As you have probably already figured out reading this blog, the leaders of SlimSoft lead a pretty nomadic life! We spend a lot of time on the road at customer sites as well as getting things rolling at our Costa Rican operation. Most parts of running a virtual office have been solved by technology for some time. We can do all our banking online, including wiring money around, etc., our phone system, Switchvox, is based on VoIP, which means it follows us anywhere, and many of our customers now pay their invoices by wire payments.
Up until now, we have continued to struggle with paper based mail. We still have a few customers who pay us by cheque and more importantly, from time to time we receive important communication from government or other bodies which arrives by mail. If we are away on an extended trip when this happens, it is sometimes too late to deal with by the time we return.
A few weeks ago, this problem was finally solved! Earth Class Mail Online
Postal Mail Forwarding Service (ECM) is a new service from Document Command which completely solves our paper based mail dilemma! When mail is sent to our company address, it is automatically forwarded to ECM. When they receive it, they scan the envelope and place the scanned image into a secure web portal for us to review. We also receive an email notifying us that new mail has arrived. We can then look at the envelope image and decide what to do with the mail item. We can recycle it if we know it is junk mail, package it up with other items and forward it to wherever we are via either overnight, or slower if appropriate, or best of all, request it to be opened and scanned. We can now handle any important mail in days, rather than weeks, regardless of if we are in Vancouver, Costa Rica, or anywhere else in the world.
In the coming months, I am told they also will be able to scan cheques that we receive for payment of our services and automatically insert them into the bank clearing system. When this service is live, it will completely close the loop for us on the challenges of our nomadic lives!
Up until now, we have continued to struggle with paper based mail. We still have a few customers who pay us by cheque and more importantly, from time to time we receive important communication from government or other bodies which arrives by mail. If we are away on an extended trip when this happens, it is sometimes too late to deal with by the time we return.
A few weeks ago, this problem was finally solved! Earth Class Mail Online
Postal Mail Forwarding Service (ECM) is a new service from Document Command which completely solves our paper based mail dilemma! When mail is sent to our company address, it is automatically forwarded to ECM. When they receive it, they scan the envelope and place the scanned image into a secure web portal for us to review. We also receive an email notifying us that new mail has arrived. We can then look at the envelope image and decide what to do with the mail item. We can recycle it if we know it is junk mail, package it up with other items and forward it to wherever we are via either overnight, or slower if appropriate, or best of all, request it to be opened and scanned. We can now handle any important mail in days, rather than weeks, regardless of if we are in Vancouver, Costa Rica, or anywhere else in the world.
In the coming months, I am told they also will be able to scan cheques that we receive for payment of our services and automatically insert them into the bank clearing system. When this service is live, it will completely close the loop for us on the challenges of our nomadic lives!
