The Power of Peripherals
A first-rate supporting cast is essential to the central players’ performance
April 11, 2023
Subtle design features make all the difference for efficient healthcare
Effortless, user-friendly workflow can hinge on the right receipt printer or scanner
Element can help you qualify what factors to consider for a seamless user experience
Just as the stars of a film will inevitably draw our focus, it’s inevitable that the big-ticket technology items such as POS devices and Medical terminals will be the centre of our most immediate attention. But this should not be at the cost of forgetting the importance of peripherals -- they are crucial interaction points within your technology ecosystem.
Healing arts get a modern makeover
With a healthcare range that epitomises our ethos of design, quality and purpose, Element’s medical-grade keyboards are anti-microbial and fully washable. In addition to these ‘standard’ features, our ECT-105 keyboard offers three included connectivity options -- Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and corded -- allowing the one unit to cater for all preferences.
Green means ‘good’
For everything from emergency records to medication dispensing, a reliable scanner is a vital tool for healthcare professionals. Element’s P100Am and P50BT medical-grade scanners both offer haptic feedback, providing silent positive confirmation of a successful scan while ensuring no disruption to patients during night-time use.
In a hospital environment, blood red is obviously not the ideal colour that patients want to see, so these scanners utilise green illumination -- a colour more associated with positives (getting the ‘green light’, natural foliage, healing and so on). From a workflow point of view, the P50BT is compact and light enough to hang from a lanyard, making it convenient for staff to always keep it on hand. Its Bluetooth connectivity allows it to be taken from one workstation to the next and pair it immediately with any terminal, again saving precious seconds.
Hardcopy doesn’t have to be a hard slog
In retail and hospitality, the humble receipt printer can prove to be an unsung hero. For a heavy throughput of customers, as in a grocery store or hospitality venue, the printer’s duty cycle is central to the return you’ll get on your investment. A workhorse printer such as the RW873, RW973 or RW60 offers the benefit of maximum kilometres of paper per print head and a very high number of cuts out of the paper cutter.
Where unit cost is an important consideration and receipt printing is less frequent, a unit such as the RW80L represents a lower upfront investment and offers paper-saving mode. As with all our receipt printers, it features a triple interface of USB, serial and ethernet connection.
Two heads are better than one
When it comes to scanning, 1D bar codes are hurtling towards a dinosaur-like fate, so all Element scanners support 2D encoding, with diverse solutions for a range of scanning requirements. The P303BT, for example, is mounted in an adjustable presentation stand that can be tilted to suit a variety of ergonomic requirements, while the P220 can be used as a hands-free or desktop scanner.
The star attraction of our scanner stable is the new P880DS, with a double-duty design that is the first of its kind in the world. It can rest on a work surface or easily fit into your hand, and features a uniquely aggressive scan engine to pick up the smallest of barcodes, such as the tiny stickers on jewellery.
It’s all about making the hardware disappear
The aim of putting all this attention into workflow and efficiency is to provide an unimpeded, seamless experience for customers and staff alike. In applications such as grocery store self-scanning, the user is the customer, so it is not acceptable to risk a frustrating, unreliable or inefficient process.
But with so many options available and so many factors to consider -- even something as simple as how to orientate a receipt printer to ensure easy reloading -- it can be difficult to qualify the most efficient way to integrate your ecosystem of peripherals. As always, that’s where Element can help -- our commitment to design, quality and purpose is your assurance that you can depend on our unbiased, objective and meaningful support for your business.
