Your chance to win a super-sized Easter Egg!

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To get you EGG-cited for #Easter, we’ve got an EGG-cellent competition for you to get involved in!

All you have to do is snap a photo of a Quills or Rebel van on the road, post it on Facebook and we’ll enter you into our prize draw for the chance to win one super-sized Easter egg…sounds good right?

How do I participate?

1. Take a selfie with or of a Quill’s or Rebel van and post it in the comments section of our original Facebook post here

2. Follow and Like Quills Facebook page and LinkedIn 

3. Two winners will be drawn at random on 1st April 2019

You’ve got until the end of March to enter our competition so keep your eyes peeled and get snapping! 👀

 

What do I need to look out for?

Our vans are fully wrapped and can either have a Quills or Rebel Logo on the side! Here’s an example of what to look out for:

Terms & Conditions
1. Participants can submit their entry via Facebook or Twitter by uploading their photo and tagging us into the post.
2. Participants names will only be entered into the prize draw if they submit a photo and follow and Like Quill’s official Facebook page and LinkedIn.
3. Only one photo per participant is permitted.
4. The competition will run throughout March with the last entry being on 31st March at 11.59pm.
5. The winners will be drawn at random and announced via social media by 5th April 2019.
6. The prize is not transferrable and no cash alternative will be provided.
7. Delivery of the egg will go to the named person who submitted the entry and we cannot be held accountable should your egg melt after delivery!
8. Quills Group is Quills Office Supplies Ltd and our registered address is Unit 2 Spitfire Park, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4WD.
9. Both winners will be announced via social media by 5th April 2019.
10. Entries are open to anyone form the UK&I and Quill’s employees are excluded from this competition.

How Using A Professional Shredding Service Can Benefit Your Business

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Whether it’s paper, clothing or unwanted goods, shredding is a must for securely protecting sensitive items and business data. Client confidentiality should be a top business priority within your organisation but how can it be carried out efficiently when you have so many other priorities to focus on? Take a look at our article below to find out how outsourcing your shredding requirements can help your business.

  1. Save time and money

Why paid your skilled employees to stand there and shred for hours when they could be generating revenue for your business? Internal shredding routines are extremely time-consuming and have to be maintained on a daily or weekly basis. For example, shredding a single document can take several minutes and you have to be mindful of factors such as:

–    Straightening sheets of paper

–    Removing any paper clips or staples

–    Disposing of the shredded paper

–    Cleaning up any excess paper, paperclips or staples

Furthermore, you also have to take into consideration the cost of maintaining an internal shredding routine and often enough, this is a lot more expensive than outsourcing your shredding requirements. A small selection of managing your shredding in-house include:

–    Purchasing shredders

–    Buying disposal bags

–    Utility expenses

Sound familiar? Outsourcing your shredding can save an extensive amount of money for your business. Quills, can arrange a personalised audit of your office needs and provide a quotation which includes the frequency, number of bins and what you’ll be shredding.  There are no installation charges and the bin hire and replacement bags are free too!

 

2. Reduce the legal risk

With legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) all in full swing, it’s crucial that you keep client data confidential and safe during the disposal process.

Our secure shredding service is NAID AAA certified meaning that all destruction of your documents complies with the privacy protection policies outlined in the above legislation. In addition to this, we also provide a certificate of destruction so that you can be sure your data is safe in the right hands.

 

3. Maintain your businesses reputation

Reputation. One of the most important assets of a business. It’s very simple for your businesses confidential documents to get in the wrong hands and just like that, a data breach can happen and cause extreme worry and distrust.

When using a professional shredding service, all paper, media and products are collected and destroyed safely and securely. Constant monitoring, full CCTV coverage and an official certification of destruction are provided after every collection which means you can relax and focus on the more important things in your company.

 

4. Consider mobile shredding Services

If you’re considering outsourcing your shredding requirements but still have a concern about your information leaving the premises, then explore the possibility of using an on-site mobile shredding service. This ensures that all shredding is carried out on-site and gives you an opportunity to closely supervise what shredding is carried out and have absolute security.

Quills offer both on-site and off-site shredding service and can collect and shred data at your home or office. For more information, take a look at our secure data destruction brochure. 

 

5. Efficient recycling process

It’s well known that recycling has a positive impact on our environment but be careful as time and time again shredded material is often stolen with the hope of gaining access to confidential data.

Outsourced shredding services ensure that your personal information is secure at all times. All shredded goods are still recycled but without comprising confidentiality as it takes place in a locked and private building with constant surveillance and security.

To find out how Quills Secure Shredding Service can benefit your business, get in touch today and request your free quote. Alternatively, take a look at our latest brochure for some more information on our data destruction service.

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Quills Donates over £3,500 to The Disabilities Trust

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In the run-up to #GlobalRecyclingWeek we’d like to share an update on our Toner Recycling Programme where 100% of the proceeds go to charity.

We’re committed to ensuring we can help reduce the impact on the environment by recycling and this is why we introduced our Toner Recycling programme back in 2013. By collecting our customers used ink cartridges and sending them to our recycling partner generates a small amount of money which we pass onto our charity partner, The Disabilities Trust BIRT. The donation goes to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT) which provide a fantastic centre where individuals who have suffered a brain injury can visit as part of their recovery plan.

We are delighted to share that we’ve raised a total of £3,607.91 since the start of this project in 2013 and that’s all down to our customers taking the time to recycle their used ink and toner cartridges. Last week we sent £527.44 to The Disabilities Trust BIRT Fundraising Manager, Hayley Wicker-Bradbury to pass onto the BIRT unit and we’d like to say a huge thank you to our customers for recycling with Quills.

We’d love to reach a fundraising target of £5,000 by the end of 2020 for BIRT charity so keep up the good work, keep recycling and we’ll share what great things these funds have helped pay for in our next update.

How to make meetings more productive

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Out-of-the-box thinking doesn’t happen in a box…right? In this article, we consider some different ways to help reignite the motivation for attending those weekly or monthly meetings.

Some people might say that most meetings in the workplace are often pointless and attendees feel anxious as there are always deadlines to meet and work that needs to be done. But what if the problem isn’t the actual meeting itself but more the environment and layout that it’s being held in which can sometimes be formal and uninviting…

Take a look at our tips for making meetings more inviting…

1. Only hold meetings if they’re essential

Save meetings for projects that are a necessity and for when all the team can get involved. If it can be replaced by a telephone call or an email, don’t hold it. If the meeting does need to be held, be conscious of time and try to keep it short – schedule no longer than 45 minutes per meeting so that employees recognise that you value their time and have an agenda.

2. Don’t get into a routine

If you schedule meetings for the same time every week, in the same location; eventually employee motivation and interest is going to plummet. If you want your team to find a solution to a task or you’re working on a long project, then you need to mix it up a little, try mornings and afternoons and see which time provides the best engagement and ideas. Consider carrying out some meetings outside of the office, perhaps in a coffee shop or over some lunch.

3. Is your meeting space inviting and inspiring for ideas?

If not, it might be worth considering re-decorating your meeting room and introducing some artwork to make it a more welcoming space for being creative. According to Forbes, 78% of respondents in a survey of over 800 employees working for 32 U.S companies claimed that art in the workplace helped reduce their stress.

4. Consider standing desks

Employees spend most of their working day sitting at a desk so it’s not particularly motivating to move from one rolling chair to another. It’s been mentioned time and again that sitting does you no good… yet the same is true about standing all day! What you really want to do is alternate between the two with the help of a sit-stand desk. This will ultimately help you reduce the health risks posed by both. Consider ditching the standard table and chair set up and opt for this healthier way of working. Meetings may then seem like a refreshing change of scenery.

5. Informal workspace meetings

Sometimes a formal meeting isn’t required, have you thought about introducing informal employee workspaces where ideas can be brought to life away from your desk without the need to be in a meeting room? Curious? Take a look at some ideas here or check out this brochure for inspiration.

6. Offer incentives and rewards


Competitions and mini-games can be a great way to encourage enthusiasm and attendance for meetings. After all, everyone loves a freebie. Giving away snacks and refreshments during the meeting will generate interest and depending on your budget, consider rewards for the best ideas that are brought to the table.

What is archiving and why should I be on top of it?

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There’s a lot of jargon surrounding the term ‘archiving’ and you may ask, what actually is it? In fact, it’s a term that employers and businesses shouldn’t only be aware of, but completely understand.

In summary, archiving is a vital records management process and over here at Quills, we know how valuable a well organised approach can be for your business. So, take a look at this handy guide to find out more about archiving and why you should be on top of it.

What exactly is archiving?

First things first, what is archiving? Search Data Backup defines the process of archiving as “moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention.” It’s important to note that archived data can be made active again at any point. This is a massive benefit for businesses who can therefore retrieve any necessary information at short notice.

Why should you archive your files?

As data is continuing to grow, archiving data is becoming more important than ever. If you want to save your business time and money, then having an effective archive strategy in place is necessary.

As well as adding value to your business, archiving the right data can save your business a huge amount of time and money. In the past, a number of companies stored all their data in their ‘primary storage’ system as they were afraid that their information may get misplaced or lost whilst being archived. Some employers also didn’t understand what was involved in the process of archiving data and were therefore very hesitant to do it.

Today, it is becoming more obvious that an effective archive strategy is key for businesses who handle large amounts of data. For example, they may end up losing information as a result. With an effective strategy in place, organisations can easily search for, access and maintain data that is relevant and adds value to the business.

In addition to the above, your business can also save money on expensive primary storage. Not only will you reduce the amount of data in the primary storage, you’ll also improve the overall backup performance. Therefore, you can manage your time more efficiently and deal with the documents that you need to access on a regular basis.

So, you now know what archiving is and why you should do it; but what’s involved in the archiving process?

When you archive files, they are stored and managed within optimum conditions to minimise the risk involved in the process and also to ensure that files are always protected. Likewise, scan on demand and scan back services, as well as traditional based document storage and retrieval, scan back distribution means you can access your files wherever you are, whenever you need them – quicker, cheaper and greener access to your company data.

How can Quills help me with archiving files?

Quills can provide you with a quicker, cheaper and greener way of accessing your company information. Our dedicated account supervisors can provide you with knowledge and support throughout the entire archiving process, as well as offer nationwide coverage with same/next day delivery.

Some of our key services include:

• Workflow, EDRM, digitisation and scan back
• Storage of files and boxes
• Storage of wills, deeds and original documents
• Storage of digital media
• Consultancy including best practices, Record Management policies and retention policies
• Special projects including inventory, purging, back scanning, filing audits, filing relocation and rationalisation
• Nationwide coverage offering same day/next working day delivery

If you require any more information regarding archiving and want to know how Quills can help your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

CONTACT US

Evolution Acquisition

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We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Evolution Group Ltd on 2nd January 2019.

Andy Efstathiou, Managing Director of Quills said “For Evolution customers the acquisition will mean the same high levels of service with the additional benefit of our internal infrastructure, additional customer services and features like Live Chat to provide answers quickly to any queries or questions. We’re an organisation constantly striving to improve how we do business every day.”

The existing Evolution team will move across to Quills (Customer Services, Sales and Drivers) which will ensure a smooth and seamless transfer.

We look forward to working with Evolutions employees and customers and extending a warm welcome to all.