There are few pieces of office equipment as important as the humble photocopier. Originally, only copies were made of original documents and merely simplified and automated a tedious manual process. Today, photocopiers have come a very long way from the original. Instead of primarily making copies, these essential office machines now provide extended functionality: print original documents, copy, fax and scan: multi-function printers (MFPs). Two important changes have occurred. First, who still uses a facsimile? Second, as cloud storage moves into mainstream the need to rapidly and accurately convert physical paper documents into digital format becomes increasingly more important.
Going Green?
Toshiba’s Hybrid MFPs come with a unique feature: paper can be reused thanks to the erasable blue toner, which has a positive impact on the environment. The erasing can be done either via the Hybrid MFP or the optional paper reusing device, the e-STUDIO RD301. When printing drafts, do it up to five times on the same sheet, with Toshiba environmentally friendly toner. Re-using paper means a smaller carbon footprint.
Digital Documents
As if a premonition of #lockdown, the Department of Justice introduced CaseLines at certain designated Courts. Specifically the High Court seats in Pretoria and Johannesburg introduced hybrid CaseLines implementations. The idea is revolutionary as it is simple: scan all Court documents into a cloud based storage facility, where it is readily accessible in Read-only format to the parties and the Court. For the first time it became possible to read through the Court file on any mobile device.
The fact that the CaseLines suffered technical setbacks, and not all role players adopting the new technology with open arms should not detract from the core underlying proposition: litigation requires documents, not paper and digital litigation requires digital documents. For more on CaseLines, click here: http://www.derebus.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CaseLines-Quick-Reference-Guide_FINAL.pdf or here https://www.judiciary.org.za/index.php/caselines
Enter the Toshiba e-Studio 2518A super combo scanner, copier, fax, printer model with sheet feeder. At a scan rate of 240 pages per minute, even the thickest Court file can be reduced to PDF in matter of minutes. Special features include the ability to save scanned documents to designated target folders, count pages and set the output file format to PDF.
More powerful machines allows for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converting printed text into editable word processing documents. Instead of scan-to-PDF, scan-to-Edit allows for working directly on a document after scanning, without first having to re-type, preventing mistakes and saving time.
Other options include Wireless LAN adapter connectivity, removing all those horrible gray cables, and Document Sheet Feeders.
All of these features are important, for different reasons.
Setting destination folders for document output guarantees documents end up where they should be, preventing unnecessary searching and even re-working the scan job. Target folders may be set to network locations or even online destinations such as folders created on Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Depending on the local printer-to-network configuration, all print jobs can go to a single folder, with a user required to copy-&-paste to required storage, or to email, or removable storage such as USB or on more sophisticated networks, using the SMB (Simple Message Block) protocol to any server or Desktop location.
Portable Documents Format (PDF) is an ISO32000 standard and most modern software systems can produce output in this read-only format.
Page count and statistics provide instant and accurate information on any job, without having to touch the original pages. Not only can the document job be rendered as an on disk PDF file, but the activity log, reporting pages counted and dates can be written to disk as a text or CSV file.
With the Gazette 43592 update of Court tariffs on 11 September 2020 the fee For the making of all necessary copies of documents per A4 size page is now set to R4.50. As the lines between copying, printing and scanning become blurred, with scanning expected to dominate before being replaced by authentic digital original documents, scanning and logging those jobs will increase in importance.
At R4.50 per page, scanning 240 pages per minute results in a fee charge of R1080.00 for one minute’s work. Not bad when it comes to earning fees.
Even smaller machines such as the Toshiba e-Studio 2822AF (without OCR) can save a lot of time, reduce waste and the need to re-do tasks and earn fees while they work.
Dynamic allows for the semi-automated upload and processing of the document job logs into the accounting records. Fees for these activities can be generated from these logs and processed directly to the respective client accounts, and invoiced periodically.
Dynamic provides extensive file upload and import features, easily converting a variety of CSV files from a multitude of different sources into standard transactions. This means that activity logs generated by the TOSHIBA can be imported into Dynamic system, converted to transactions, suitable for client billing.
So the next time you look at the humble office printer, remember that sophisticated multi-function device is also an active contributor to the bottom line.
For more information on how Toshiba’s extensive range of multi-function devices can benefit your office, please visit http://www.toshibasa.co.za/ or contact Copycor on 0514499005, 0736158004 danie@copycor.co.za.
