The study found that many companies have no clear digital retention policy, and, as a result, end up saving almost everything forever.

The result is an exponential growth of saved data and a corresponding rise in expense in storage media and data management overhead.

The key is developing data deletion policies that allow your company to delete unneeded data at regular intervals without running afoul of the law. According to Symantec, less than half of the corporations surveyed had any such policies in place.

According to the survey’s authors, the cost of storage is one factor, but the cost of retrieving data grows even faster. Many companies still us tape backup as an archiving system, a procedure that leads to enormous overhead costs for retrieval.

The key recommendations of the survey include:

1. Setting up a comprehensive archiving system
2. Distinguishing between backups (data dumps for retaining data from a system crash) and archives (which should be automatically structured, indexed and easy to search), and
3. Developing and enforcing an information retention policy that spells out what data is permanent and what can and must be deleted at regular intervals.

Click here to read the free whitepaper!

The $3.1 billion planned purchase by HP ups the ante as a handful of companies vie for dominance in the corporate data center, with a full line of products, HP is already dominant in PCs, printers, and servers, and a major player in IT services.

One analyst is quoted as saying, “There are three big enterprise infrastructure vendors today: IBM, HP, and now Cisco. And they’re all competing against one another.” Ad Dell, which just bought IT service provider Perot Systems.

The usual cautions apply –- stockholders and antitrust officials have to approve the deal. Whatever happens, most analysts see this as just the beginning of a feeding frenzy in the IT world, as customers demand more one-stop solutions and once high-riding tech stocks are far more affordable than they were a year or two ago.

Earlier this year, Kyocera introduced its FS-C5200DN and FS-C5300DN color laser printers. Then, it added two new members of the same series, the FS-C5100DN and FS-C5400DN. Finally, it came out with the FS-C5350DN. All five models run at the same speed in color as in black-and-white. For the FS-C5100DN ($942) and FS-C5200DN ($1,424), the print speed is at 23ppm. For the FS-C5300DN ($1,739), it is 28ppm; the FS-C5350DN ($1,983) runs at 32ppm; and the FS-C5400DN ($2,593) has a speed of 37ppm. The two 23ppm models differ in terms of paper capacity and duty cycle.
As the DN suffix indicates, these models are Ethernet-ready and have standard automatic duplexing. PostScript and PCL are standard, and PDF and XPS files can be printed directly. All those features indicate that these are serious workgroup machines.

The processor runs at 533MHz on the FS-C5100DN and FS-C5200DN models. On the FS-C5300DN, it runs at 667MHz; 600MHz on the FS-C5350DN; and on the FS-C5400DN, it is 733MHz. Memory starts at 256MB, and it can be increased to a total of 1,280MB. A 40GB hard disk is optionally available on the FS-C5300DN, FS-C5350DN, and FS-C5400DN for $336. Aside from Ethernet, there is a standard USB port, as well as a USB port that can be used for printing from flash drives.

These models have respectable paper-handling capabilities. They support letter- and legal-size output. All models feature a standard 150-sheet multipurpose tray. The FS-C5100DN comes with a 250-sheet main tray, while the others have a standard 500-sheet paper tray. On the FS-C5100DN, you can add two 500-sheet trays for a maximum of 1,400 sheets. On the FS-C5200DN and FS-C5300DN, you can add up to three 500-sheet trays for a total of 2,150 sheets, while on the FS-C5350DN and FS-C5400DN, you can add a fourth 500-sheet tray. The multipurpose tray holds stock up to 120lb. index, while the other tray holds paper up to 28lb. bond in weight. Automatic duplexing, as noted above, is standard on all models.
Kyocera gives you a choice between two slightly different 500-sheet add-on paper drawers: one is called a “Multipurpose Feeder” ($399, each) and can handle card stock up to 120lb. index, labels, and coated stock. The other drawer type ($299, each) handles stock up to 28lb. bond. You can mix and match both drawer types.
On the output side, there is a 250-sheet tray, expanded to 500 sheets on the FS-C5400DN. We think that’s too little given the input capacity, but it’s typical in the industry.

Kyocera products typically feature impressive consumables costs, and these machines are no exceptions. These machines have four toner cartridges and a drum to replace. The black-and-white cost per page is very good for a color printer. For the FS-C5200DN, its cost runs at 1.8¢, while it costs around 2.1¢ for the FS-C5100DN. Cost per black-and-white page is around 1.3¢ on the FS-C5300DN, FS-C5350DN, and FS-C5400DN. Those costs would be very good for black-and-white-only printers, but among color printers, it’s extraordinary.

The color per-page costs are even better. While for the FS-C5100DN, color costs 12.7¢, it comes in at a little over 7¢ a page for the FS-C5200DN. The figure is around 5.8¢ for the FS-C5300DN and FS-C5350DN and 5.4¢ on the FS-C5400DN. At almost half the industry average for desktop color printing cost, that alone makes these printers standouts.

Like many Kyocera printers, these have a relatively high initial cost. But if you print a lot of pages, the value of the low cost per page will make a major difference. The official duty cycle given by Kyocera in two forms, the maximum and a range for recommended monthly use is:

• For the FS-C5100DN, 60,000 pages maximum, 1,000 to 5,000 recommended
• For the FS-C5200DN, 100,000 pages maximum, 2,000 to 7,500 recommended
• For the FS-C5300DN, 130,000 pages maximum, 2,500 to 10,000 recommended
• For the FS-C5350DN, 140,000 pages maximum, 2,500 to 10,000 recommended
• For the FS-C5400DN, 150,000 pages maximum, 3,000 to 30,000 recommended

Kyocera can provide accounting and remote administration utilities as well. It also boasts of excellent green credentials, thanks to the minimization of waste through high-capacity consumables.

If you plan to use the printer up to those volumes, and you need inexpensive black printing as much as color printing, these are great bets. Kyocera is usually the leader in total cost of operation, and these printers follow in the same tradition. We believe that these are very solid small to midsize workgroup printers, and they get our Editor’s Choice Award.

Sum-up: Outstanding per-page costs make these models stand out.

In a report from International Paper called “Recycled vs. Virgin: Is recycled paper the best you can do?” (PDF), the company provides some surprising facts about paper recycling:

• 50% of all paper used worldwide is now recycled
• Enough paper is recycled each day to fill a 15-mile-long train
• Ten tons of old paper yields about 8 tons of usable fiber for recycled paper
• Demand for recovered paper fiber has been far higher than supply, thanks to increased use in Asia, which has limited forest for creating virgin paper
• Demand for recovered fiber had grown about 4% each year over the past decade
• More than half of US recovered paper fiber goes to China, a significant transport expense (and CO² generation)

Some of these trends, of course, have been slowed by the global recession, but growing literacy and consumerism in the developing world keep the demand for paper high.

So why isn’t the cost of recycled paper going through the roof? In fact, prices are better now than they were a few years ago, and the variety and quality of recycled and combination recycled/virgin paper is better than ever.

To some extent it is increasing supply as more consumer recycling takes place, along with a leveling off of demand. But more important is improved technology and paper mills upgraded to transform used paper into usable fiber with great efficiency and in greater volume. We are starting to see the same economies of scale they handle virgin paper, as demand-fueled technology has improved. So, in spite of long-term growth and demand, most sources stable and perhaps even lower prices in the future.

The second part, once you have searchable files, is to get a program that will help you retrieve them. You can link it into a high-end document management solution, of course. But before you take that step, you can do just fine with inexpensive software, such as Google Desktop.

Google’s search engine (as we’ve all experienced) is amazingly fast, and will allow you to find and bring up a list of relevant searchable PDF documents for any search term. It’s a familiar interface that every user can jump right on, and experienced Google users already know how to focus their searches. The best idea is to keep the searchable files on a server, under a specific file folder, and start adding files.

3. Rethink faxing

Let’s face it — faxing is almost a Stone Age technology in the age of digital transmission and scanning-to-e-mail. But faxes are still important parts of some businesses, thanks to tradition, comfort, inertia or whatever. For example, most pharmacies use fax to get prescriptions from doctor’s offices.

If you need to handle faxes, there are two good approaches. You can take the paper copies and scan them into PDF, as you would other paper documents, and send them by e-mail. Or you can get software (such as eFax) that assigns specific fax numbers to each user, intercepts incoming faxes, digitizes them, and e-mails them to the user. This approach can cut down on the problem of lost or misrouted faxes. Of course, it lets you send files on your PC directly to their fax machines. It also allows users who are not physically present in the office to receive (and send) faxes.

4. Combine analog and paper documents

In most companies, some information is in paper form only, but an increasing amount is in digital format. These may include Word files, Excel spreadsheets, e-mails, or a wide variety of other formats. These may reside on users’ desktops or on one of several servers, local or remote.

As a result, interactions with one client may include printed invoices and bills, paper waybills, signed contracts, a long email exchange, a few faxes with notes written on them and various digital proposals and reports.

So even after you have scanned in the papers, it may be difficult to find key documents that maybe had never been printed or were printed but lost. The task of searching through several desktop PCs and servers, for information in a number of file formats is daunting.

Fortunately, you can use the same software that converts scanned paper documents into searchable PDFs to convert a variety of digital files into the same format. Usually, this is accomplished using the Print command, and having it use a conversion driver rather than a driver for an actual printer. Most of us are used to doing this for making everyday PDF files.

Having all these documents at hand will make it easy to put together a report for management, for sales people, or for the client, a report that combines a variety of documents that trace the history of a set of transactions, whether the background on a specific order, a billing and payment history, or a progress report on a long-term project. Using today’s technology, it is easy to combine pages from a wide variety of sources into a single PDF file that can be delivered electronically or printed out as needed.

5. Gradually drive paper out of the process

There are several factors at work here. Today’s monitors are larger, making it easier to read a full page at one time. Younger workers especially have grown up expecting to complete most transactions online, even when the screen is no bigger than an iPhone or a Blackberry. Electronic signature technology and security keeps getting better. Finally, even the business world is changing, so that bid proposals, pricing quotes and confirmations are going more and more digital, so companies that want to win have to jump in fast — in many cases, there’s no time for printing, packing and FedExing. The need is for now.

Of course, these are basic steps. If and when you want a more elaborate system, you can work with high-level document management systems, production scanning, and more elaborate security and backup strategies. The best thing is that this approach, with searchable PDF, can be easily incorporated into any more elaborate system with no wasted effort.

Get information on eCopy Desktop here. There is a full function, trial version available if you want to experiment with it.

Does your office have a color printer or copier?

Start Date: January 6, 2010 @ 2:26 pm
End Date: No Expiry

That issue came to light after President Obama recently asked his cabinet secretaries to trim $100 million from their departments’ budgets, as a sign of solidarity with citizens and businesses who are doing their own belt-tightening.

And where are the cuts coming from? One big area is in buying toner, paper, and other office supplies. More than ever, it seems, the government is looking to take advantage of its massive purchasing power to get better discounts. For example:

• The Department of Homeland Security estimates that they can save up to $52 million over five years just by purchasing office supplies in bulk
• The State Department plans to save up to 7 percent on office supplies through the same strategy
• The Homeland Security Department will save up to $52 million a year over the next five years through bulk purchasing of office supplies. It currently buys more than $100 million a year  in supplies.

The savings may seem trivial in light of the trillions of dollars flying out of Washington these days, but even a few million here or there can’t hurt. The sad implication was that these departments haven’t leveraged bulk purchasing before, even after years of administrations claiming they’d run “mean and lean” operations.

Political analysts and purchasing managers alike laughed at the idea that the feds don’t already buy supplies in bulk. “What does the government do? Send a guy down to the store every time it needs a ream of copier paper?” asked Roger Simon of Politico.