With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, more employees are planning on keeping their shift from commuting in an office to working from home every day for even longer. In fact, according to Gartner, 88% of organizations have encouraged or required their employees to work from home until part way through 2021. Read on to learn how to create a productive home office working space with technology that will make you feel like you’re in the office.

Where to Work

When you’re home, it may be tempting to work from your bed or couch. But, if you have the space, it’s better to create a separate working space in a guest room, a corner of your bedroom, or at the dining room/kitchen table. Or, you can place your desk in a spare closet and invest in a solid office chair. Wherever you carve out your home office space, you want to be able to literally close a door to your “office” at the end of the day, or not have it be somewhere you sleep or eat, as sleeping will be impacted.

6 Pieces of Tech You Need for Your Remote Home Office

• Computer or laptop
• A solid WiFi connection, with the better solution being to connect your laptop directly to your router through an Ethernet cable; HDMI to Ethernet cable; or USB to Ethernet cable
• Computer monitor to go with your laptop if you’re used to two monitors at work
• Wireless keyboard
• Webcam, as most laptops come with lesser-quality cameras, which will make you look pixelated on Zoom meetings
• Multi-function printer, especially if you need to print out, scan, or fax materials for your job

Other Ways to Outfit Your Home Office

For non-technology, first, a comfortable office chair is a must. A wooden chair may work for an hour, but you’re going to be uncomfortable sitting there for hours on end. If your chairs are wooden, get a plush cushion and/or backrest for the chair for support and comfort.

Also, consider what’s behind you when you’re sitting at your desk, especially if you have a number of Zoom meetings. If there’s a blank wall behind you, and you’re not doing a Zoom virtual background, put a painting or two up for a point of interest.

Who to Go to for Your Home Office Technology?

Adams Imaging Systems has an extensive inventory of HP computers as well as copiers, printers, fax machines, multi-function printers, and scanners from Brother, Canon, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Samsung. What sets Adams Imaging Systems apart from their competition is their personal service. The devices you receive are set up and ready to go, and they’ll assist you in connecting them to your network and the other technologies in your home office. Give Adams Imaging Systems a call at 978-462-9206.

Are you looking for a way to reduce the surfaces that your customers touch, especially during COVID-19 or even during a regular cold and flu season, to keep your staff and your customers safe? One surface that is a high point of contact is your Point of Sale (POS) device, like a credit or debit card reader. Make it easier and safer for customers o pay for goods and services with technology that integrates with all payment acceptance points whether in-store, online, or over-the-phone. Read on to learn how a contactless solution can help reduce surface contact and increase safety instead of having to wipe down the device after each customer touches it.

What is a Contactless Payment?

If you have a smartphone or Apple Watch, you are probably familiar with Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay for online shopping. Each of those are forms of contactless payment and can be used with contactless POS devices through Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Your debit or credit card can also be used as a form of contactless payment if it has radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology on it. How can you tell? Look at the back of your card. If you see this broadcast symbol on it, your card can be used for contactless payment.

What Phones Work with Contactless Payments?

To use contactless payment on your smartphone (or Apple Watch), you need to have one of the following three devices:

• iPhone 6 or 6 Plus and above with Apple Pay
• Android that runs version 4.4 or beyond with Android Pay
• Samsung with Samsung Pay

How Does Contactless Technology Work?

NFC technology allows your smartphone to interact with the POS device and securely exchange encrypted payment information. When you’re ready to accept payment, the customer initiates their Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay and holds or waves their phone over your contactless Point of Sale device to pay.

With a credit or debit card, the customer taps their card on PoS device to complete their payment.

Where to Get a Contactless POS Device?

In a nutshell, we want to save you time and money, and increase the revenue in your company's payment streams. Adams Imaging Systems offers a wide range of credit card merchant services to meet your business's needs for processing credit card transactions and depositing money into your credit card merchant account, including contactless Point of Sale devices. If you don't know what service you need, we will explain our services and help you pick the right one for your business. They offer quality products, service, and technical support that sets them apart from their competitors. Give Adams Imaging Systems a call at 978-462-9206. Above all, we strive to make it simple.

When your printer alerts you that you’ve run out of ink, you can either run out to a store to buy some right away (if the printer has run out of ink while you’re printing something important) or you can go online and do a search for printer cartridges if you have some time. At a store, your options are typically all from the original manufacturer (HP, Canon, Brother, etc.), but online you’ll find more options, which can be confusing. Before you buy your next printer cartridge online, read on to understand the differences between OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) printer cartridges versus non-OEM printer cartridges, including “compatible”, generic, and remanufactured ones.

The True Cost

While you’re shopping for a new printer cartridge, you’ll come across lower prices for non-OEM and remanufactured cartridges that may be more appealing than OEM, but be forewarned there are risks that come with that reduced cost. OEM (otherwise known as name-brand) printer cartridges are more expensive than non-OEM cartridges because they have the reputation of the company behind them along with the company’s research and development brains; and they’re built for the specific printer.

When you purchase non-OEM printer cartridges instead of OEM to save money, you’re not really saving money. Instead, a SpencerLab Monochrome Reliability study showed that the cost of the non-OEM will be up to 10% more than an OEM cartridge when you add on the reprints and service calls you’ll need to fix your printer. The calculations for this study included the costs of paper, cartridge replacement for one that prints, and labor for reprints.

Technology

Did you know that up to 70% of the technology that’s needed to print is located in the printer cartridge itself? This statistic is based on an HP study that looked into all-in-one cartridges and the EP process steps required to print a page. Knowing that, why would you buy a non-OEM cartridge that wasn’t built for your printer and instead simply tries to replicate it?

Quality

As you’re printing out your resume, for example, how do you want the final result to look? Do you want to hand over a perfect resume to the hiring manager, or do you want to hand them one that’s streaky, dotted, or smeared because you tried to save money by purchasing a generic or remanufactured printer cartridge? The answer is simple: OEM printer cartridges will give you the high quality printing that you need to put your best foot forward.

Safety

When you’re buying anything online, safety should always be a factor. A remanufactured printer cartridge is one that has been used and refilled. But you don’t know what kind of ink has been poured into that cartridge, nor if there is previous ink or paper debris still in the cartridge from before it was refilled. Any of these issues can cause the printer cartridge to leak and damage your printer.

Who to Trust?

Adams Imaging Systems has an extensive inventory of Genuine OEM Brand toner and ink cartridges from all major brands, including HP, Dell, Lexmark, Brother, Canon, Konica, Infoprint, Samsung, Xerox, Sharp, Ricoh, and more. They offer quality products, service, and technical support that sets them apart from their competitors. Give Adams Imaging Systems a call at 978-462-9206.