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Date: 01/26/2026 Microsoft will permanently disable Basic Authentication for Exchange Online email services in March 2026. If your Xerox device uses Exchange Online for features like Scan to Email or fax notifications, it may need to be updated to support OAuth 2.0. We recommend contacting your IT provider to confirm whether this change affects you. Benchmark Office Systems is also available to assist if needed. What is Microsoft changing in Exchange Online? Microsoft is phasing out Basic Authentication for SMTP AUTH in Exchange Online. Beginning March 2026, Exchange Online will no longer allow devices or applications to send email using basic username-and-password authentication. This change applies only to Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) and does not affect on-premise Exchange servers. Why is Microsoft disabling Basic Authentication? Basic Authentication is less secure and more vulnerable to: [...]

If your team still spends hours entering data from invoices, scanning forms, or chasing down missing paperwork, you’re not alone. Many small and mid-sized organizations like manufacturing, engineering, construction, and nonprofit administration are buried under document-heavy workflows that drain productivity and create unnecessary risk. That’s where AI-driven Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) comes in. It’s not just another buzzword—it’s a practical way to automate the capture, understanding, and routing of documents so your team can focus on work that actually moves your business forward. The Everyday Problem In most organizations, document workflows still depend on people manually handling, entering, or moving information. Whether your team is processing invoices, onboarding employees, or managing project files, every document takes time and carries a risk of error. Manual data entry that eats up hours. Employees retype information from [...]

Technology can feel like it’s moving faster than ever, and with new terms like AI, IDP, and workflow automation being tossed around, it’s easy to wonder — how do these all fit together? At Benchmark, we spend every day helping businesses bridge that gap between people and technology, so we wanted to break down what these terms actually mean — in plain English. Automation vs. Intelligence: What’s the Difference? Think of automation as the “doing” part of technology. It’s what allows a system to complete repetitive, rule-based tasks that used to require manual effort — like routing an invoice for approval, sending a reminder email, or generating a report every Friday morning. Artificial intelligence (AI), on the other hand, is the “thinking” part. It allows systems to recognize patterns, make sense of messy information, [...]