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IN THIS ISSUE
05
Agenda
What Generation Y means for the workplace
11
Serviced offices
How to make money from spare desks
12
Cover Story
Don’t let your direct mail be seen as junk mail
15
Mailing
Cheaper deliveries for all
15
3D Printing
Now you can order a 3D printer with your
office supplies
17
Innovations
New products for how we work today
32
The mobile office
Easier mobile working with HP
34
Printers
Oki launches solutions-ready
mono MFPs
34
Projectors
From presentation to art
installation: the versatile
Philips PicoPix
35
Business Processes
Customisable business apps are now within reach
of everyone, claims Andrew Millard
36
Dictation
Olympus launches its first dictation app
38
Cloud Storage
Russell Crawford questions the business
credentials of popular cloud storage solutions
41
Digital Signatures
Why ‘wet’ signatures are an unnecessary drain on
business productivity
42
Office Design
Martin Atkinson on how to create
a stress-free workplace
01732 759725
magazine
03
Editor:
James Goulding
0780 308 7228 [email protected]
Advertising Director:
EthanWhite
01732 759725 [email protected]
Publishing Director:
Neil Trim
01732 759725 [email protected]
Group Sales Manager:
Martin Jenner-Hall
07824 552116 [email protected]
Kingswood Media Ltd., Amhurst House, 22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT
Tel: 01732 759725 • Email: [email protected]
Business Info is a controlled circulation magazine. Applications for free copies
will be considered upon receipt of a completed and signed reader info card
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companies or residents and @ £75 p.a. for non-UK subscribers.
The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers
who cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
No part of Business Info magazine can be reproduced without the prior permission
of the publisher. © Copyright 2013 Kingswood Media Ltd. ISSN 1464-8814
Design: Sandtiger Media – www.sandtiger.co.uk
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“ ”
Make the most of paper’s
enduring qualities
With Christmas fast approaching, consumers will be celebrating
the news that Royal Mail is expanding its small parcels category
to include shoebox-sized items (see page 15). The change in
allowable dimensions means that more parcels will qualify for
the industry’s cheapest tariff: small parcels under 1kg, Royal
Mail, second class. The change will be especially welcome for
online merchants, as new research by IMRG reveals that in the
last year, 77% of online shoppers have abandoned a trolley
before checking out: more than half (53%) said they did so
because of the high cost of delivery.
Parcels are becoming more important for Royal Mail as email
causes letter volumes to fall. In the business world, the switch to
paperless working is well under way, even if the transition from
paper-based to electronic processes is happening more slowly
than one might have expected. A major obstacle to end-to-end
digital workflows remains the need for a handwritten signature.
However, as we explain on page 41, this a is a cultural choice
rather than a legal necessity. According to digital signature
specialist ARX, businesses that adopt electronic signatures can
enjoy productivity gains of five or six minutes per document.
ARX chose October 24, or World Paper-free Day, to release
figures highlighting how many documents are printed
unnecessarily. The key word here is unnecessarily. There is
nothing wrong with printing per se, only printing wastefully. The
same applies to direct mail. As Neopost explains in the cover
story on page 12, direct mail is still highly valued by consumers
but only if it is relevant and targeted.
At a time when desktop print technologies offer so many
creative options, paper-bashing for the sake of it is blinkered.
Business Info
has just returned fromViscom in Dusseldorf
where Oki was demonstrating a new five-station A3 colour
printer (covered in more detail in
PrintIT
). In addition to the
four process colours, it offers a fifth option, currently limited to
white or clear toner but likely to include metallic and ultra-
violet options in the future. Having a fifth colour will enable
businesses to produce short-runs of eye-catching marketing
material in-house, more quickly and cost-effectively than ever
before. Embrace everything digital by all means, but don’t let the
process blind you to paper’s enduring qualities.
James Goulding
Editor
Comment
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