Graymar Business Solutions

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November 11th, 2010

As the recording process begins for a case on the docket, the Encompass application displays multiple windows with case related information. The main window shows the case name, case number, time details, annotation and time stamp buttons, and a recording indicator. Another small window shows all the case participants/speakers, listed with title and name, as well as case related events that may occur. A third window is the control panel, used to initiate, pause, or stop recording and manage volume.

As the case progresses, the hearing official may simply click on any listed participant/speaker to instantly mark the digital audio with a time stamp. The official may similarly mark an event such as cross examination or evidence submittal. Decisions, side-bars, and off the record are all events that may be annotated. A generic time stamp may be entered to mark any section of audio for future review.

These annotations during the recording process all have residual value when reviewing the audio. The relational database allows for search of these annotations or to simply move directly to a section of audio of interest without having to fast forward and reverse an analog tape. One could instantly locate the evidence presentation portion of the case audio, or locate every time a certain speaker was noted as actively participating.
As you can see, we are building a knowledge base where we can now locate any digital audio recording of a case based on whatever case filters we wish to use, and once locating the audio may move fluidly through the recording based on annotation of speakers and events, and time stamps. Next week, we’ll talk about a few of the safety features that are embedded within the application to ensure an accurate and clear recording of the hearing.

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September 27th, 2010

The digital audio recording process in a hearing environment starts with the entry of case information into a case management system. This system contains all the information required create the case itself: case name, case number, participant names, and other case specific information. This information enables the hearing board to assign an Administrative Law Judge or Hearing Officer to the case and schedule the hearing on a docket location.

Many audio recording applications require the Administrative Law Judge or Hearing Officer to manually enter the case information to initiate the recording process. The Encompass Pro Suite includes the ICM application, an Interface to Case management utility that automatically transfers the case information from the case management system to Encompass. The hearing official merely needs to click on the case from a display of the docket to start the recording process. The case audio is created with links to the relational database that is the intelligence behind the application.

These links mean that the case audio may be located by a number of parameters such session name, case name, case number, date/time, location, hearing official name and participant names. The easy search features ensure that hearing board officials and the public can locate and access relevant audio, all based on information moved seamlessly from the case management system to the Encompass recording application.

Next week we’ll continue with the recording process and how the hearing official can manage the process of identifying speakers and events, evidence presentation, and case annotations.

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September 15th, 2010

If you are still using tapes to back up your data, you are operating under a false sense of security. Tape drives are a cheap, 50-year old technology that is highly unreliable for keeping data safe. Even if you remember to swap out the tapes every day and take them home, tape drives will not be able to get you back up and running fast if your server fails and corrupts or erases your data. And if saving your data and being back up and running fast in the event of a disaster is important to you, then here are 3 very important reasons why it’s time to upgrade your tape drive to something more reliable:

1.) Tapes have a failure rate of 100%. No, that’s not a typo. Statistically, every single tape drive will fail at some point –it’s only a matter of when.

2.) Your network could be inaccessible for days, possibly weeks. Tape drives ONLY back up your data; not your programs, operating system or network settings. If your server crashes or is somehow stolen, corrupted or destroyed, your entire network has to be rebuilt from scratch – no small feat. Only at that point can your data be reloaded.

3.) Human error. Tapes need near perfect care to function properly. Someone has to remember to rotate them every day, take them offsite, and keep them in a dry, cool and clean place – not in a purse or front seat of the car where the can be stolen, melted, frozen or disabled due to moisture, dust or condensation.

So what type of backup system do you need to give you complete peace of mind that your data is safe and you could be back up and running again with minimal cost, time and aggravation?

Click here to learn more about backup & disaster recovery.

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September 15th, 2010

As a direct result of today’s economic environment, more and more people find themselves participants in administrative hearings. These hearings range from workmen’s compensation, benefit appeals, social services, and immigration review. The increasing numbers have resulted in the requirement for a technology solution to manage the hearing process.

Graymar/Higdon provides the Encompass Pro Suite digital recording application to support total audio management in the hearing environment. Many hearing boards have numerous locations and a need to centrally manage the audio recordings and case information. Encompass Pro manages the system as a network of Middle-Tier and Central servers with synchronization and archival occurring as scheduled. Audio may be accessed from any location for playback, transcription, or copy functions.

Next week we’ll cover a few more reasons why the Encompass Pro Suite is designed to improve the audio recording process and handle the ever increasing number of participants.

Click here to learn more about court room recording solutions.

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August 26th, 2010

Are you swimming in a morass of paper contracts, forms, and other documents that you can’t throw away? Would you like a much faster and easier way to locate important documents in your office that doesn’t require sifting, sorting and digging through piles and piles of folders? Are you concerned about losing or misplacing important document originals? If so, you should consider going paperless.

Stop Wasting Time Shuffling Paper!

Just 15 minutes a day of paper shuffling equates to a FULL work week of non-productive time per year. Thanks to incredible advancements in document imaging, even the small home office user can greatly benefit from new document management solutions that are both super easy to use and incredibly affordable. A few of the key benefits are:

o   Find documents in seconds with a few short clicks of your mouse.
o   Never lose or misplace important documents.
o   Completely eliminate bulky file cabinets that take up office space.
o   Comply with government regulations for storing and securing sensitive information.
o   Protect your documents from fire, water, spilled coffee, tears, and destruction
o   Streamline operational processes.
o   Eliminate the confusion of having multiple copies of the same document.
o   Easily share documents with remote employees, clients, and colleagues.
o   Save money on storage costs.

Click here to learn more about document management.

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August 19th, 2010

Do me a favor, go over to your storage or supply closet and tell me how many toner boxes are there.  Now, look a little closer, and tell me how many toner boxes are there that you have no use for?  I mean toners waiting to be gobbled up in the printer you no longer have?  If you’ve been in business for a few years, chances are, you’ve accumulated a few hundred dollars’ worth of stuff that eventually will be tossed in the dumpster.

How is it your inventory includes toners for printers you no longer have?  I hate when that happens.  Eliminating the hidden expense of a “toner collection system” in the supply closet is just one of the dozens of reasons to consider Graymar’s Print Solution.

Gartner says that for every $1 dollar spent in toner there is another $9 dollars in managing it, and 3% of Revenue typically represents the cost related to office print.  Again, we are referring to the hard cost, not the time and energy in the creation of a document (dictation, keyboarding, etc.).

The Graymar Print Solution is very simple and most assuredly can save your business money. To learn more about the Final Frontier of cost reduction expense cutting give us a call.

The $9 dollars Gartner’s is referring to is not time and energy you spend creating a document.  I’m not referring to the energy involved in the creation of a document.  When I say office print, I’m talking strictly the hard cost associated with print. But I even find that that some have been opened only to discover that the Office manager ordered the wrong model toner.

Did I get you thinking?  With Graymar’s Print Solution your print supply inventory is eliminated completely.  You only pay for the printed page at a fix cost.  Color, Black & White, Micro, it makes no difference.  A Fixed cost per page. Learn more here.

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August 17th, 2010

Graymar has been servicing printers for over 25 years. The most common laser printer engine at the time was the CX engine. Manufactured by Apple, this CX engine was used by 80% of the Laser Printer but quietly installed in several other manufacturers’ laser printers, like Hewlett Packard and others. Year in and year out, you can put it in the bank that the top 3 service Printer calls we receive are worn down feed rollers, (those little things that grab the paper to send through the printer, bad fuser assembly’s (not always but usually an expected maintenance process), and the #1 call we get is for paper jams. These three issues are not predominant to one Laser printer manufacturer but are a very common occurrence with all manufacturers.

End users have become accustomed to fixing the paper jam themselves, or have their IT technician handle it. Each printer model has its own way to do this. However, the more current laser printer models have things like end user replaceable feed rollers and in most cases fuser assemblies too. Most importantly the end user needs to have access to the user’s manual for the printer to do basic troubleshooting.

But there is a revolutionary technology that virtually eliminates these problems. This technology was introduced by Xerox a couple years ago called Solid Ink. This little stack of blocks is the toner for comparative reasons. It’s almost like a wax. Once you get a hold of these printers, you will never want to go back to the laser printer. It’s clean, It’s green and It’s priced right too.

Solid Ink Compared to Laser and Inkjet

• More consistent print quality page after page and on any media
• Easier to use with no cartridges to load and unload, and no mess
• Less waste with no cartridges to dispose of, and far less packaging
• No paper curling or wrinkling that often plagues inkjet and color laser printers
• Fewer parts so there’s less that can go wrong
• Faster than inkjet technology
• No special paper needed, unlike some inkjet printers
• A wider range of colors are printed by solid ink than most color laser devices

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June 24th, 2010

In modern courtrooms, new technology is available to capture high-quality recordings of court proceedings, and can maintain those recordings electronically in a searchable database. In the past, analog tape recorders were commonly used in courtrooms/hearing rooms for certain proceedings, but this technology often did not produce a good-quality recording that would ultimately lead to incomplete transcripts. New digital-court-recording technology can have multiple channels that provide sound isolation when there are multiple speakers, so the other speakers may be turned off or on when listening to the audio.

There are many other advanced features in digital-court-recording technology such as video recording, web-based access, tagging by bar code scan, and the ability to import images and attach them to the audio record. Advantages of this technology are that the recordings are date and time stamped, any notes taken with the recordings are searchable, and the audio can be burned to a CD for portability. Electronic recordings can be backed up and restored, addressing data recovery concerns more easily than can be done with paper records recovery. Digital court recording can offer significant cost savings, offer greater control of the court record, and make staff usage efficient. All of these combined illuminate the benefit of using technology in this part of the court process.

Cost savings are gained by the cost difference between a contracted court reporter and an electronic court reporter with the electronic court reporter being significantly less in cost. The electronic court reporter can cover more than one courtroom at a time due to technology advancements. The record can be delivered electronically, which in many cases reduces the requests for transcripts.

Contract court reporters are responsible for maintaining the record that they capture, and are individually responsible for any loss. With digital-court-recording software, the record is in a central database that can be backed up electronically, and has a better recoverability factor. Digital software often has redundant recordings as well as electronic backups. This offers better control and maintenance of the court record

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June 15th, 2010

Graymar Business Solutions is a locally owned family business with roots back to 1909. Our firm has enjoyed many of the economic upswings as well as endured the downturns. We are a strong company the will be able to be counted on well into the future.

Regardless on the economic time, it is mission critical that a firm control expenses. In general, we specialize in helping the Baltimore business community successfully gain control of their technology infrastructure and the associated costs. Over time, I will get more specific on the exact details of each service that we offer, and why you should have one of my consultants talk to you.

We have a large list of services that we provide from network design, build out and support; managed services; Xerox printers and copiers sales; supplies and service; HP printers sales, supplies and service; print management digital dictation; medical records; court reporting devices and many more.

As you can see we have been busy the last 100 plus years. As most of the products and services have evolved or changed entirely, the most basic service has not. We will listen to you and your team, and yes we care about what is said! Our mission has always been to listen, provide solutions and develop long term relationships by providing the products and services our clients need, backed by superior local service.

If you have a network, give me a call personally. I would be happy to visit your facility and further discuss how we have helped our clients gain control over cost centers that prior to our visit were unaccounted for. Did you know that copying and printing pages can cost a company up to 3% of their annual gross revenue?

If you want your 3% back, please feel free to call me at 410-561-4600.

Douglas D. Geary
Executive Vice President
Graymar Business Solutions