January 2021 - Brother Thailand Blog

January 22, 2021January 16, 2023

Why your business needs professional document archiving, and how to do it.

Even as businesses rush to embrace digital transformation in every aspect of their operations, many companies still face the challenge of digitising their hardcopy documents and storing them securely. Be it client records, invoices, financial documents, contracts or the like, a recent survey found that up to 72% of SMEs still maintain paper records containing sensitive information, citing the sheer volume and complexity of digitisation as the main hurdle to them doing so.

But does this really have to be the case? Let’s find out.

Digital archiving and why it matters

Digital archiving is the process of converting physical paper documents into digital files that can be stored and accessed on your servers, or on the cloud. More than just an incredibly effective way to store massive volumes of documents, digitally archiving can help your business with:

Better responsiveness — With digital documents, various departments can swiftly store and access time-critical documents without having to access a centralised physical storage location and sorting through everything to find a single file.
Effortless collaboration — Digitised documents allows all authorised personnel to upload, access, and share document anytime, from anywhere. This helps your business become more agile by enabling effortless collaboration across departments, branches, clients, and even countries.
Improved security — With digital archives, you can easily assign usage rights to ensure only the right personnel have access to the right files. You’ll also be able to readily track and monitor who has accessed, deleted or modified any data – a task that is difficult to do with paper documents.

How to start digitally archiving your documents (the right way)?

Although consumer scanning solutions that can be found on multifunction printers, or as standalone devices, these are only suitable for simple scanning tasks. When it comes to archiving, analysing and distributing massive volumes of documents, you’ll soon find them inadequate.

On the other hand, you have dedicated professional document scanners like those available from Brother. These high-speed, feature-rich scanning solutions are not only capable of swiftly scanning a wide-range of documents, but also come with professional document management tools to help streamline the entire scanning process. More importantly, these advanced scanning devices feature robust security safeguards that meet and exceed government and industry regulations, ensuring your sensitive data is kept secure against evolving threats.

Document management for the mobile workforce

With an increasingly mobile workforce that’s constantly on the move, businesses in the financial, real-estate, sales and legal industries are turning to portable scanners that are designed for on-the-go productivity. Powered by built-in batteries, these compact and lightweight scanners fit readily into a bag, allowing users to scan documents as and when they need, while delivering professional scanning quality for archiving.

While small in size, these portable scanning solutions can be big on features, with some offering mobile and cloud solutions to help users effectively scan, store, manage and share contracts, client documents, and signed proposals from smartphones, tablets and laptops – whether they are in a café or a showroom. Now that you understand the benefits of digital archiving, the next step is exploring the available solutions, and finding out which suits your needs best. A good place to start, is with a world leader in scanning innovation here

January 15, 2021January 13, 2023

Labelling: The smarter solution to increasingly complex Data Centre needs

As data centres evolve to meet the growing needs of the connected world, so does the scale and complexity of which they operate. However, without an effective labelling solution at hand, it can be challenging for data centre managers and operators to keep track of their ever-increasing inventory of assets and simplify their cable management, leading to costly troubleshooting issues, prolonged maintenance times, and difficulty in upgrading equipment and systems across the board.

But that doesn’t mean that any old label machine would instantly help your organisation meet cable labelling standards and best practices. Here’s why.

Not all labellers were created equal

You could simply pop by the nearest office supplies store to purchase consumer-grade labellers, but while they are perfectly adequate for labelling stationary, files, boxes, and the like, you’ll soon find that them out of their league in a data centre environment. You see, data centre labelling applications involves thousands of connections, cables, pathways, active equipment, racks and cabinets, to name a few, and only a robust, professional-grade labelling solution is specifically designed to not only stand up to the rigours of such high-volume printing, but include advanced features and connectivity to do it all quickly, reliably and effectively.

Seamless connectivity for greater productivity

Labelling innovations have come a long way, and advanced labellers with Wi-Fi and smart device connectivity are capable of working seamlessly with your mobile apps to support effortless mobile printing, label creation, and the transfer of labelling templates between your smart devices. This allows for greater consistency and accuracy to significantly cut down on the time and costs spent making reprints.

On the desk or on the move?

Why not both? Look for portable label machines that can be powered using rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries to help dramatically streamline the cable labelling process whether you are in the office or in a server room. No more pre-printing stacks of labels and going through the time-wasting mess of sorting them out at the job site itself which could lead to even more errors. With a portable connected labeller, you simply print the right labels where and when you need them.

What about the labels themselves?

Your labelling solution is only as good as the actual labels themselves, and even the most advanced labelling solution can be let down by poor quality labels that fade and smear over time, or are simply difficult to read. Which is why you should always consider using high-quality, durable laminated labels that are designed to withstand abrasions, water, spills, heat, cold and harsh environments, while remaining sharp and clearly legible – not just for years, but for decades to come.

Label tapes for every application imaginable

A data centre’s labelling needs are varied, and not just any regular tape will do. When choosing a labelling machine, it’s important to consider solutions that offer and are compatible with a wide range of specialty supplies such as flexible ID tapes, self-laminating tapes, flag tapes, as well as heat shrink tubes.

Convinced that you need a labelling solution that will stand up to all these factors? Then it’s time to take a look at Brother labelling solutions. As a leader in print innovation and the preferred choice for the installation and identification of voice and data cables in the telecom and datacom industry worldwide, you will find the perfect fit for your data centre needs here.

January 8, 2021January 13, 2023

Working From Home is the new normal. But what’s missing?

Even as businesses rush to embrace a Work From Home (WFH) culture due to the pandemic, the benefits of having employees working virtually from their homes are significant enough to see this trend continuing in the post-COVID-19 world. While it may be simple enough to have a notebook pc with a webcam set up for remote working, you’ll find that employees without a printing solution available are very likely to face a huge productivity void.

When bigger is not necessarily better

In the past, business printers were huge, floor-standing copiers that would take up a massive footprint. Although they delivered superior prints and connectivity features, they were simply too big, cumbersome, and costly to effectively deploy across your employees’ homes. On the other hand, traditional desktop printers just couldn’t match the performance, print quality, and cost-effectiveness of their larger counterparts – until now.

Small and mighty is the new normal

Today, that’s all set to change with a new breed of print solutions that are compact and feature-rich – ideal for deploying across home environments. What’s more, the best laser printers and multifunction centres from Brother are capable of delivering razor sharp text and exceptional graphics printouts at a lower cost-per-page compared to floor-standing copiers.

Best of all, these compact print solutions are capable of fast print and scan speeds, as well as cost-saving and productivity features such as automatic 2-sided printing, comprehensive paper handling, automatic document feeding, and much more – all packed into a tiny footprint that fits comfortably on a home office desk.

Staying connected means staying relevant

In today’s fast-paced world, time is the greatest commodity, and businesses that are able to connect, print, and share important information will enjoy a distinct business advantage. This is especially true in a home-based work environment, where the ability to collaborate with co-workers, clients and partners in a timely fashion can prove to be challenging.

That’s where a quality home-based printer comes in, and Brother’s latest range of compact laser printers feature mobile printing support for iPrint&Scan, Apple’s AirPrint™ and Mopria™ to ensure optimal productivity whenever you need, wherever you are. Furthermore, the free suite of Brother Cloud Apps on these devices means users can readily access the cloud to upload scanned documents or to print documents directly from an online storage site without a computer, making it easier than ever to share and collaborate.

A new norm without compromises

Brother has been trusted by enterprises and organisations around the world for over a century, and while the trend of remote working and working from home has only recently started to gain traction, Brother has always been a leading innovator for compact, decentralised print solutions that are highly flexible without compromising on features, reliability and cost effectiveness. Take on the new norm with a trusted partner by your side. Discover Brother’s extensive range of work from home-ready solutions here

January 1, 2021January 13, 2023

Quick Tip: Exploring Options for Elongation Stitches

Elongation style stitches are much more fun than their rather technical name implies. The term elongation simply means that patterns in this category of decorative stitches can be re-sized in a range from 1 to 5. As they are re-sized, the pattern or shape of the stitch is maintained. Examples in the photo above show patterns stitched out in all the different sizes. Although the size varies, the density remains the same and the general shape of the stitch does as well. Depending on the size and the stitch selected, different sizes can produce interesting variations. In addition, changing the length of the stitch makes the pattern denser but also shortens the length of the pattern. One of my favorite tricks is to select a larger size pattern and then shorten the stitch length. This results in a fuller looking stitch that is a bit shorter than the original pattern. See examples of sizes below in Figure #1b:

You’ll find these 7mm satin style elongation stitches built into many Brother machine models. They’re located in the Character/Decorative stitch menu of the machine. See examples of stitch menus below in Figure #2a and #2b:

The size key allows for elongating the stitch in a range from 1 to 5.

Some machine models include an additional feature for creating step stitch patterns. This technique allows for moving stitch patterns left and right to sew wide patterns with multi-directional stitching. See Figure#3 below:

Remember to change to presser foot “N” when sewing these decorative stitches. This foot has a groove on the underside, so it flows easily across bulky satin stitches. See Figure #4.

It’s also important to be sure fabric is firm and well stabilized before sewing these decorative stitches. A layer of tear-away stabilizer is a good choice for many situations. Be sure to test stitches on scraps before sewing your actual project. Have fun experimenting with elongation stitches, trying different sizes, patterns, and combinations. Enjoy!

This article has been republished from Brother Sews USA. The original article can be seen here: http://blog.brothersews.com/tips-tricks/elongation-stitches/