Authored by guest blogger Mark Hart, Director of Business Development & National Accounts | ACDI

At ACDI, we're specialists in unbiased, consultative selling. Launched in 1994 as a hardware provider, we originally specialized in coin-op machines, among other hardware, for convenience printing. Sensing the shift in market demands, we made a switch to include software solutions in our product portfolio in 2011. Seven years later, software has become our largest revenue driver, and we're currently positioned as the largest PaperCut™ Authorized Solution Center (ASC) across the globe.

What makes ACDI unique is our ability to consult with clients on their needs and offer unbiased solutions. When ACDI dealers walk into a meeting, our customers know they will be offered a wealth of options, all tailored to their unique market needs. We serve the small mom-and-pop shops, as well as large school districts, law firms, manufacturing facilities and more. And, with our unique breadth of clientele, we've identified a few common printing themes across the board.

Without authentication, there is no security.

While we used to start off the security conversation with our clients by convincing them that they need to consider authentication in their printing fleet, the conversation now is often brought up by the clients themselves and even addressed as a core reason why they want to work with us. In working with RF IDeas to offer that security, we're able to provide authentication tailored to our customer's needs. RF IDeas presents a broad range of readers, including proximity readers that simplify the authentication process for our customers. When selling a security solution, the last thing we want to do is bombard our clients with unnecessary passwords, pins or processes to authenticate. RF IDeas helps us simplify the authentication process with easy-to-use readers that conform to nearly any card our customers have.

How we authenticate is changing.

We're seeing more and more requests for unique authentication. Just as we transitioned to offering software when we saw the market shifting in 2011, we see today's authentication technology taking us in new, exciting directions. We're recognizing requests for multiform authentication, including authenticating with Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. And while more than half of our products are deployed with attached authentication today, we see that trend only growing as companies realize that authentication, in all its unique forms, is the only way to ensure security.

Customization is king.

We recently worked with a large law firm that presented a unique challenge. Their company ID cards contained dual chips, and they only wanted to authenticate with the secondary chip. What's more, the ID had many characters, and we needed to simplify it to match the PaperCut software. Working with RF IDeas, we configured a reader that could read the ID card and communicate with the PaperCut software. Our ability to partner with RF IDeas to customize a solution proved to be the differentiator that won us the business. At the end of the day, customers want a unique solution that's tailored for them. Our core competency always has been the ability to deliver customized authentication solutions, and today more than ever, it's an essential factor in how our business succeeds. 

Learn more about ACDI

Learn more about PaperCut

Learn more about RF IDeas' authentication solutions for secure print