It’s obvious that today’s world is becoming increasingly paperless with many companies choosing to store their files and communicate electronically. Identity thieves are focused more on digital crimes than on rummaging through your dumpster looking for paperwork with sensitive information on it, but that doesn’t mean your dumpster is now safe. We recommend not taking any chances and shredding documents before disposal.

Wondering what documents need shredding? You should definitely shred documents containing the following:

• Account numbers (of any kind!)
• Birthdates
• Passwords or PINs
• Social Security numbers*
• Signatures
• Expired identification
• Credit card offers or applications

*Do not destroy your Social Security card. You only get one!

The information above could be seriously abused if it falls into the wrong hands. Account numbers should not be shared with anyone, whether the account is a bank account, your car insurance policy or something else. Signatures can be copied onto other documents and credit card offers can be filled out and returned without your consent. Anything that will help another individual pretend to be you needs to be destroyed.

Some powerful shredders are also capable of shredding thin objects like old credit cards, expired IDs, CDs and more, although sometimes scissors are a better alternative. It is imperative to chop this kind of stuff up before disposing of it. Leaving items like this in one piece can compromise your security even if you shred every bit of paper that comes your way.

To be on the safe side, you should also consider shredding documents if they contain any of these:

• Names
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Other forms of contact information
• Medical bills
• Private internal company information, such as budgets or customer lists
• Outdated price lists

The less information you provide, the less ammunition identity thieves have. Protect your personal safety and be smart about your document disposal.

Image Source provides document scanning services that eliminate the need for filing cabinets full of paper in your office. We also provide document shredding services because we are committed to protecting your security. If you are transitioning to a paperless office environment, give us a call. We’d love to help.

Many different kinds of printing are used in companies everywhere. It’s important to make sure you’re using the right kind of printer. You wouldn’t use a label-maker to write a book, would you? Here at Image Source, we use and distribute thermal retransfer printing systems for printing on CDs and DVDs. We offer custom, colorful, high-resolution labels bonded directly to the surface of the discs – a permanent solution essential for many retail, medical and banking/finance applications.

How does thermal retransfer printing work? Not to be confused with regular thermal printing, a thermal transfer printer works by using pressure and heat to melt a small section of a wax ribbon so that the wax sticks to a different ribbon. One color is applied at a time until the image is complete. The image is then transferred from the second ribbon to the surface of the disc (or whatever object you are printing). Unlike ink jet printer cartridges, the quality of the printed image does not decline when you are close to needing a new ribbon.

This equipment is commonly used to print on plastics that would otherwise be melted by laser printing methods. One widespread use for this type of printer is manufacturing barcodes. Another popular product that makes use of this technology is credit and debit cards. The prints produced do not smear and are waterproof, making them ideal for many types of labels. More advanced thermal retransfer printers are capable of generating near photo-realistic images but can still produce grainy text and graphics, so don’t go overboard with your label design.

If you need labels for your CDs and DVDs, call us today. We can help you by printing the discs for you, or ask about purchasing one of our thermal retransfer printing systems.

Pop quiz! Do you know what the following acronyms stand for?

1. VHS
2. VCR
3. CD
4. DVD
5. BD
6. HD
7. DJ

(See bottom of article for answers.)

Some kids these days don’t even know how to use some of these forms of media. Cars don’t often feature cassette players anymore because people use CDs and mp3 players. Likewise, now that everybody uses DVDs, Blu-Rays and online video streaming technology, stores don’t stock as many varieties of VCRs. These are just a few demonstrations of the significant technological changes going on around us.

Did you know that one four-drawer filing cabinet can hold up to 10,000 pages of paper? Did you also know that all those documents can fit on one single CD? Don’t let your company settle for obsolete technology. Stay modern with our help. If you have filing cabinets full of paper documents and you’re looking to take the next step into an increasingly paperless world, take advantage of our Document Scanning services. Our Content Management experts will meet with you to establish your immediate priorities and then propose strategic plans for your long-term needs.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) fundamentally changed how insurance companies, healthcare facilities, and data management firms duplicated, transferred, and stored electronic public health information (ePHI).

HIPAA created specific standards for protecting the privacy of all ePHI as part of an overall initiative to encourage the healthcare industry to make it easier for consumers to have their health records travel with them. As it became easier for various individuals, healthcare professionals, companies and organizations to handle and access a person’s health records electronically, it also made it harder to keep that information out of the wrong hands.

If you’re involved in e-health records management and are considering CD or DVD duplication or replication as a means of transferring or storing electronic health records, be careful – not all CD/DVD duplication/replication companies are HIPAA compliant.

What is a HIPAA compliant CD/DVD duplication company? It’s one that has spent considerable time and money creating HIPAA compliant duplication facilities and getting certified to provide HIPAA compliant media duplication. That requires providing completely separate, secure duplication equipment with its own data network, security system, and processing.

Even the data itself needs special processing as part of the electronic health record duplication process. The data must be encrypted using AES software encryption with two-key read/write access and all computer hard drives used in the process must be NIST-certified.

Sound daunting? It can be, which is why so few media duplication/replication companies are HIPAA compliant like us. If you’d like to know more about our HIPAA compliant duplication/replication services, contact us.

CD/DVD duplication is a popular distribution method for a wide range of data and materials – from product support and sales literature, to instructional programs and video demonstrations. It used to be difficult to mass produce CDs and DVDs in-house; production equipment could cost tens of thousands of dollars, blank media could be relatively pricey, even in bulk quantities, and quality was questionable.

Today, however, things have changed. CD/DVD duplication has become much easier; prices have dropped for equipment and bulk media while reproduction quality has improved – for both the disks as well as labeling – so that it’s become faster and more affordable than ever.

If you’re considering in-house CD/DVD duplication, here are a few tips to help make it more efficient and cost-effective:

Look for intuitive, easy-to-use duplicating equipment – controllers have become much simpler than ever, so don’t be fooled by complicated-looking equipment. Complicated systems are not necessarily better, they’re just more difficult to operate.

Choose quality blank disks – there are many reputable manufacturers who offer a wide range of disks for a variety of needs. High quality disks make the difference between consistent, reliable tools and inconsistent, data-corrupted disks. Today, blank CDs and DVDs come in a variety of printable surfaces that allow high-quality direct-to-surface thermal printing for a more sophisticated appearance than the old paper labels.

Pick the packaging to fit your needs – Like disks, protective CD/DVD packaging now comes in a range of flavors. No longer are you limited to those heavy plastic hinged cases we used to get our favorite music CDs in. Today, there are any number of creative, low-profile, cost-efficient packaging designs from which to choose, including many manufactured from recycled materials for an environmentally-friendly statement. Paper or plastic? You decide.

As an authorized re-seller of Rimage CD and DVD duplication and labeling systems, we can help you select the right CD/DVD duplication system for your specific needs – whether you’re duplicating just a few dozen or a few thousand CDs or DVDs. We have the systems, supplies, and training to help you get started.

Disc duplication vs. replication – how do you choose? People often confuse the two, but they are two entirely difference processes with different costs and production times.

CD/DVD duplication involves copying, or “burning”, your content to pre-manufactured discs and then adding custom artwork to the disc using one of several popular printing processes, such as thermal or silkcreen printing. Quality may not be quite as high as with replication, but modern duplicating technology and the use of high quality pre-manufactured discs minimizes problems and assures more-than-acceptable quality levels.

CD/DVD replication is the process of actually manufacturing your discs. Called “pressing” replication involves creating a master disc which is used to produce copies by mold-injecting discs from raw plastic. The quality of discs produced in this fashion is generally higher, with stringent quality control measures taken before, during, and after manufacturing.

Disc duplication is typically done when 1000 or fewer discs are needed. At these quantities, the cost-per-unit is economical and turnaround time is generally just a few days.

Disc replication becomes more cost-efficient in quantities greater than 1000 and is almost always the preferred method of production unless time is a critical factor – replication requires more set-up and generally takes about 7-9 working days.

If your deadline is under four days, duplication is the way to go – up to 5000 discs can be duplicated in just 3-4 days; however, the cost-per-unit will be higher.

CD/DVD duplication has become easier to do in-house as equipment costs and operation have become less expensive and simpler to do. However, there are times when it makes better sense to outsource your CD/DVD duplication.

A key part of the decision is determining the number of disks you need to duplicate. If it’s less than 1000 the process is fairly straightforward and your decision should be based on whether you have (or want to invest in) the duplication equipment and have the personnel and time to do it. More than 1000 disks, and the question becomes a little more complicated and the case becomes much stronger for outsourcing.

Producing several thousand disks also raises another question – whether to duplicate or replicate (more on disk duplication vs. replication in another blog). In either case, there are several key criteria you should consider when selecting a disk duplicating/replicating partner:

Find a compatible disk duplication company

Look for a CD/DVD duplicator with solid customer service and order management, a quality-oriented approach to production, and a good track record. There are lots of cheapo, fly-by-night disk duplication services out there, so do your homework.

Pay attention to production

Good CD/DVD artwork and reproduction are key factors in producing quality disks. If you can’t provide the right label artwork and software files, look for a company with an experienced in-house production department.

Know your packaging

If you have special requirements for packaging, make sure you ask upfront about it. Do wait until you’ve started your duplication process to realize your vendor can’t provide the digipack you want.

Don’t forget fulfillment

Often it’s easiest and most cost-efficient to select a disk duplication company that can provide everything, including warehousing, assembly, and shipping.

As a full-service CD/DVD duplication and fulfillment company, our manufacturing services include CD duplication and packaging, DVD replication, warehousing, and distribution services for a broad range of industries and markets.

CD/DVD duplication is a popular distribution method for a wide range of data and materials – from product support and sales literature, to instructional programs and video demonstrations. It used to be difficult to mass produce CDs and DVDs in-house; production equipment could cost tens of thousands of dollars, blank media could be relatively pricey, even in bulk quantities, and quality was questionable.

Today, however, things have changed. CD/DVD duplication has become much easier; prices have dropped for equipment and bulk media while reproduction quality has improved – for both the disks as well as labeling – so that it’s become faster and more affordable than ever.

If you’re considering in-house CD/DVD duplication, here are a few tips to help make it more efficient and cost-effective:

Look for intuitive, easy-to-use duplicating equipment – controllers have become much simpler than ever, so don’t be fooled by complicated-looking equipment. Complicated systems are not necessarily better, they’re just more difficult to operate.

Choose quality blank disks – there are many reputable manufacturers who offer a wide range of disks for a variety of needs. High quality disks make the difference between consistent, reliable tools and inconsistent, data-corrupted disks. Today, blank CDs and DVDs come in a variety of printable surfaces that allow high-quality direct-to-surface thermal printing for a more sophisticated appearance than the old paper labels.

Pick the packaging to fit your needs – Like disks, protective CD/DVD packaging now comes in a range of flavors. No longer are you limited to those heavy plastic hinged cases we used to get our favorite music CDs in. Today, there are any number of creative, low-profile, cost-efficient packaging designs from which to choose, including many manufactured from recycled materials for an environmentally-friendly statement. Paper or plastic? You decide.

As an authorized re-seller of Rimage CD and DVD duplication and Labeling Systems, we can help you select the right CD/DVD duplication system for your specific needs – whether you’re duplicating just a few dozen or a few thousand CDs or DVDs. We have the systems, supplies, and training to help you get started.

Blu-ray appears to be sweeping the nation with growing popularity. The players looking sleek and the disc packaging being more compact opens to a disc that looks no different from a standard DVD. However, the quality of the images and the level of storage hide in this unsuspecting doppelganger. Blu-ray may be the new standard for movies but there are more uses that these storage devices can serve.

Blu-ray gets its name from a very mundane place, the actual color of the laser used to read and write the data on or being put on the disc. Instead of a red laser (typical standard DVD); the blue ray discs use a blue laser, which allows for more compact storage, therefore leaving more room. The average Blu-ray DVD can store up to 25GB of information and there are some that can store even more. This makes the blu ray DVD extremely desirable to businesses who often times would be dealing with huge file cabinets and mountains of papers. All this information can easily and comfortable be put on a blu ray DVD for use within the company and amongst its employees.

At this time, standard DVD duplication has already managed to reduce the use and waste of paper and is quickly making the binder and briefcase obsolete. Companies like ImageSource offer services that take an office full of data, and transfer it to digital format and then writing the transferred information to DVD. This service allows the information to be easily taken, stored and extremely portable. Frantically searching through piles of documents to find that one page, on which the entire project waits, is on its way to fossilization.

DVD’s make the information so accessible that any file is no more than a keystroke search away. The computer does all the looking and always finds it with time to spare. All employees can easily have duplicate copies of the latest and most important information when a company like ImageSource makes duplicated copies and has them ready efficiently for distribution.  Stacks of documents make way for laptop computers holding what seems like infinite files, keeping the board room clean, fresh and most important in this current economical climate; green. The idea of DVD duplication being on the “green” end of environmentalism may not initially come to mind, but DVDs make paper files obsolete and even when considering legal documents that require signatures, once the initial document is signed it can be scanned and kept indefinitely.

Standard DVDs have revolutionized the office storage capability, and now with the introduction of blu-ray writing for storage the office setting may be looking at the end of a paper reign and the beginning of a more socially responsible eco-friendly future.

Home based business owners are always looking for better ways to promote their business. In today’s American culture it seems like it isn’t always the early bird that gets the worm, instead it is the person with the sleekest looks, catchiest slogans and the most updated technology. In order to get the attention a business needs to survive, these things are dire and there are companies that can help with the professional end of impression. Companies like Image Source have a wonderful selection of promotional materials to put even the smallest contender in the competition.

An innovative and proficient way to get the word out about a company (large or small), organization and even a home business are CD business cards. The home based business crowd should especially be interested in CD business cards, where their advertising budgets are extremely limited and CD business cards are a relatively inexpensive way to promote with technology and still have a casual flavor. The array of colors, prints and designs can satisfy any preferred style.

CD business cards are essentially mini-CDs in a rectangular shaped storage case. This outside case can carry a specific design or the logo of a company, and with companies like ImageSource, there are many different options to personalization of CD business cards. Though there is a limited amount of space, there still leaves a great deal of memory for data that a regular paper business card just can’t compare too. The CD business card can be loaded with about 50 MB of content and passed out as freely as the paper business card would normally be, however, the CD business card has much less of a chance of being tossed away or forgotten in a pocket, even though the size is quite compact.

Product demonstrations and short business tours are just a few of the purposes that CD business cards are generally used for, and their popularity is increasing. Actors looking to wow agents and motion picture studios have jumped on the CD business cards as a mode to put a number of different headshots in one convenient place as well as a visual resume. In such a competitive industry, like motion pictures and modeling, it is dire to catch the attention of those that can further a wavering, growing or non-existent career with a catalogue of head and body shots easily stored and mailed to many prospective agents.

A CD business card impresses prospective clientele and puts everything that client needs to know all in one place. These cards make it easy to introduce high-end technology into a business’s consciousness without an endless budget.