The pandemic and hybrid workforce have created credible diversification opportunities.
Since the height of the pandemic in 2020, companies such as Canon U.S.A., DocuWare, Konica Minolta, Square 9, and Xerox have introduced health-related management and monitoring products that protect employees and visitors in this pandemic-stricken world, as well as track employee availability in the new hybrid-work environment. Those solutions complement the thermal temperature scanners that dealers large and small also sell. Ultimately, these introductions are a sign of the times and represent niche diversification opportunities for the document imaging channel.
Thermal Temperature Scanners and N95 Masks
During our virtual dealer tours, we’ve spoken with numerous dealers who sell thermal temperature scanners. Most struck when temperatures were rising during the height of the pandemic.
“It’s a door-opener and an exciting opportunity,” Susie Woodhull, president of Woodhull LLC, told The Cannata Report in 2020. Her dealership started carrying thermal temperature scanners after talking to dealers making $50,000 to $100,000 a month selling them.
In 2020, Vision Office Systems in Charlotte, North Carolina, began offering its customers OneScreen GoSafe Pro, which uses biometric technology for scanning, detection, and recognition. Although the dealership was dealing with shipping delays when I interviewed Vice President and Sales Manager Jason Habbal, he predicted that there would be a market for these products even after the pandemic subsides.
“A lot of people we’ve sold them to have said, ‘I’m not buying it because of COVID. COVID opened my eyes to it, but we’ll use it going forward for anybody who comes into our office because if they have a fever, we don’t want them in here.’”
That was then, but here’s what Habbal told me in a recent interview. “For a while, everybody had interest, but now the reps talk about it, and people are indifferent.”
Vision still sells the product to customers who want to monitor employees’ and visitors’ temperatures, but now he sees an opportunity for it as a physical security device, monitoring and tracking visitors at a customer’s facility.
And when CJ Cannata and I attended POA’s kickoff meeting in January 2021, one of the areas of opportunity outlined by POA executives for the coming year was, you guessed it, thermal temperature scanners.
N95 masks represent another way to diversify. “When I had an opportunity to buy a lot of N95 masks, I bought them,” noted Chip Miceli, president of Pulse Technology in Des Plaines, Illinois. “Those have been selling like crazy.”
Around the same time, he purchased rapid COVID tests, which sold out before they even arrived. “It’s a hot commodity right now, that’s for sure,” said Miceli.
DocuWare for Vaccination & Testing Management
This is a preconfigured cloud-based solution that helps HR professionals automate the collection and secure archiving of information related to employee health and safety. Web forms allow employees to upload proof of vaccination, testing, or other documents quickly and securely. Sensitive employee information is protected with restricted access rights and data encryption.
The solution allows HR professionals to:
- Verify employee vaccination status
- Manage weekly testing requirements
- Automate email reminders and notifications when testing is due
- Maintain a secure record of vaccine exemptions
- Securely access complete reporting
According to Jim Roberts, president of DocuWare, this can be sold by any authorized DocuWare partner (ADP). “For those already familiar with DocuWare, like our ADPs, there’s very little additional training required.”
Knowledge of the various regulations that have been coming and going, as well as general knowledge of challenges an HR department faces to be compliant, can be beneficial, noted Roberts. “There are many challenges, whether you’re looking at New York State’s requirements for businesses or the CDC’s requirements for businesses, or what OSHA was going to be requiring for a while. They all put challenges into the mix for businesses, and at least here in New York, they require us to differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated to maintain safety. That, on its own, is enough reason to have a vaccine tracking solution that can do it in a secure and confidential way.”
Roberts recommends dealers move fast because most companies are looking for a solution now. “They are looking for something implemented quickly in the next couple of months. There have been a couple of government deadlines that created urgency, but not just that, it’s the ability to solve these problems that exist in businesses today. It’s just inefficient to do it manually.”
Roberts views this as a good solution for organizations holding events and tracking the vaccination status of attendees, as well as companies that have mandates requiring people from outside visiting their building to be fully vaccinated. “That’s another challenge vaccine tracking can solve,” said Roberts.
Canon Solutions America’s welloStationX
Introduced in February 2021 by Canon Solutions America through a partnership with Wello, welloStationX is an automated, FDA-cleared no-touch clinical thermometer. It functions as a real-time temperature monitoring station, merging health technology and screening practices.
“By proactively detecting people with elevated body temperatures in a completely self-service fashion, we can help stop the spread of infection and keep employees safe,” said Wello Founder Rik Heller in a press release. “We’re extremely confident in the effectiveness of this method.”
WelloStationX uses a bioemedical infrared sensor and records a temperature in three seconds. If an individual registers a normal body temperature below the threshold (default of under 99.5 °F), an “I’m Wello” identification sticker is dispensed. When a temperature above the threshold is detected, an alert is sent to designated facility personnel.
Xerox’s Team Availability App
Described by Xerox as a quick-to-deploy, real-time solution for organizations that need to understand employee availability and location, the company’s Team Availability app was inspired by a Xerox customer looking for a safe way to bring employees back into the workplace while adhering to social-distancing rules. While developing this app, Xerox discovered that managing workforce attendance is a challenge for many organizations. Roughly 20% of organizations manage time attendance manually, and approximately 60% are not certain of the accuracy of their time attendance data.The app uses real-time data about employee status and work conditions so that organizations can determine how many staff is available at different times of the day and different days of the week.
The app allows organizations to communicate the most appropriate instructions to employees before they return to work and help organizations anticipate operational safety issues, such as when too many employees are in the same location.
Still an Option?
In 2020, “return to work” solutions were released that may not have as much appeal today as when first introduced. All of these are for use in the office to support the return to work. Those solutions, some of which have been enhanced since first introduced, include:
Canon Solutions America’s Check-In Online 2.0
Developed by Canon Solutions America and introduced in 2020, Check-In Online helps organizations safely provide access to their facilities. It is based on the cloud version of Canon’s Therefore Enterprise Edition information management software. The solution uses eForm technology, which provides an electronic process for gathering information from internal or external individuals who wish to gain access to a business location. After completing a questionnaire, the information can be automatically routed to the appropriate departments or stakeholders (human resources, on-premises security or EMT, business unit, etc.) for immediate notification. Using a personal device to access the form or a personal stylus at an on-site kiosk, the check-in process can be touchless. The captured data is encrypted throughout the workflow and securely stored in an information repository. Check-in Online 2.0, the latest version, has been designed to help ensure businesses can keep employees safe while managing federal, state, and local requirements for vaccinations or regular testing. In just a few minutes, the solution can reportedly capture and manage vaccination status, weekly testing, and periodic health screenings.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A.’s Return to Work
Another solution introduced in 2020 to ensure employees’ safe return to offices, Konica Minolta’s Return to Work provides ongoing security with facial recognition and access control. Return to Work streamlines the process of assessing and monitoring employees as they enter the workplace. Through an integrated cloud-based application for data collection, the solution ensures businesses can track, manage, and report each individual’s entry to comply with company and state requirements. Return to Work combines Konica Minolta’s proprietary software and workflow solutions through its enterprise content management (ECM) business and its MOBOTIX Thermal TR cameras. Since the introduction of Return to Work, Konica Minolta has expanded its offerings to encompass the hybrid workforce. This includes a toolkit to support these workers by providing a Remote Work Bundle for up to 25 workers, including a laptop, wireless headset, single-function printer, and help-desk support during business hours. A variety of add-ons are available such as Microsoft Office 365, VoIP phone, VoIP fax, mobile scan and capture, mobile device management, virtual conferencing, security assessments, and more. Remote network security is also available to organizations with a hybrid workforce.
Square 9’s Return to Work Essentials
This cloud-hosted touchless solution, unveiled in 2020, screens employees, customers, or visitors before they enter a workplace to limit the spread of infection. Through a few simple steps, anyone entering a workplace will be screened to ensure their health status before gaining access to the facility. According to Square 9, Return to Work Essentials goes beyond a simple temperature reading by requiring health screening information from visitors, protecting the business with a liability waiver, and securely collecting and reporting transmission tracing data in a HIPAA-compliant cloud repository.
Bottom Line
Although COVID-19 was the inspiration for the introduction of these products, this most likely will not be the last pandemic. Because of that, products developed to protect employees and visitors will always have a place in certain organizations no matter their size or location. For a dealer, the ability to meet those clients’ needs by diversifying into health-related management and monitoring solutions remains a healthy diversification choice.
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