The Cycom Blog - Happenings in the Medical, SMB and Service IT Space.

Digital Signage Meets Cycom

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Waiting in a queue seems to be the fate of everyone these days; be it at the bank, in a hotel registration line, standing on a subway platform, looking to pay for our purchases or in the waiting area of a hospital emergency room.  Some of these organizations have thought about our frustration at being kept waiting and our short attention spans (some studies suggest adults currently maintain 8 seconds of uninterrupted focus) and have done something about keeping us entertained while we are standing around by presenting local news, weather, self-help advice and advertisements to watch. 

Cycom Canada Corporation has partnered with Synnex to sell advertising and digital signage to financial institutions, universities, hospitals, hotels/resorts, retail outlets, transportation hubs and more.  Anywhere you can be situated and left to while away time on your own is now a platform for businesses that are looking to access the attention of an individual who might be able to make use of what they have to offer.   

So what are the benefits of using such technology?  First and foremost, they are a fast and effective way to reach a specific target audience with a message.  Cycom Canada Corporation and Synnex’s solutions are cost effective and they are able to be updated efficiently with no waste.  They certainly grab our attention with their graphics, colour and interactive interface much more effectively than print media which is often recycled or disposed of without a second glance.  Added to this is the reality that the companies utilizing digital signage in their establishments can generate revenue for themselves with the sale of advertising space to their suppliers, local businesses and nearby points-of-interest.

If you “Google” disadvantages of digital signage the primary response is that of the outlay of cost.  Cycom Canada Corporation, with Synnex, now has the answer to that concern.  To the business owners thinking of implementing such a strategy, Synnex utilizes a solution which sees the overhead being paid by the advertisers who want to sell their wares on the system to be seen by the public in your area.  These marketing campaigns have the added ability to target the specific audience you have in your establishment.  This means that the cost to you, as a business, is negligible yet you are able to reap the benefits of keeping your target audience busy until you are able to attend to their needs so the potential for revenue is not lost.

There are certainly opponents of digital signage beyond the concerns about the overhead cost and they include everyone from some print media proponents who prefer the traditional paper medium for conveying advertising messages to those who do not wish to have screens flashing before them while they wait in line somewhere.  Both sides have valid arguments.  My only thought in response to that is that the technology is here to stay and, as with any new gadget that comes on the market, we can choose to opt into using it, or out.  Therein lies the beauty of it all.  At least we have the choice!

Cycom Believes In Social Media

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Admittedly Cycom Canada Corporation was a little behind the times in terms of when we jumped onto the social media track.  I can tell you though that since June 2010, we have been going ahead full steam and are so excited about the way that we able to communicate, real time, with the people who are looking to learn more about who we are and what we do.  The dialogue this generates only further enables us to be able to ensure we are meeting the needs of the individuals and businesses we want to work with.

Given our success, I was surprised last week  to read this post which stated that mid-sized organizations are less likely to utilize social media networks for expanding their reach and growth.  Their post goes on to outline the findings of the SAS Canada and Leger Marketing poll of more than 1,000 Canadian executives in March 2010.  If, as they say, 90% of large and mid-sized firms use social media to some extent then you would think they would be seeing some kind of return on their investment.

Sadly, while they may take the time to register with groups like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, up to 17% of the mid-sized companies never monitor their social media growth and as a result they lose the opportunity to connect with their potential customers.  These days we are so accustomed to being in some kind of personal contact with the people we do business with that I am disappointed that the potential is not being fulfilled by these mid-sized companies who, I assume, would like to see their bottom line continue to grow. 

I enjoy the opportunities I have to be able to advocate on behalf of Cycom Canada Corporation through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  I invite you to “follow,” “friend,” “like,” and “join” us on these forums and to give us the feedback you feel we need to receive in order to continue to be the industry leader in providing Information Technology Solutions to Canada, the US and abroad.  I think it is completely fair to say that when it comes to meeting, chatting and getting to know one another using the social network medium, we at Cycom Canada Corporation consider ourselves converts!

Environmental Benefits of Solid Ink

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There is precious little more frustrating, in an office setting, than having to change the ink on a printer and managing to wear as much ink as you end up getting into the machine.  Let’s not forget the annoyance of having to re-box the empty cartridges and then remembering to take it with you to drop off at the designated recycling depot.  I do appreciate the decreased environmental impact found by recycling cartridges and so, because I like this option as opposed to simply dumping the useless plastic into the garbage container in the corner, I am willing to take these steps to ensure longevity of the planet.  The current estimates are that using solid ink products reduces the amount of waste being diverted to the landfill (compared to using traditional printer cartridges) by up to 90%.

Have you heard about solid ink printing options though?  I just learned more about them today and they are really amazing to me.  What was neat was the discussion that surrounded the fact that they are resin and plastic made blocks tinted with soy-based colour creating a high quality looking printout.  You could eat them if you wanted to; you wouldn’t want to, I understand that, but you could if you were so inclined!

Okay, that wasn’t the only interesting part.  I also learned that their print value is comparable and often even better than that of their colour laser counterparts.  I think that was one of the things I was most concerned with.  I know that colour laser printers I have used in the past have started off great but as the toner supply decreases, so too does the quality of the image presented.  Ever have a printout that is supposed to be bright red and navy in output but looks instead like a birth announcement with the soft pinks and blues?  The solid ink printouts are consistent in colour presentation, page after page and they appear that way regardless of whether I am printing on coated card stock, regular office paper or transparencies.

Cycom Canada Corporation has partnered with Xerox to make this technology (around since 1991 but vastly improved over time until it is now an industry leader in innovation) available to our clients.  All of the benefits I’ve already mentioned couple with the fact that they significantly reduce cost of replacement ink for standard printers.  Sure, maybe you aren’t as excited about all of this as
I am but my question to you is, shouldn’t you be?  As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” and if print medium is your first line of communication with a potential client don’t you want to make a sharp, bright, and memorable impression that first time?

Infection Control Is A Priority For All

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Walk into any healthcare facility, school or other public meeting place and you will find a hand-sanitizer box mounted on the wall immediately through the door and you can scrub up before you’ve taken a couple of steps.  With the advent of SARS and H1N1 in the past several years we have become a society intensely concerned about the ease with which infection is able to be passed among individuals we encounter while going about our daily lives.

If this is a worry felt by the general public then it stands to reason that healthcare facilities have been making an increased effort to protect the population on the whole as well, be it nursing staff in a front-line position within a hospital, a dentist in a small clinic or a patient in a walk-in clinic.  Along with the desire to implement adequate Infection Prevention and Control practices comes a surge in the offerings by technology companies to make execution of these exercises even easier. 

Take Vecna Technologies for example; their program, QC Pathfinder, has been designed to prevent infectious outbreaks within a healthcare setting.  Their infection control and surveillance solution has been formed to monitor the various areas of potential infection spread, analyze the data collected from those locations, detect any critical trends which would need to be assessed and provide a report so that action may be taken to reduce the risks to everyone involved.  Vecna’s solution is so unique yet easy to use that it enables the staff in specific departments to create and run individual charts to determine trends in given areas and isolates both causes for concern and needs for implementing alternative safety precautions enabling the staff to execute immediate action to prevent the spread of infection.

It is a relief that there are companies like Cycom Canada Corporation’s partner, Vecna Technologies, who are out there willing to work with the needs of hospitals and concerns of the population as a whole to design solutions to keep all of us more safe.  Click here to speak with our sales staff and to learn more about infection control technologies.

Cycom Introduces Patient ID XPress Systems

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As the needs of our customers grow and change so too do the companies Cycom chooses to partner with.  Recently we found out about Patient ID XPress and we are excited to let our healthcare specialist customers know about how this product works.

Created by Mid-America Business Systems, the Patient ID XPress is a system that enables you to print barcode patient identification labels or wristbands immediately and you can do it anywhere in your administrative area, clinic, unit or department.  Considered an "On-Demand" label printing system it boasts the convenience of being shipped "ready-to-use," and compact enough that it requires precious little counter, desk or wall space.

Some of the primary benefits of this new system versus the older Laser Sheet Labels/Wristband option are:

The Patient ID XPress system is designed to print the labels required, whether you work in the Laboratory & X-ray department, the Labour & Delivery unit or in the Emergency Room.  Each area of the hospital has its own unique type of labels to be created for every patient they see.  It is the focus of Patient ID XPress to be able to create whatever label-type you require, regardless of where in your facility you would like to use it.

For more information or to find out how you can order the Patient ID XPress for your clinic or hospital, please click here.

Cycom - New Site, New Day, New Services!

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Welcome to our inaugural posting on the site.  We have recently moved over to new technology, brought on some new marketing/communications folks and are now in the process of fleshing things out!

You'll see that we'll be leveraging social media as well - both to spread the word and to discuss ongoing industry related concerns. 

Since Cycom started over 20 years ago, we've always focussed on doing the best work we could for everyone we could.  Marketing and communications was rather low on that list.  Well, its 2010 now, so we're jumping in with both feet and taking on some new projects!  We invite you to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn if you have a profile.

We promise to keep the blog rolling, and have good focussed conversations that are relevent to you and us.  And hopefully in the process, you can get to know us a little better as well!

PS> Our first release for the site is our new service request centre - where we will take in requests directly to our service bench for repairs and service to all printers, services, workstations, PCs and displays.  Even better, we now offer a great virus removal and protection service to all of our customers!

-Team Cycom