Business Solution Consultant for Midwest Region | Client & Business Solution Consultants Group KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc.
At Kyocera, we strive to offer a total document solution. In today’s world, it’s important to consider a wide variety of factors when designing solutions, including security, accessibility and integration with existing business platforms. Customers come to us with a need to print and scan, and we respond with a complete package that addresses all their business document needs – even ones they may not have considered.
Secure print is often one of those forgotten elements. Many of our customers consider network security, which is great, but forgetting to secure their printers is like installing locks on your doors, but then leaving your back window wide open. Security is a closed-loop system, and we view RFID authentication as the gateway to not only security, but also advanced functionality across the business. The financial sector provides a great framework for this discussion.
Through our partnership with RF IDeas, we offer RFID authentication to secure the printers and multi-function devices we distribute. These readers provide authentication at the source, allowing secure pull printing to ensure documents are not left on the printer deck for wandering eyes to see. While this benefit is wonderful, and, frankly, the groundwork for our conversation regarding the need for authentication, it only scratches the surface of the true potential authentication provides.
Allowing for Accountability
In the financial sector specifically, it’s often important for documents to be tracked. Who received a copy of the earning report? Did that scanned document leave the company? Without accountability, these questions simply cannot be answered.
Believe it or not, scanning can be the biggest security hole we find in today’s business environments. But by installing a secure print or scan solution that uses RFID authentication, the printer can be tied to the company’s Active Directory, ensuring accountability. When Sarah Jones scans a financial report at the printer and emails it to her boss, the email her boss receives does not come from Floor 4 Hall Printer 7. Instead, Sarah scans her employee badge, and the reader pulls information from the Active Directory to ensure that the report sent to her boss comes from Sarah’s email address. This solution ensures that documents can’t be sent anonymously from a multi-function device to an outside recipient. Establishing an audit trail is an imperative step to meeting modern regulatory compliance standards.
Securing Records
In addition to scanning outside of the organization, authentication ensures that documents scanned into the company’s internal systems are secure and authorized. As most internal management systems require secure access, traditional unauthenticated scanning methods cannot support direct communication with these systems. As a result, tedious intermediate steps are required to manually import scanned documents. Using RFID badge authentication tied to Active Directory opens the door for direct scanning to secure business platforms, both locally and in the cloud. RFID badge authentication is key to this process, as traditional Active Directory “username” and “password” entry at the multi-function device is tedious and inefficient. In fact, many organizations deem the secure print and scanning process unacceptable without the convenience of badge authentication.
Simplifying Backend Management
While security and accountability are crucial, it’s equally important to have a system that can easily be managed by IT. Active Directory authentication with RFID readers allows established network policies to extend to multifunction devices, so IT doesn’t have to manage the policies locally. Instead, users can access functionality on the devices, based on existing rights and policies – a fabulous benefit for today’s remote working society.
As we look at future growth opportunities, we see the growing need for security. By implementing secure print and scan authentication into your fleet, you’re not only adding security, but allowing for functionality that can simplify your day-to-day activities.
