Impact of the pandemic on the work paradigm

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We launched a challenge on Linkedin for users to share with us the extent to which they feel the pandemic has changed the work paradigm, in the medium and long term, in the companies where they work. As a result, we found that while around 13% say they don't anticipate any changes and expect to return to the style previously adopted, 87% think something will change.

10% will value the face-to-face system

10% of respondents indicate that they will value the face-to-face system, which gives us the idea that some companies may have had a bad experience with the remote modality. In fact, let's not forget that there are processes and tasks that require a great deal of preparation and software development in order to be done digitally, and there will certainly be workers and companies who are tired of this forced teleworking regime.

Teleworking in a pandemic is not a benchmark

In fact, when we talk about teleworking associated with a pandemic, we must not forget that we are not talking about teleworking in its correct association of the word, because it involves a very high emotional impact, associated with a lack of freedom and fear about the evolution of the health of your relationship circle. I'm sure we've all met colleagues who have seen their family life impacted by this lack of boundaries between personal and professional life.

Nor should we forget that many workers have been put to the test, in a way that is not at all consistent with the usual way of life that we have in Portugal, and have had to take on their professional, parental and educational roles, all on a full-time basis, which has led to a high level of fatigue and a significant reduction in productivity... In fact, who in their analysis of this teleworking would like to take it up again? And even if we know that teleworking in the future won't have these constraints, we may find it hard to let go of all the emotional burden associated with it...

21% will fully adopt teleworking

On the other hand, 21% say that they expect their companies to fully adopt teleworking, so they will certainly have found in this pandemic the impetus they were waiting for to move towards this type of work. We can venture a guess that they will be more digitally functional companies, where productivity may have increased, since much of the time spent commuting has probably become actual working time. In fact, the level of satisfaction of those who used to stand in traffic jams or on crowded public transport, and even started to be able to wear more relaxed clothes, will certainly have increased and we know that this also has a positive impact on productivity...

Nonetheless, we would say that it is urgent to ask how exclusively digital communication and interaction works? How can cultural alignment and commitment always be maintained at a distance? This will be an added concern and effort for these companies...

56% bet on the best of both worlds

Finally, the majority (56%) are talking about the possibility of adopting a mixed regime, with some days of remote work and other days of face-to-face work, which shows us that it is indisputable that this condition imposed on us has made us take the leap, made us question our more rigid models and made us put into perspective the added value of both ways of working.

In fact, a great quality of human beings is their ability to take advantage of changes and challenges to improve and grow, and companies where this makes sense will be able to reconcile the advantages of teleworking (more comfortable workers, greater flexibility, greater ability to focus on more concentrated tasks...) with the great need of human beings to contact, socialize, receive feedback in close physical proximity and without barriers, and to feel part of a physical space that reflects the company's culture and values.

Today's truth is not tomorrow's truth

However, we believe that we still have a long way to go in terms of challenges and limitations, and perhaps in a few months' time we will be discovering new conclusions and new needs, just as we did a year ago, without being able to predict at the time that we would be here today, looking at these conclusions.... One thing we can be sure of, however, is that we will look at the reality of the world of work differently, and each company will have the challenge of rediscovering its ideal, unique and irreplicable way of operating.

Join us in our mission to reduce your company's ecological footprint

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Reducing our ecological footprint is now mission critical.

If there are big projects at a national or even global level that have a big impact, we believe that it's also those many small everyday things that make a difference.

As individuals and as a company, we all have the ability to make a positive contribution to this mission and the more of us who take this step, the greater the impact these little things can have. We've decided to share here some simple initiatives that we've developed at Contisystems, some of which were suggested by employees and which we hope can inspire you on your journey to reduce your ecological footprint.

1. Invest in ecologically sustainable materials - FSC paper, recycled plastic and PLA.

In terms of business, we are committed to being prepared to produce with ecologically sustainable materials and we want to ensure that they have as environmentally friendly a life cycle as possible. However, we have experienced that, despite our FSC certification, the vast majority of printing jobs are still done on regular paper. Similarly, even though we offer several options in our card range with recycled plastic or even biodegradable materials such as PLA, the vast majority of cards are still made with standard PVC.

We know that cost increases can sometimes have an influence on these choices, but we also know that if we really want the world to change, we can't just rely on the actions of others. We believe that the effort must be joint if the effect is to be strong.

For this reason, we make sure that on the materials we sell that are ecologically sustainable, our margins are lower. The aim is to share with our customers the cost of using materials that reduce our ecological footprint and thus contribute to a higher percentage of jobs being done with these materials.

2. We replace plastic bottles with glass

We distribute glass bottles throughout the meeting rooms, placing water purifiers throughout our facilities so that everyone can fill up their bottles in the company using mains water.

This initiative makes it possible to avoid using more than 20,000 plastic bottles a year.

3. Waste bins and recycling bins in each room

As is common in companies, we used to have a waste bin at every workstation. It's practical and convenient, but do you know how many plastic bags are used unnecessarily? And the waste that isn't separated out of convenience?

With this initiative we placed a waste bin and mini-ecopoint in each area of the company, thus optimizing waste collection by the cleaning services, saving on the number of plastic bags used and encouraging waste separation.

At Contisystems we were spending 5,000 more plastic bags a year than we needed to!

4. Energy efficiency awareness campaign

It's not always possible to install control and monitoring systems and intelligent action in companies that allow for more efficient consumption of resources, but we can't forget the potential of raising awareness to change behavior.

At Contisystems we implemented a campaign to raise awareness of energy and water consumption by placing notes in strategic places.

5. Effective waste treatment

As individuals, we have in our hands the ability to contribute to more effective waste treatment by separating our household waste. As a company, we have a responsibility to ensure that systems are in place to ensure that our end-of-life products are treated correctly to reduce their impact on the environment.

At Contisystems, we are committed to ensuring increasingly effective and comprehensive waste treatment, both in the office and in manufacturing, and even at the end of life of the products we sell.

We can't think of reducing our ecological footprint as something that can be achieved immediately and in large volumes. We have to take steps and make progress.

We issue a challenge: regardless of the big projects you may be involved in, try gradually implementing small actions, gradually changing small behaviors, and in the end you'll see that all those small actions make a big difference too.

Raimundo's years in the lab

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Raimundo has been working in the Laboratory area for 40 years and has already worked for our company for two decades. He came to tell us a little about how his work has evolved and what has changed over the years. 

Hi (José) Raimundo, thank you so much for taking the time to share some stories with us. It wasn't easy to convince you!

I don't mean it in a bad way, but I'm very private, I don't like to talk about myself.

Don't worry, we're going to focus more on the stories you can tell us about what you've experienced in these 40 years of "Laboratório". What do you think?

Sounds good to me. It wasn't 40 years of Contisystems, it all started at Paragon.....

So how did you end up at Paragon?

When I finished school in 1980, I applied for a job in accounting at Paragon. However, as I hadn't completed my military service, I couldn't go. This was overcome in the meantime and I joined the Territorial Reserve, but when I got there again, the position in Accounting had already been filled. But the Director of Operations liked me very much, he saw my CV, noticed that I had a 19.75 drawing and that caught his eye. They needed someone for the design area, so I did some tests and got in.

Wow, drawing really was a vocation!

Yes, I was very happy to go and work in an area that gave me so much pleasure.

What was it like starting work?

I was 19, everything was new to me. For three months I ran around all the departments. I was a machine helper, I did production control, I went through everything. It was great to get started and integrate, and it really helped me to understand how the whole flow of the printing business worked.

So what was it like working in the "design" field at the time?

Everything was done by hand. The mock-ups of the forms were built by hand on acetate, with decal letters and drawn lines. They were then photographed with special machines, and developed by hand with developer, fixer and water. If halftone effects were needed, they had to be given in the development. The result of all this was a photographic film with the design that was to be printed on it. The engraving part of the plate consisted of projecting the contents of the photographic film onto the offset plate. This contact was made in an ultraviolet press.

So it was an art... I imagine it's evolved a lot since then...

A process that takes an hour today could have taken a week back then. But it was all progressive, composition was no longer manual, text composition machines and photomontage systems partially replaced manual work. It was a brutal evolution, at the time it reduced our structure by 50%. But the boom really came when the PURUP system appeared, which at the time, around 1988, cost 60,000 escudos. Then everything was digitalized, the system built the models in color if necessary, and the proofs were output on paper, photographic film or offset plates. I remember it took 24 hours to make a backup!

But that's not what you work with anymore...

No, of course not. In the meantime, the Macintosh system appeared as we have it today, although less evolved of course.

So when does Contisystems come along?

In 2001, Paragon was integrated into Contiforme and I took on the same role.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Some things are boring, but I actually enjoy them because of the confidence, responsibility and security with which I carry them out. I'm very strict and I don't like to fail. I still love drawing, designing logos gives me special pleasure.

What do you think is essential for working in the lab?

Absolute concentration. We have to be totally focused on what we're doing, otherwise we'll screw up.

What's your focus in your personal life?

Apart from Sporting? Just kidding... I think as time goes by we all become more aware of the importance of the most basic things in life. I've been farming in the backyard and trying to spend more time with my family. I don't think I've enjoyed my daughters as much as I wanted to and I don't want the same to happen with the grandchildren. I'm very proud of the daughters we've raised and I want to give them and my grandchildren as much time as I can.

Thank you very much for your time Raimundo, it was great to talk to you!

Be one of the first to discover our new platform

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We have something new to share with you....

We're preparing something new in the area of Customer Communication Management and we'd really appreciate it if everyone who subscribes to our blog could join us to find out first-hand.

We identified the difficulty that companies have in keeping up with the technologies that support customer communication management and that are multiplying and we realized that old platforms often have to coexist with newer solutions...

We know that we need to make sure that everything works together, what already exists and works well and what's new, but this usually increases the effort and development time.

It was to confront this reality that we developed a new solution.

Register for this online event and be one of the first to get to know this new platform!

Sign up here

Digitization of terms and conditions

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In April 2020, the Bank of Portugal (BdP) announced that bank customers filed 18,104 complaints in 2019. This is 18.7% more than in 2018. This increase, according to the BdP, was mainly due to the availability of the Electronic Complaints Book (LRE). Excluding this book from the analysis, there would have been a 1.4% increase in complaints in 2019 compared to 2018.

In this report, the BdP reveals that the topics most complained about by customers are: bank deposits, consumer credit and housing and mortgage loans.

What do all these themes have in common?

As a rule, they are all governed by terms and conditions that are made known and accepted by your bank to the customer, such as interest rates, service costs and other information.

As in any dispute or disagreement, when they exist, who is right? The customer? The bank?

It is therefore imperative for banks to be able to prove, in the event of a dispute, that the customer has been informed that a certain product or service has "x" costs, "x" APR, or any other data.

This was the motivation that led one of our client banks to challenge us to a new project which, although challenging in terms of its content, turned out to be the right opportunity for us to apply many of our skills, namely our knowledge, technical capacity and internal infrastructure.

The challenge itself is for the bank to guarantee that the cardmail (courtesy letter) that accompanies the credit card to be sent to the customer is produced and personalized as the bank has stipulated with data as varied as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • APRs and other rates
  • Associated terms and conditions (fixed or variable)

In short, we guarantee in this project that the cardmail will be personalized with the client's data, with the negotiated rates, and that it will be printed and stored in real time in a digital custody solution, in strict compliance with the law.

This allows the bank's callcenter teams to have visibility over the document that has been made in real time and sent to the customer and what information they have in writing.

Imagine the following scenario:

A customer calls his or her bank to say that he or she has not been informed of the credit card charge(s) that have been sent to him or her. At that moment, the bank employee will be able to access in real time the document that was produced and sent in paper format to his address but which, at Contisystems, has been stored in digital custody. In this way, the bank can see that the card and its corresponding cardmail carried all the information that the customer now claims not to have been aware of.

What's more, in the above scenario, the bank employee who attended to customer A could send a copy of the terms and conditions or cardmail that accompanied the card when it was sent by email.

What we are describing here is giving the bank the possibility of having digital proof of what was actually sent to the customer or what was written on it. This is only possible because Contisystems can take custody in real time of the document that is leaving the personalization machine and going to the end customer.

Talk to us if this solution sounds interesting for your organization.

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To the sound of Michel

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Michel is a colleague of ours in the Enveloping area, he's been with Contisystems for almost three years now and has a lot to tell us.

Tell us Michel, where do you come from?

- I have Cape Verdean roots, I was born in France, but I came to Portugal when I was two, so I don't feel anything but Portuguese!

So we've heard that apart from Contisystems you have two activities that you're passionate about, what are they?

- Yes, soccer and music are my life when I'm not here! I play soccer here with colleagues from Contisystems and in the neighborhood at weekends, I like to play with the kids and talk to them a bit too, try to get them into sports and music, good things! Music is my other passion, I'm a beatmaker, Hypeman and MC, I make my own beats and I've released a few songs, positive and educational rap, linked to good messages.

You're preparing your songs, but you've already played a few concerts... tell us how it all began!

- It all started with Karlon, who has been involved since '94. Karlon was always from the same neighborhood as me and always tried to look out for the younger ones. He always liked my music and we got closer. About four or five years ago, I started playing with him. My first concert was at Largo do Intendente and it was a thrill. There were around 3,000 people there and I shared the stage with artists I'd been listening to since I was 11 years old.

But things have evolved and the stages have grown, haven't they?

- Well, in 2017 we were at Nos Alive and in 2018 at Rock in Rio...

Wow... So how did it go?

- At Nos Alive I remember that at the live check sound there was no one there and we were very scared that no one was going to come to our concert... But when the music started playing, a sea of people rushed over. It was chilling, you could see people all the way to the horizon, there must have been 5,000 people. Hearing 5,000 people clap really brings tears to your eyes. 

What about Rock in Rio, super quiet?

- No... there's always the nervousness of preparing for concerts, we were nervous but it was great, we were at Placo EDP Rock Street.

And more recently, what have you been up to?

- I recently released my first solo single, called "solitário" and it's already available on youtube for you to listen to.

What about plans to promote the single?

- The most important step is with friends! Seeing, liking and sharing is super important to me. I'm going to promote on Facebook and Instagram to invest in promoting my work. And there will be news soon...

Congratulations! Thank you for your time and inspiration Michel and count on many likes from our side!

Being in the office is no longer for everyone... is it for you?

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Nowadays, due to the context in which we live, teleworking has emptied offices and made them just an address. These addresses, no matter how much you tell them otherwise, end up being the destination of important communications such as invoices, checks, complaints, etc. Picking up this mail occasionally delays its processing, forwarding and accumulates unfinished business, which can often mean delaying revenue and multiplying costs.

What can we do to help?

We then thought that this would be the time to eliminate this operational constraint for companies and provide a mailroom management service that will ensure that all this mail is physically collected by us and forwarded digitally.

But that's not all, we don't want our customers to remain as before, we want them to take advantage of this opportunity to organize and optimize the way they integrate the documents and information that comes to them by mail, not only physical but also digital, into their systems.

What is this service based on?

This service not only eliminates the hassle of managing physical mail, it also allows the extraction of associated metadata and the creation of an easily searchable archive available via API that can be easily integrated with your CRM. And not only does it do this for scanned physical mail, but also for all the digital documentation that is "loose" in the systems and is therefore not integrated and used, such as the emails scattered around in sales people's mailboxes.

Visit our Mailroom Management page here.

What technology supports this service?

Using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and NPL (Natural Processing Language) technology, we will identify the type of document in order to understand the flow it should follow. From there, using automated processes (RPA - Robotic Process Automation) , the information and communication follow their flow and are integrated into a centralized database. This database stores the communication or document, the extracted metadata that is associated with it, as well as the routing that was given (log).

All information is valuable as long as it is available and actionable, organize your information and maximize its value.

This is just one of the use cases that can be assembled from our modular CCM platform. Discover this whole universe here.

Count on us to streamline your operation in these difficult times. Don't just stay the same, become stronger and more useful to your customers.

#togetherwecan

We guarantee that your information is forwarded at the right time, in the right format, to the right person.

Find out more about our mailroom management service

CHECKLIST: What do you need to consider when ordering checks?

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Did you know that it's possible to optimize the costs of purchasing checks if you take just a few details into account?

On a day-to-day basis, we strive to help our customers find the best value for money for their needs. However, sometimes, in order to achieve greater efficiency, or to improve the conditions in which communications are sent, there is a need to make last-minute changes that can result in some internal constraints, such as last-minute design changes, delays in shipments and even compromises in the ability to optimize production.

Don't leave details to the last minute, download our checklist "What do you need to consider when ordering cheques?" and find out how, by taking care of everything in advance, you can optimize the production costs of your cheques.

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Tips for an interview at Contisystems

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1. Follow us on social media and see if you identify with our culture and if Contisystems is a place where you would like to work.

2. If you have an event in your personal life that will impact your performance in the interview, call in advance and try to reschedule or share this at the beginning of the interview.

3. Make sure you know the location of Contisystems in advance and the best way to get there at the scheduled time.

4. Think about what you'd like to know about the company or the job and ask questions you didn't find answered on our website or in the advertisement.

5. Take a look at the skills we value for the job and think about when you have shown these characteristics during your working life.

6. Be clear about your reasons for wanting to work at Contisystems and share them during the interview.

7. Share your professional career briefly, mentioning what motivated you to move between different companies.

8. When we ask you to talk about certain aspects of your professional experience, speak in the first person and not on behalf of the team you were part of.

9. Try to answer questions clearly and directly

10. But above all, be natural, sincere and true to yourself, and we'll do the same for Contisystems. We want a match with a happy ending for both parties!