at a manufacturing or service organization, for Print Service Providers (PSPs), documents are their product. Any interruption of the document generation process can lead to significant losses of revenue. Once one of the PSP’s clients has outsourced the production of their documents to them, they expect and demand fast and reliable delivery. The PSP simply cannot afford any downtime. One of the main reasons to use a PSP is their ability to produce large batches of documents reliably in a short period of time and the PSP’s expertise in optimizing the cost of generating the documents and reducing cost.
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Do You Believe There Is A Better Way To Work? When Peter Senge’s popular book, “The Fifth Discipline,” appeared in 1990, it was a revelation. Senge went beyond the cheery platitudes of “In Search Of Excellence,” to dissect with a psychologist’s skill, the elements of successful business management, into practices for building what he called “a learning organization.”
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Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and uncovering actionable insight to help executives, managers and analysts make more informed business decisions. The world of BI embodies a variety of approaches and methodologies, but in the end it’s about enabling organizations with the ability to not only collect data, but also to make use of it in more thoughtful and profitable ways. Organizations from all industries are using BI to accelerate and improve decision making, optimize key business processes and drive new revenue streams.
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The concept of “Relationship Marketing” is a powerful way to build lasting relationships with your customers. Unlike many marketing strategies that focus almost entirely on the sale, relationship marketing is a philosophy that is focused on building long-term customer relationships. While traditional marketing approaches are primarily transactional in nature, relationship marketing is relational.
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The topic of Document Accessibility is one that is getting a lot of attention these days…and for good reason. More than 21 million people in North America live with a visual impairment. Blindness affects more than 3 million Americans age 40 and over. And according to the National Eye Institute, the number of people who are blind or suffer from vision impairment is projected to double in the next decade.
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