Angus started his first small business in 1989 and has since gone on to have a successful career in marketing. He realised although there were many websites for small business none was addressing the question of how to. Angus has a passion to articulate benefits that add value to customers/readers.
Epson has launched its newest on-demand inkjet colour label printer – the ColorWorks® C8010.
Purpose-built for mid to high-volume batch runs in on-demand environments, the 4-inch ColorWorks C8010 is engineered for exceptional print quality, reliable performance and high-speed printing with advanced connectivity and cloud printing – allowing businesses to print almost any type of label.
Colour labelling is now being used across various applications to improve efficiency, quality and customisation. The new ColorWorks C8010 helps companies eliminate multi-step printing processes and the stockpiling of pre-printed colour label rolls to print state-of-the-art, high-quality labels in real time.
The ColorWorks C8010 is designed to meet the high-volume label production needs of businesses in several markets, including prime and boutique, product ID and warehousing and logistics.
The powerful printer features advanced PrecisionCore® Heat-Free technology, combining exceptional image quality and sharp precision at incredible speeds, printing multiple labels with variable data at speeds up to 30.48 cm per second1.
The PrecisionCore permanent printhead allows for fewer interventions and low maintenance costs, making it ideal for busy, on-demand environments.
Durable, high-performance UltraChrome® DL pigment inks provide high-quality, long-lasting labels that resist smudging, smearing and fading. Customers can choose between Gloss and Matte Black ink to fit labelling needs. New high-capacity ink packs are ideal for high-volume batch runs, allowing for fewer interventions and offering low cost per millilitre and low consumable waste.
Advanced connectivity, such as cloud printing and optional Wi-Fi®, helps to maximise workflow. Epson Cloud Solution PORT®2 offers remote management for powerful fleet productivity to better manage efficiency and optimise printer workflow, including viewing printer status, ink consumption and operation history.
Epson ColorWorks on-demand label printers are designed to help businesses print as many types of labels as possible with full-colour capabilities, single-step colour printing simplicity and powerful PrecisionCore technology to produce state-of-the-art, high-quality labels in real time, eliminating the need for excess inventory and potentially reducing pre-printed label waste.
The ColorWorks C8010 colour inkjet label printer is now available in Australia and New Zealand through Epson’s authorised partners.
The printer includes a 1-year exchange warranty with extended service plans available for up to a total of 3 years of continuous coverage.
Australian owned leading business energy retailer, Blue NRG, is calling on more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to undertake network tariff analysis to identify the optimum network tariff for their businesses and potentially eliminate higher energy costs.
Blue NRG’s cost-saving approach for SMEs involves a comprehensive Network Tariff Analysis (NTA) for both current and newly onboarded clients. Network charges are the fees associated with using an electricity network’s infrastructure, it constitutes the largest portion of retail rates.
NTAs are traditionally performed only upon a customer’s request to help them identify the most cost-effective tariff according to their business’ needs and consumption. By implementing a proactive approach and offering a review upfront, Blue NRG is raising awareness of the benefits of the process and advocating for SMEs to offset rising energy rates and business costs.
To conduct an NTA, Blue NRG uses its insights platform called Insights by Blue NRG to provide a report on a SMEs current energy consumption and tariff structure for analysis. This data is collected from a businesses’ smart meter. The report outlines 12 months’ worth of electricity usage data including maximum time of use, actual use during peak and off-peak times, retail rates, and current network tariff structure. An NTA can only be performed on businesses with a smart meter system.
With this data, Insights by Blue NRG generates a report to compare the SMEs current tariff structure with other available structures and identify any potential areas of savings with a more cost-effective tariff structure.
Undertaking a NTA and identifying areas of potential savings has enabled many Blue NRG customers to increase savings, including Endeavour Group, an Australian owned independent petroleum distributor.
After signing up with Blue NRG and switching to a more cost-effective tariff structure, Endeavour Group found more than $35,000 worth of savings across 38 of its business sites. Managing Director of the Endeavour Group, Jeff Griffiths, believes Blue NRG’s proactive approach to NTAs helped identify high-cost areas where savings could be made.
“We thought we were already on a pretty good deal with our previous energy retailer, but Blue NRG was able to give us even better rates,” said Griffiths.
According to General Manager Duncan Jacklin, many customers are missing out on savings and paying unreasonably high network tariffs. This ultimately leads to a lack of trust between the customer and their energy retailer.
“Our role as an energy retailer is to advocate for our customers and to go above and beyond by offering tariff optimisation. This ensures our customers are reaping the benefits of being on the correct network tariff,” Jacklin said.
He added, “By taking a proactive and personalised approach to network tariff optimisation, we can potentially offer greater savings and maintain competitive in the market.”
Amazon has announced that sellers in Australia can benefit from an expanded range of generative AI tools to simplify the process of product listing creation – including a new URL listing capability, as well as enriching existing product listings to better resonate with customers and help drive sales.
The rollout of these tools will significantly streamline administrative tasks for Australian sellers, freeing up valuable time for other business priorities.
New URL listing capabilities
Amazon has today expanded its generative AI capabilities for selling partners, with a new URL listing feature. This tool enables selling partners to start listing on Amazon with a product URL, such as a product on a seller’s own direct-to-consumer (DTC) website. This is automatically parsed by the generative AI tool to create high-quality, engaging listings for Amazon’s store, which the seller will review and submit. The tool can also suggest attributes such as colour and keywords to help effectively index the product in customer discovery experiences. This will further enhance and streamline the process of creating product listings, saving selling partners time and effort while developing listings for Amazon’s store that appeal to customers and help drive sales.
Simplifying product listing creation
In addition to the new capability, Amazon recently launched other generative AI-powered tools to simplify the listing creation process. As well as providing a URL to help create listings, sellers can also provide a few descriptive words or upload a product image. The generative AI then suggests compelling product titles, descriptions, and other details that are high-quality and designed to be engaging for customers. Sellers must review these generated product details before they submit them to ensure accuracy and completeness.
These capabilities use large language models, a type of machine learning model specifically trained on large amounts of data – including Amazon’s own product catalogue – that can recognise, summarise, translate, predict, and generate text and other content, to help build more comprehensive product descriptions. Almost 4,500 selling partners have already used one or more of Amazon’s generative AI listing capabilities to list on Amazon.com.au.
Amit Mahto, Director of Seller Services, Australia said, “For our selling partners, writing product descriptions manually can be time-consuming. These AI capabilities reduce time spent drafting listings, enabling sellers to focus on their core business. It also helps improve the customer shopping experience by providing compelling product information.”
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer our selling partners the latest in next-gen AI tools,” continued Amit.
Enriching existing product listings
In addition to generative AI tools to create new product listings, Amazon is also leveraging generative AI capabilities to analyse and enrich existing product listings, automatically adding missing information and improving overall content quality. This feature saves sellers valuable time and enhances the customer experience by providing richer, more comprehensive product information and is due to beginby the end of 2024.
Other applications of AI
Amazon has long used AI to support selling partners. Amazon pioneered the use of AI for personalised product recommendations based on customer behaviour data, which enables sellers to surface highly relevant product listings to interested customers. Amazon also uses advanced machine learning models to forecast demand and help automate inventory management, ensuring that selling partners can better plan their inventory and make sure they don’t end up being out of stock of popular products. With AI-powered pricing tools, sellers gain insights into dynamic pricing strategies based on real-time data, helping them maximise their pricing strategy.
Amazon’s generative AI tools are constantly learning and evolving to better streamline operations for sellers, enhance customer engagement, and help drive seller growth and success. These new innovations are built and hosted in AWS, leveraging a number of powerful foundational models made easily accessible through Amazon Bedrock to best meet the needs of Amazon’s selling partners and customers.
In Australia, more than 14,000 businesses – many of which are small and medium-sized businesses – sell in Amazon’s stores. Find out more about selling on Amazon at sell.amazon.com.au.
New data released this week by credit bureau illion, as part of its Commercial Risk Barometer in Australia, reveals that economic green-shoots may be starting to appear as business failure risk improves slightly for larger businesses, but younger and smaller firms continue to struggle.
After an extended period of deterioration throughout 2023, the Australian economy is showing some hope that economic improvement is on the horizon, but it’s only for mature and larger businesses at this stage.
“While this is positive news for commerce generally, the small re-trace (1 per cent in the six months to June 2024) still has a long way to go, given the significant deterioration since the start of 2023 of 7 per cent. This means that business risk is only back to where it was in October 2023,” said Barrett Hasseldine, illion’s Head of Modelling.
“Australian business owners are looking for positive signals, and while this is one, we will still need to be cautious with our forecasts. While the trend may ultimately point to a long-term improvement in business risk, our optimism is slightly muted when considering the outlook for certain industries and business segments, as the risk trend is not uniform. This is shown in the differences by geography, business age, business size and industry,” he said.
illion’s Commercial Risk Barometer shows that the general improvement in business failure risk has been mainly led by larger and mature businesses, with these organisations improving at 10 times the rate of small businesses in Q2, 2024. Larger and more mature businesses may have firmer foundations such as a larger capital base, lower unit cost base, strong balance sheets and stronger brand presence, allowing them to withstand economic headwinds.
“Comparing businesses by their size, we can see from the data that the risk of those businesses employing fewer than 20 people, such as family businesses, improved by 1 per cent from April to June 2024, whereas it improved by 2 per cent for businesses employing up to 100 people, and by 10 per cent in those employing more than 100 people in the same period.
“Similarly, the risk of young businesses, operating less than five years, deteriorated by 7 per cent in the last quarter. In fact, only businesses operating for more than 20 years saw their risk improve below the level seen 18-months ago,” Barrett added.
By region
At a regional level there are differences in this improvement: “Victorian businesses are doing it tough, with the data showing the failure rate continuing to rise, while the rate in most other states appears to have turned around,” said Barrett.
“Based on the data, Victoria’s trend continues to worsen, other than for a brief spell post-Christmas. This may serve as a warning for business conditions in Victoria, as we head into 2025.
“South Australia has done particularity well; however, it still has a long way to go to recover from the sizeable deterioration it suffered up to March 2024 – it had the highest deterioration over the past 18 months. In New South Wales, the data shows there hasn’t been an improvement compared to the last quarter of 2023. That said, risk is not getting worse.
“Businesses in Queensland continue to operate with the best economic outlook, having both the lowest long-term rise in risk, 2.9 per cent higher in June 2024 than in January 2023, and a substantial improvement this year from April to June alone, down from 3.4 per cent higher at the end of March,” Barrett added.
Low consumer confidence pours doubt on sustained recovery
The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating also shows that consumer confidence trends indicate economic headwinds may be returning as falling consumer confidence is having an adverse effect on some businesses. This may materialise as higher business risk by 2025, as consumer confidence is generally closely aligned with business confidence around 3-4 months later.
The dip in consumer confidence observed in the March quarter also coincides with some early indications of business stress in the education, training and financial services sectors (likely finance and insurance brokers). As well, the trading risk of the food services sector continues to deteriorate through 2024, while the Retail and Transport sectors remain vulnerable to economic problems. The Retail sector is especially noteworthy.
“Business trading has fallen below 2023 levels in retail, which is disappointing. Other than in June, due mainly to EOFY sales trading, the retail sector has fallen below 2023 levels in both Q1 and Q2 – 5 per cent lower in fact.
“This is a concerning result for the retail economy, especially when we also consider that the real contraction will be worse than 5 per cent due to rising inflation. Any predicted deterioration in business failure risk through 2024 and 2025 may therefore be particularly harmful to retail businesses.
In contrast to the above, the data suggests a green shoot is appearing in the construction sector, which has been hit hard over the past two years. It may finally be seeing some sort of turnaround as building activity rises.
“Growth in the construction sector is trending higher month-on-month, meaning that we may see a reversal in the two-tier economy in 2024/25, where the retail sector, food services and even smaller financial services businesses could falter, while construction may become Australia’s growth engine. The economies of scale seem to be shifting and for those sectors in trouble, we are looking at a tough period post-Christmas if things don’t change
A new State of Small Business Data Report (see here),by Square and The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA), shows Australian SMBs and micro businesses struggling to maintain resilience in the face of tough economic headwinds, with small business owners looking to policymakers and government for more support.
Data from millions of transactions processed on Square between January 2023 and June 2024 reveals a two-speed economy in Australia, with local micro and small businesses recovering slower than their mid-market peers in the first half of 2024 (compared to the same period in 2023), and businesses growing at different rates depending on their location, sector, and size. For example, mid-market businesses dipped slightly into negative territory in the July and October 2023 (YoY) quarters before recovering to positive growth, whereas SMBs navigated a longer and deeper period of negative growth (graph below).
Square data also shows spending across all sectors fluctuating in line with shifting consumer behaviours. Spending through the December-January holiday period pushed small retailers into positive growth after spending the majority of 2023 in negative territory. Health care and fitness exhibited steadier spending patterns than industries like beauty and professional services, which showed marked variability in spending through the period. Interestingly, hospitality businesses using Square saw a steady increase in spending, peaking in the April 2024 quarter, despite well-publicised weakness in the sector more broadly (graph below).
Businesses based in Brisbane experienced the strongest growth in the period from late January to 1 May (10.49% YoY) compared to Sydney businesses which saw the weakest growth (5.03% YoY). Square data shows businesses in certain locations, including Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, performed better than those in Australia’s biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, in the traditionally slower economic period following Christmas and New Year (graph below).
Small business optimism hangs in the balance
Conditions are tough out there for Australia’s small businesses, as highlighted by a survey of small business owners across the country which showed roughly half (49%) are feeling less optimistic about the Australian economy in the next 12 months. Despite that, 53% of small business owners say they are just as optimistic about their operations today as they were 12 months ago. Just 1-in-5 (22%) say they are more optimistic and a quarter (25%) say they are less optimistic.
Small businesses continue to feel the pinch of inflation, with owners noting that many operational costs are weighing more heavily on them today than they were 12 months ago. An overwhelming majority of 73% of small business owners say they are feeling more pressure today over rising utilities bills. Around two-thirds (65%) agree that increases in their supplier costs are placing a heavier burden on their operations today than a year ago, while 63% are feeling the pinch due to rising insurance premiums. Government levies, like rates and licences, are also an area of concern, with 62% in agreement. Occupational costs including rent and mortgages are a greater burden today than they were 12 months ago for half (50%) of small business owners, while labour costs and servicing existing loans are straining the capacity of 45% and 42% of surveyed small businesses respectively.
In order to cope with these increased cost pressures, over the last 12 months, just under half (46%) of small business owners have increased prices, and 1-in-5 have streamlined operational processes and changed their approach to marketing or social media.
Looking to government for support
Small business owners outlined the areas where government policy could make running their businesses easier. Just under half (46%) of small business owners are keen to see certainty around the future of the Instant Asset Write Off; 42% would like more incentives to encourage technology adoption to support their efforts in areas including artificial intelligence, eInvoicing, digital payments and cyber security; and 44% are looking for greater access to low-interest loans and grants which support sustainability and innovation.
Marco Lamantia, Executive Director, Square Australia, quote: “There’s no doubt that small businesses have been navigating an incredibly difficult period, but what cannot be underestimated is their adaptability and resilience in the face of adversity, and utilising technology to overcome economic hurdles. This is reflected in part by findings from the report which show that hospitality businesses using Square technology experienced a steady increase in spending, which slightly goes against recent discourse that hospitality businesses are struggling across the board and one in 11 hospitality businesses (9.1%) may fail over the coming year.”
Luke Achterstraat, Chief Executive Officer, COSBOA, quote: “Every small business owner faces a unique situation – a distinct set of challenges and opportunities. This latest report from COSBOA and Square highlights this reality. ‘Small business’ isn’t one homogenous mass and this report underlines the need for policy solutions to be appropriately nuanced, tailored and targeted if small businesses are going to feel a positive impact. The individual experiences and voices of small businesses should also be routinely sought out, heard in policy discussions, and reflected in initiatives coming from all levels of government. Australia’s macroeconomic environment this year has been tough for small businesses, so it is squarely in the national interest to ensure that they don’t just survive but thrive. When small businesses succeed, the entire Australian economy benefits.”
While vending machines have gained quite a bit of social media attention lately, with the more quirky options of cakes, choc tops, or even freshly butchered meat popping up on many Australian TikTok and Instagram feeds, a new trend has emerged within the corporate sector with Micro Markets firmly on the rise. The Australian-owned industry leader in customised vending and unattended retail solutions, Provender, has seen a growing appetite for its GrabNGo. These are essentially bespoke convenience stores that are fully automated, self-service, and offer a curated menu chosen by the business. This concept is not new internationally, often a corporate staple in the USA and UK; however, Australia is now seeing the real benefits of providing an easy-to-access food and beverage solution for their employees or students. There are various reasons why this is a welcome addition to different business sectors; from a lack of healthy food options within remote corporate parks to 24-hour food service for shift workers and affordable options for students.
Another trend emerging within the corporate sector, particularly linked to the return to office push, is providing employees with meal allowances, a perk that is warmly embraced when the cost of living is so high. “Our GrabNGo Micro Market concept is a true reflection of our corporate mantra of Eat Well, Work Well and Be Better,” said Antony Dutton, Managing Director of Provender. “Offering quality food that is quick and easy to access for your staff will most certainly help you achieve your employee productivity and wellness goals.” “In many business cases, we see employees have very limited access to good food and healthy choices, often having to travel for the majority of their meal breaks and therefore, spending precious break times on the hunt, rather than utilising their downtime for rest, or for socialising.” Provender Micro Markets offer total convenience, with a simple tap-and-go system, freshly prepared healthy meals, fruits, bakery items, snacks, and dairy products. “By eliminating cafeteria line-ups, they tend to become an office hub, a space where colleagues gather not just to eat but to connect, collaborate, and recharge. It’s a game-changer for workplace culture,” said Dutton.
Another key aspect of this workplace solution is that Provender provides the installation, the ongoing service, the maintenance and the regular fulfilment of the Micro Market at absolutely no cost to the business. This is not only an innovative approach to office fit-out and HR but at no cost at all to the business, it is the most financially attractive way to increase employee satisfaction available in modern workplaces.The evolution of company vending machines, office catering and in house cafeterias to Micro Markets has been driven by the corporate sector’s changing needs and its shift to a more conscious way of doing business, putting people first. This transition has opened up huge opportunities for Provender, which is continuously innovating in close collaboration with its clients, Amazon, ING, Harvey Norman, Sydney University and Linfox, just to name a few.
As ecommerce penetration surges, the cost of delivery and retailer-advertised delivery costs are increasing, according to a new report from Shippit. Since 2018, delivery costs for standard shipping have increased from $9 to $10.26, while retailer-advertised delivery estimates have surged from 2 days to 5.6 days. For express delivery, they have increased from $12 and 1.4 days, to $14.24 and 2.3 days.
However, actual delivery times are decreasing, with many retailers appearing to inflate their estimates to avoid falling short of customer expectations. Today, the average delivery takes just 2.2 days; less than 2.6 days in 2023 and considerably less than the 5.6-day estimate that retailers advertise.
Based on research of thousands of consumers and retailers, and a data analysis of hundreds millions of orders, the State of Shipping report also found that:
Free delivery has decreased significantly, falling from 81% of retailers in 2018 to 70% in 2024;
The average minimum spend threshold to qualify for free delivery has increased 20%.
In 2018, 49% of retailers provided free returns, but that number has now dropped below 20%.
There has been a 136% increase in express shipping since 2018, as consumers prioritise getting their goods as fast as possible.
However, there is a growing disparity in the supply and demand of same day delivery, with just 9% of retailers offering it, yet two in three (61%) customers would happily pay for it
The global employment authority Employment Hero today unveiled a new tool that will bring unparalleled transparency to the employment marketplace. SmartMatch will provide real-time market insights, seamless connections and advanced matching capabilities for employers and job seekers, ensuring everyone finds their perfect fit together.
Informed via up-to-the minute data aggregated from over 2 million employees and over 300,000 SMEs globally, SmartMatch will now empower employers with real-time insights and equip job seekers with the knowledge to discover the best opportunities for their skills and experience.
SmartMatch goes beyond traditional salary benchmarking tools that are often out of date and informed by user submitted data, surveys and job listings. In addition to this added functionality, SmartMatch will continue to pipe relevant talent to employers, allowing them to make faster recruitment decisions. While job seekers will continue to be able to view and apply for previously hidden job opportunities.
For employers, SmartMatch delivers real-time salary data, market insights, and advanced matching capabilities, empowering employers to make informed decisions on compensation, retention, and hiring – they be will able to:
Access the latest salary data for any role in real-time, based on the wages of millions of employees.
Confidently ensure they’re paying their team fairly.
Gain an edge by knowing what their competitors are paying.
Proactively assess if their team is at risk of leaving based on their salary and benefits.
Uncover the potential to hire top talent within their budget by adjusting parameters like location or experience level, embracing a global remote workforce.
Explore the impact of expanding their salary limits to attract higher expertise and talent.
For job seekers, SmartMatch provides real-time salary insights and market value assessments, empowering job seekers to discover their worth and find higher-paying opportunities – they will be able to:
Discover their true worth and the value of their skills and experience in the job market.
Unlock strategies to boost their pay by upskilling, transitioning to new roles, and understanding what employers are offering for their job.
Find higher-paying opportunities with their existing skills, whether in the same role or new ones.
Compare their value to others in the market and see how they stack up.
Employers looking to fill a position, or support salary conversations with existing employees, can use SmartMatch to understand the market’s current remuneration rates, and find ideal talent matched in line with a particular role, filtered by pay grade, industry, location and seniority. They can also conduct a competitor analysis to see what their peers are paying staff for the same or similar roles. Similarly, job seekers can enter their current or desired job title to discover a wealth of real-time insights – and potentially maximise their earning potential based on their skills, experience and location.
Employment Hero CEO and co-founder, Ben Thompson, says: “SmartMatch is providing unprecedented transparency for both employers and job seekers. Employers are now able to view salaries and talent in a way that traditional job boards and benchmarking tools – which lack live, accurate data – simply cannot match. We have live, region-specific payroll data, so we know the exact salary ranges for specific roles, all across Australia.
“For job seekers, SmartMatch will redefine their job search with unique insights into real-time salaries, allowing them to understand their worth and maximise their potential market value based on their skills, experience and location.
“In addition, SmartMatch then goes another step further in the employment lifecycle by actually matching employers with talent and vice versa. For employers, this means they can both fill roles currently vacant, while also building pools of talent for future hiring needs. For job seekers, this means finding that dream role that makes the most of their individual skills, experience and preferences.”
Why is it vital to bring transparency to the employment marketplace?
Data released today from Employment Hero’s inaugural SmartMatch Employment Report has revealed year-on-year median wage growth of 8.8%. These figures are more than double the WPI wage growth figure released by the ABS back in May – which reported 4.1% annual wage growth*.
“There is a current lack of real-time transparency in the employment marketplace and what someone is worth today is not necessarily what they were worth yesterday. As it stands, the data that employers and job seekers have access to is either out of date, unverified or not revealing the complete employment picture. This is especially true with wage data. Because of this the market is negotiating blindly.
“For example, the ongoing ‘wageflation’ that our 8.8% wage increase reveals is an important metric that must be considered by decision makers, especially when viewed in the context of the RBA’s ongoing battle against inflation. The impacts of potentially unsustainable wage growth must also be weighed against ASIC’s findings that business failure rates are nearing recession levels.
“We believe that our live payroll informed data increases transparency and can support businesses and employees to make better decisions around employment, this may include conversations around salary or offer forms of remuneration.
“In fact, this is exactly why we launched SmartMatch and for anyone interested in these wage insights, I would urge them to SmartMatch themselves via our SmartMatch tool.” concluded Ben Thompson.
Employment Hero’s SmartMatch Employment Report is built from the real-time employment data of the 300,000 businesses and 2+ million employees that are served by the employment platform. The figures are broken down by state, industry, age and employment type.
Employers and job seekers can visit smartmatch.employmenthero.com now to discover their true worth and find their perfect fit.
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. announced the rollout of Zoom Docs, its AI-first collaborative docs solution, starting today. Zoom Docs is powered by Zoom AI Companion, the company’s generative AI assistant available at no additional cost*, to help drive productivity and seamless collaboration throughout Zoom Workplace.
“Zoom Docs is our first Zoom Workplace product with generative AI built in from the ground up; it effortlessly transforms information from Zoom Meetings into actionable documents and knowledge bases, so teams can stay focused on meaningful work,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. “Zoom Docs is included at no additional cost with Zoom Workplace paid licenses, creating even more value for our customers. With AI Companion available every step of the way, Zoom Docs is purpose-built to empower people to ‘work happy’ and give them more time back in their day.”
Zoom Docs transforms team collaboration
Zoom Docs can help solve critical challenges facing modern workforces, including time wasted on repetitive tasks, information overload, and facilitation of cross-functional alignment. By utilizing Zoom AI Companion to convert meeting outcomes into actionable documents, Zoom Docs can jumpstart content creation and adapt to different individual and team needs to help boost workers’ productivity.
Zoom Docs’ AI-firstcapabilities help Zoom Workplace users make teamwork more collaborative and effective, optimize productivity by keeping information organized, and reduce silos by empowering teams to communicate and share information more fluidly. Potential use cases for Zoom Docs include:
Meeting collaboration: Zoom Docs simplifies meeting collaboration with AI Companion by transforming meeting content into meaningful documents, centralizing meeting summaries with meeting docs, and facilitating co-editing on docs within meetings.
Business documents: Whether creating content, business proposals, or reports, AI Companion for Zoom Docs makes content generation, revision, summarization, and translation easy for global teams.
Project planning: Planning complex projects can be messy. Zoom Docs can help with time-saving templates for project briefs and tracking for a variety of use cases like product launches, marketing campaigns, and event management, consolidating project-related materials, and improving visibility across progress tracking, status updates, and timelines.
Information hub: Useful for knowledge-base creation, team onboarding, and goal tracking, users can build robust wikis for a single source of information.
Additional AI-first capabilities help teams do their best work
With the power of AI Companion, Zoom Docs simplifies work and brings information together for optimal results.
Turn AI Companion meeting summaries into easily editable docs, freeing up time spent on note-taking and manually copying notes into a shared document with templates for one-on-ones, stand-up meetings, brainstorming, project updates, discussions, Q&As, customer success, user feedback, and more.
Generate content based on AI Companion meeting transcripts. Use custom or preset commands or queries with AI Companion to further create and revise content.
Revise and summarize content such as articles, plans, and outlines, change tone and style, catch grammatical and spelling errors, and translate content into nine languages (with support for additional languages planned) for multilingual teams with AI Companion.
Maximize meeting effectiveness to drive better outcomes
Meetings are core to Zoom Workplace, and Zoom Docs builds on that experience by enhancing collaboration before, during, and after meetings, empowering users to stay more aligned and achieve better results.
Start and schedule meetings from a Zoom Doc to connect with colleagues and quickly streamline workflows.
Create, share, and co-edit docs during meetings. Meeting attendees can follow along with the presenter, co-edit, and comment on the doc in real time without leaving the meeting window. Attendees on mobile devices can view in-meeting doc collaboration without signing in.
Create an editable and shareable doc that includes relevant meeting information from a meeting in a customizable format.
Streamline permission sharing to reduce time spent granting access to docs with bulk permission settings for meeting attendees, and the ability to grant temporary access to meeting attendees to collaborate during the meeting. Users can also share Zoom Docs in Team Chat channels and with individuals in specific chats directly from Zoom Docs.
Share docs across Zoom Workplace via Zoom Team Chat or Zoom Mail, or invite colleagues to collaborate live in Zoom Meetings to streamline editing.
Get work done in one place for better results
Adapt docs to different individual and team needs to keep collaboration fluid and information organized.
Customize docs with content blocks for texts, tables, images, charts, and more to help increase efficiency and reduce information management across multiple apps. Add data tables for team collaboration and planning to track assignments and projects. Add checklists, images, videos, and callouts to make the doc more engaging, and utilize the multi-column layout for greater flexibility in organizing content.
Embed content from across Zoom Workplace and third parties like Zoom Whiteboard, Google Drive, Figma, X, and YouTube to make information centrally accessible.
Stay organized by starring frequently used docs or quickly filtering docs by author for quick access.
Optimize team collaboration
Reduce silos and keep collaborators informed, connected, and aligned.
Keep an eye on progress using tables, checklists, and trackers for activities, due dates, status, and assigned owners, with various views like Kanban boards, calendars, and galleries.
Organize team documents in dedicated wikis to provide central locations for shared information.
Group, filter, sort, and search datatables to easily visualize information and quickly locate the needed data.
Edit concurrently with up to 100 users in a single Zoom Doc, and tag teammates in edits and comments.
Quickly add, remove, and change permissions for internal teammates and external users to confidently share and collaborate on a doc’s contents.
Zoom Docs with AI Companion is included with all paid Zoom Workplace plans*. Basic (free) users can create up to 10 shared docs and unlimited personal docs without AI Companion but can upgrade to Zoom Workplace Pro, Business, or Enterprise plans for access to AI Companion capabilities across Zoom Workplace, including Docs. Account owners and admins may enable or disable AI Companion for Zoom Docs.
Zoom Docs is available beginning today for users of the Zoom Workplace app, version 6.1.6 or later, which can be downloaded from the Zoom website, and users can also access Zoom Docs from the Docs web homepage or the Zoom Web App.
As several coal-fired power plants along Australia’s east coast close and critical new gas and clean energy projects face delays, the region anticipates Blackouts Looming and significant electricity supply disruptions by 2027, with “reliability gaps” emerging as early as 2025, according to a report by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
This convergence of factors presents a critical challenge for businesses that rely on dependable power to sustain productivity and customer service levels, such as retail, healthcare and professional services. Estimates from insights agency Gartner indicate the cost of unplanned disruptions can be up to $5,600 per minute, while a new report by CISCO digital resilience agency Splunk further reveals the staggering financial toll of downtime.
In response, PSS Distributors announces the launch of their advanced UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) systems, designed to protect small businesses from downtime and data loss during power outages. PSS Distributors’ UPS systems provide a robust solution by offering uninterrupted power backup during outages, ensuring seamless continuity of essential operations. Equipped with state-of-the-art features like automatic voltage regulation (AVR) and battery backup, these systems immediately transition to backup power at the first sign of disruption.
“Our UPS systems are essential for small businesses navigating unpredictable power reliability,” says Terrence Daniel, General Manager at PSS Distributors. “They are designed to maintain business operations smoothly during outages, safeguarding against the costly impacts of downtime and protecting critical data.”
PSS Distributors’ UPS solutions not only ensure operational continuity but also bolster resilience against unforeseen power fluctuations and equipment damage.
Furthermore, PSS Distributors underscores the scalability and ease of integration of their UPS systems, making them suitable for businesses of all sizes and technical capabilities.
In addition to implementing UPS systems, Daniel shares five tips with small business owners for mitigating the risks associated with power disruptions:
Diversify power sources: Explore alternative energy solutions such as renewable sources (solar panels, wind turbines) or generators to supplement UPS systems during extended outages.
Cloud backup: Adopt cloud-based data backup solutions to store critical business information off-site, ensuring accessibility even during prolonged power failures.
Surge protection: Safeguard sensitive electronic equipment against damage from power surges or spikes by installing a UPS with the highest level of surge protection, such as PSS’s UPS with a galvanic isolation transformer.
Emergency lighting: Maintain battery-powered emergency lighting systems by complying with annual mandatory check-ups to ensure workplace safety and visibility during power outages.
Employee training: Educate staff on emergency protocols, including proper equipment shutdown procedures during power disruptions and safe navigation in low-light conditions.
