The 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. workday as we know it is on its way out, at least every day of the week. HR departments have already detected that they have to move and respond to the needs of workers and future candidates if they don’t want to have problems when it comes to retaining talent or recruiting.
During the height of the pandemic, many were able to work 100% remotely. Once the health measures were eased, a large portion have remained under a hybrid work model, with 2 or 3 days of telecommuting per week. On the other hand, there is no job interview where the candidate does not ask about flexible work as another condition, in addition to working hours, salary or vacations. A company that does not allow this possibility, showing a rigidity that does not go with the times and that invites the candidate to look for other horizons, gives a bad image.
In the beginning, young people preferred telecommuting and seniors preferred going to the office. Now juniors realize that they need socializing and coaching. There is no doubt that going to the office has its advantages, but not every day.
On the other hand, flexible work also has drawbacks depending on who, such as the problem of disconnecting with the home office. Employees want flexibility, to be able to change their routines and adapt them to their lifestyle, which is why the hybrid model is the most desirable. It is also important to develop flexible work well: if a face-to-face meeting is organized, everyone must attend it, because if someone does it remotely, he or she will be isolated from the others and will appreciate a different treatment, feeling a frustrating experience.
Managers play a decisive role and must lead by example and know how to explain whether they go to the office or not, and how it should be perceived by the employee. If a manager goes to the office a lot, that should not mean that the employee should lose his or her right to work in hybrid mode.
The transformation to flexible work also affects company headquarters, creating new spaces for conferences and teamwork, seeking the exchange of ideas and moving away from the traditional office concept. There is a proliferation of events away from the usual headquarters to achieve new experiences for employees and facilitate personal interrelationships, whether they are “escape rooms”, go-karts or “paintballs”.
The Nubeprint App facilitates flexible working for any teleworker who needs a printer at home. By simply downloading the Nubeprint App on their cell phone, they will be monitored and will receive the consumables before they run out, being able to carry out their activity without any problem and without the unpleasant surprise of running out of cartridges at the most inopportune moment: Murphy’s Law is fulfilled with an accuracy that borders on the supernatural. At the same time that the remote employee has all the comforts to be productive at home, the company keeps control of printing costs exactly the same as for printers installed in the office.
Source: Cincodias.elpais / Nubeprint
The only way to take care of our resources is to think about sustainable cities that fit in with the environment. We are not only talking about green spaces, but also about minimizing noise pollution and recycling to avoid waste proliferation. Buildings will be designed to be energy efficient by taking advantage of available natural resources (sunlight, wind or rain).
Promoting a culture of sustainability is fundamental for the good development of future cities; Reykjavik is the European capital considered a model of energy efficiency, covering almost 100% of its demand with renewable energies. Located in the country of “the land of fire and ice”, the island is in a very active volcanic area that allows it to take advantage of geothermal energy; glaciers cover 11% of Iceland and their seasonal melting increases the flow of rivers that end up in the sea, boosting hydroelectric resources; wind energy, yet to be exploited, has enormous potential.
Stockholm is another of the most sustainable cities in the world thanks to its eco-neighborhoods, which are characterized by taking advantage of the shade of trees and planting gardens with native species. They also install solar panels on housing and use wood in construction obtained from forests under sustainability criteria. Singapore penalizes the use of private vehicles in favor of public transport or car sharing to reduce CO2 emissions. It intends to make 80% of its buildings environmentally friendly by 2030, in addition to having a woodland index of almost 30%, the highest of any city in the world.
In Latin America, Santiago de Chile is betting on connectivity to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants, becoming a Smart City with a significant investment in 5G. They will make smart homes a reality by reducing the impact of the carbon footprint thanks to the internet of things and artificial intelligence.
Nubeprint upholds its strong commitment to sustainability in both labor and technology. Employees work 100% remotely, saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions to zero, and are fully aware of the Nubeprint App as they download it themselves so that their printers are monitored and never run out of consumables. Our customers reduce printing costs by eliminating waste, drive the circular economy of the cartridge and optimize the life of the printer. Working together, together we do our bit towards achieving neutral impact and along the way we learn how to reduce costs and gain productivity.
Source: bancopopular.sustainable-cities – gruponovelec.com/renewable-energies – un.org/en/chronicle/article/the-history-of-sustainable-energy-in-island – Nubeprint
The trend to reconcile face-to-face and remote work is unstoppable, but it is not always possible. There are sectors where it has a place in middle or upper management, but not at the operational level; in construction there is plastering to be done, ships need fishermen, in agriculture there is harvesting to be done. Although many processes are automated, there are tasks that today require human hands.
The wage level is another indicator since there is a correlation between the wage level and the possibility of teleworking. In addition, the same relationship holds with the level of education: in the United Kingdom, 73% of those earning more than 50,000 pounds a year were able to work from home in times of pandemic, a percentage that fell to 12% among those whose salary does not exceed 10,000 pounds a year. Today, in the same country, the average number of employees who have been able to work remotely is 38%.
On the other hand, in addition to the objective causes mentioned above, it is curious to note in some studies how the hybrid work option is not perceived in the same way depending on the age range. While all groups agree that they perform their tasks more efficiently and that it has improved their well-being, the work-life balance is appreciated in different ways.
Young people between the ages of 16 and 29 find it more difficult to find a balance between their personal and professional lives, possibly because they have a greater need for relationships and require more collaboration with other colleagues to carry out their tasks and train on a daily basis. However, from the age of 50 onwards, there is unanimous agreement that they find it much easier to reconcile work and family life thanks to hybrid work, preferring in many cases to telework full time when they have the choice. This contrasts, however, with the choice of telework by 96% of Vodafone Spain’s workforce and 81% of Telefónica Spain’s employees.
Employees and companies are still discovering the benefits of this work model with truly clear benefits for employee motivation and consequently their commitment and performance. Thus, with the vacation period approaching, workers’ representatives are asking for teleworking from the place of vacation, with the clear objective that parents and children can spend more time together during the summer. But no doubt telework will continue to unveil many other advantages. We will see it at the end of the summer, with the arrival of the cold weather. The energy crisis will force many countries to reduce oil and gas consumption, and what could be more efficient than reducing travel? In case anyone has already forgotten, the data on the extent of this reduction is available from April to June 2020, during the shutdown caused by the pandemic.
Beyond objective causes or personal appreciations, hybrid work is here to stay. The automation of processes through algorithms that mark the objectives to be achieved by the employee indicates the same trend.
Nubeprint’s pioneering App also facilitates remote work thanks to the fact that anyone who needs to print or scan documents will always have the consumable ready: by simply downloading the app on the cell phone, the printer will be monitored by the usual ink or toner supplier, and the teleworker will receive the cartridge at home.
Source: Cincodias.elpais / Nubeprint
The versatility and low cost of drones contribute decisively to their increasingly frequent use in scientific research, agriculture, geology or renewable energies. Before their appearance, resorting to helicopters or airplanes to perform the same task was tremendously expensive and not always possible depending on the weather or the steepness of the terrain to be studied.
UAVs with built-in video cameras can fly over large areas of land in a very short time and obtain images quickly, and are a key tool for reducing pollutant emissions, for fire control and for the development of scientific studies on air quality or pollen levels; the samples obtained by drones in a simple way in terms of composition or temperature are decisive for taking action in favor of the environment. In Japan, due to the increasing scarcity of bees, work is already underway to pollinate flowers using drones.
They are also an essential ally in the monitoring of renewable energies. Recording in real time, they can fly over wind turbines to detect technical faults, poor condition or malfunctions of the equipment, avoiding the need for operators to travel and saving on time and fuel costs. With their thermographic RGB cameras, they are used for temperature control in photovoltaic plants.
Following the example of drones towards a sustainable world, Nubeprint’s ability to monitor consumables makes it possible to measure and verify the adequacy of procedures towards the circular economy, optimizing printing resources and verifying that your company is making a true commitment to achieving a neutral impact.
Source: sostenibilidad.com/muyinteresante.es/ – Nubeprint
Where do you prefer to work and how, if we had asked this question a few years ago, it would have seemed like a lie.
Having the ability to choose where I want to work from or having some flexibility are aspects highly valued by the job candidate. Absenteeism caused by a simple headache or because one of your children stays home from school will be reduced, with the added advantage of not having to look for someone to take care of him or her. Today it is a reality. More and more corporations are giving us the freedom to choose which formula we would most like to develop our working day. And although the hybrid model has taken hold, among some professionals this is not enough. This is the opinion of Apple’s Director of Machine Learning, Ian Goodfellow, who announced his resignation because he believes that returning to the office penalizes the creativity of his team.
It is true that there are opinions for all tastes: from those who are delighted not to waste time and money on commuting to those who “climb up the walls” after a few months because they need to leave their natural habitat.
However, the trend is clear that more and more people prefer to work remotely.
The remote proposal also has important advantages for corporations, which save on travel and per diem costs, as well as reducing the square footage of their facilities, with the consequent energy savings. However, although the percentage of companies that allow 100% remote working is still tiny, the trend is evident in American companies.
Before the pandemic, only 5% allowed 40% of their employees to have more than three days of telework; during Covid, the same was true of 72% of corporations.
A vital benefit of teleworking is employee loyalty. By having autonomy, flexibility and cost savings, a bond of mutual trust is created and more commitment is acquired, avoiding the company’s continuous rotation of personnel and achieving the personal satisfaction of the employee.
All this leads us to consider that the employee will be able to work “from anywhere” and will need the necessary tools to do so: laptop, monitor, cell phone and printer with scanner, as essential elements. In the case of the latter, they will always need to have the right consumables on time so that their work is not interrupted, in addition to a control and collection system that guarantees the circular economy and the reuse of the cartridge or toner.
The Nubeprint App allows the automatic replenishment of consumables by monitoring printers remotely, ensuring sustainability because it will optimize the change of consumables at the right time, avoiding unnecessary waste.
Sources: cincodias.elpais – La Vanguardia – Nubeprint
The transition from buying software from physical boxes to subscriptions was one of the biggest innovations of the cloud era to date, but over time there is a new model that is gaining traction. This usage-based model gives customers more flexibility, regardless of when they experience peak demand, and doesn’t force them to pay for product features they don’t use. It also allows customers to start using new tools without too much risk or heavy investment, as you can start at a very small scale and scale up quickly when you start to see success.
A hybrid usage-based subscription model is the middle ground.
There are companies like Nubeprint that have adopted a combination of usage-based and subscription-based models, known as usage-based subscriptions.
Nubeprint charges customers a flat monthly fee with no time commitment for a minimum configuration. But also, for an additional fee, activation of other applications can be added when customers need more features.
A “hybrid model” has the advantage of offering customers the best of both worlds
Source: Business insider – Nubeprint
Having an image of seriousness and commitment goes a long way to making customers believe in the brand and choose it over the competition; even in lean times, a company committed to the environment will be trusted more than others.
A company that is committed to the environment and makes use of the circular economy will be much more highly regarded than one that does not. France has already legislated the “Law against waste” in its active fight to minimize environmental impact.
A clear example of a bad reputation for sustainability was the failure of oil company Shell to set sufficiently ambitious targets for its CO2 emissions. It was taken to court by an activist group and the court increased the target to 45% lower emissions by 2019.
Reputation requires behavior in line with commitments. Meeting expectations is vital for stakeholders to value the corporation, and even more so now that there is talk of decarbonizing all activity: it is not enough to say, “my company is sustainable” and plant three saplings. It is incomprehensible that a company is releasing polluted water directly into the river and at the same time planting 1 million trees, as if that would bring back to life the aquatic ecosystem that the discharges have eliminated! The first objective of this company should be to devote all available resources to put an end to these discharges. It is not enough to say, “I am sustainable”. It has to be demonstrated with facts and with active policies of implementation of measures and monitoring and control.
Even though it is common sense, it was necessary to legislate to “convince” many companies and also the vast majority of public bodies (administrations and companies) to finally start actively to decarbonize their activity. Government procurement specifications are the biggest “influencers” on companies’ bids. Europe took the first step 3 years ago with the Public Procurement Process, which provides guidelines on how procurement documents should require printer cartridges to be reused and reusable.
Another piece of good news is the confirmation that those pioneers in decarbonization have been pleasantly surprised that being sustainable is not only a moral satisfaction, but also a solid strategy to reduce costs.
Nubeprint has collaborated with the European Commission to support a circular economy model. It has led actions in favor of sustainability such as the “1 Million Cartridges Initiative”. We help our customers in Italy, France and Spain to comply with the comforting legal obligation to use manufacturable and remanufactured cartridges. We are committed to sustainable printing through intelligence applied to resource optimization.
Source: cincodias.elpais.com/ Nubeprint.com
By placing a small device on the collar of your pet (cat, dog, pig or ferret), it will be monitored to an unsuspected extent; its daily activity will be controlled (if it spends more or less energy, how it has eaten, steps taken, route), its mood (happy or sad), if it has slept well or badly (perhaps it has had a bad night) or if it has fallen ill and we have to give it medication.
We will no longer have to be satisfied with just looking at his face or his body language; it is clear that he will continue shedding hair and will continue with all kinds of needs and we will take care of showing him where to do them.
Of course we will continue to play with them and give them as much attention as possible. And now, any eventual event (a possible poisoning or allergic reaction from eating a plant in the street or in the garden), we will react in time thanks to the internet of things. The information available to us in real time allows a rapid solution to any contingency, to the point that it can be vital for the health of our inseparable friend.
This monitoring is crucial. Not only will we know its exact location so that it does not get lost, but we will also be able to act in time and with knowledge, anticipating serious problems that would arise if this device was not implemented.
In the order of things, Nubeprint has implemented monitoring on printers so that anyone, small or large user, can enjoy printing without worrying about their needs. The Nubeprint App activated on the user’s mobile phone reads the status of the printer and transmits it to a server. The consumables retailer has his own console from which he knows if his customer is going to need a cartridge and interacts directly with his customer. The best user experience is thus guaranteed, and the cartridge sold by the dealer is now more than just a cartridge: it is de facto a monitored cartridge with level warning and replenishment service.
If you take care of your cat… Why not give your printer more “TLC”?
Source: idat.edu.pe/blog/internet-of-things – Nubeprint
European authorities are distributing funds to enable small and medium-sized companies to automate, differentiate themselves and to become more competitive.
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The percentage of (small and medium-sized) SMEs differs greatly from country to country. An extreme case is Spain where 99.3% of Spanish companies are SMEs with no more than 50 employees. Something very common to all SMEs is that they do not develop digitalization due to lack of financing or shortage of specialized personnel. In the European case, there is also a lack of knowledge about public incentive programs. Although almost half of the companies intend to access European funds, they do not know if they have eligible projects.
Continuing with the example of Spain, 35% of companies still have a very low degree of digitization. However, the vast majority of managers see it as a necessity, and it is expected that 60% will increase the budget allocated to digital development in 2022.
Companies must consider that it is not only a question of being more productive but also of resilience. Companies that do not innovate will not survive beyond five years. Sustainability is another key objective of the European funds. The aim is to create a greener, more digital and resilient Europe, prioritizing the well-being of people and the planet, with sustainable growth. In this sense, the idea that it is possible to be profitable and sustainable at the same time is gaining ground. A clear example can be found in the printing industry, where the use of remanufactured cartridges has a clear positive environmental impact, and also helps to reduce printing costs while generating wealth in the immediate environment (hundreds of kilometers). This is because it is a local process and not centralized in some other part of the world tens of thousands of kilometers away. This proximity factor, in turn, has a positive impact on resilience: the closure of factories on the other side of the world would have no effect on the local economy.
Finally, it is worth noting the interest of European SMEs in the digitization and automation of process management, over and above electronic invoicing, virtual offices, cybersecurity or secure communications.
If you have ever considered for your company to take the step towards greater automation and seek to differentiate yourself from your competitors, that time is now. The large amount of funds made available by the European authorities will not be repeated. Companies that take advantage of this moment to implement a solution like Nubeprint using the European funds will take an advantage over the rest that will allow them to build customer loyalty, convert their transactional sales business into a recurring and automated sale, multiplying by 7 the value of their company.
Source: compartiendoconocimiento.elmundo.es – eleconomista.es/next-generation/noticias – https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia – Nubeprint
More than half of the companies will lose some of their valued staff if they do not offer telework.
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74% of companies have found that the productivity of the “remote worker” has increased by an average of 27%. Paradoxically, there are still HR departments that insist that telecommuting is a fad. The truth is that currently only 20% of employees who have been working from home have had to return to the office full time.
Although most managers believe that workers should opt for flexible working from day one, only a third of companies believe they are ready for it. Nearly half acknowledge that they can take it on board in the short term but will not be able to implement it permanently. Most large companies have already adjusted their policies by making the hybrid model official. Others are announcing that they are redesigning their offices to make face-to-face work as similar as possible to remote work. One ends up wondering if they are setting up the bed, kitchen and children’s room so that the worker can move the family. From the employee’s point of view, there is a lack of clear regulations on how many days they must go to the office and how many could work from home.
Mental health has not been a minor factor either, especially with the pandemic. Although 64% of companies recognize the moral duty of their employees not to be connected at all hours, barely half have taken measures to avoid this, far from a healthy digital disconnection. However, companies with a long tradition in the hybrid model know that the balance is achieved after a learning process for both the employee and his or her manager.
It is clear that there is a growing trend towards teleworking and that the employee needs tools to carry out the activity from home, such as a laptop, a monitor and, often, a printer. It is essential that the resources provided by the company are not unnecessary distractions. In the case of the printer, the worker must have the peace of mind that the equipment is always ready to print. This is why companies must use the technology available. The Nubeprint App allows remote monitoring of printers in the employee’s home. Installed on the teleworker’s cell phone or Chromebook, the app allows the company and/or its supplier to receive an alert at the right time to send the cartridge, or a proactive technical alert to prevent the printer from not being able to print.
Source: cincodias, elpais.com, Nubeprint
