Search This Blog

Monday, May 4, 2009

Synergy, Down Under: HP Edgeline's and Pull Printing Save Money, Energy and Paper



Less energy, no toner. CM8060's and CM4730's - not bad.

Synergy out of Australia.

Synergy building services manager Wayne Perry says, the company had about 80 printers in use.

Most were laser printers, which were turned on all the time to keep the toner cartridges warm and usable. After researching and testing a range of options, they decided to adopt a new fleet of multifunction devices from HP.

"One multifunction printer uses less energy than five laser printers," Perry says. This made them a logical choice.

The company has also opted to introduce a "pull-printing" environment to reduce print wastage. "When I print now, I issue the print command, that goes to the print queue and is held on a central server that all the printers access," Perry says.

"To actually print the documents requested, Synergy employees walk to a printer and swipe their building access card in order to execute the printing. "This has really cut down on paper usage."

Full article, here.

ATM Book Machine launches in London


Just when I thought "Print is Dead" along comes this thing - the Espresso Book Machine.

Billed as the most revolutionary development in books for 500 years, this machine can print a bound version of nearly 500,000 titles.

Each in five minutes, while the customer waits.

Currently available titles are out of print, but the creator of the machine is looking to work deals with publishers and hope to get a list of around 1 million titles available.

The applications are mind boggling.

Airport bookstores, magazine racks, college bookstores and the traditional bookstore could be all wrapped up into one, somewhat large, coin operated, vending machine.

The NewStand of the future. Kindles some thought, doesn't it?

Connect this little hummer to the "cloud" and you have yourself the future of print - on demand and nearly anyplace on the planet.

The PrinterNet?




OnDemandBooks

HP and RIM Announce Strategic Alliance to Mobilize Business on BlackBerry


PALO ALTO, Calif., May 4, 2009

HP and Research In Motion (RIM)(Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced they are establishing a strategic alliance to deliver a portfolio of solutions for business mobility on the BlackBerry® platform.

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry Smartphones

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry smartphones is a web services based solution that allows users to print emails, documents, photos and web pages using a BlackBerry smartphone, wherever they are – in the office, at home or on the road.

The CloudPrint service enables mobile users to easily print to the nearest printer. The service is printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access. HP and RIM plan to make CloudPrint available to BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers.

The CloudPrint technology was invented by HP Labs, the company’s central research arm.

-------

In addition to the CloudPrint technology, HP's EDS Mobile Services will be available to help manage Blackberry's - they currently managed 500,000 Blackberry's.

And HP's Proliant servers are being pitched to support corporate Blackberry applications and HP's Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, is a software solution that helps centrally manage and monitor the entire Blackberry ecosystem, whether it is virtual or physical - servers, applications, mail servers, databases, etc.

It looks like a complete HP/Blackberry, business system.


Friday, May 1, 2009

Friday is FunDay: Optimus Prime, this had to be done.

What you are about to see is Top Secret...Do not tell my mother...




OfficeMax: ***CORRECTION*** I DO Remember Seeing Someone From OfficeMax at the Managed Print Services Conference




****** CORRECTION ********

David Peterson, Director of Sales, OfficeMax was in attendance at the MPS Conference, and I did speak with them - my apologies!

So, what can be determined by this?

OfficeMax gets it.

They get the whole MPS approach and are leveraging their customer relationships. And not only with MPS but also as a MSP.

Lawton Smith and Darrell Amy's discussion resonates once more - the advance MPS providers are ready to hop-scotch over to the MSP role.

And now, I need to wipe the egg off my face.

During the OfficeMax earnings call today, Sam Martin – Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer regarding Managed Print Services said, "...The idea is to collaborate with customers and maximize their office supply savings with OfficeMax through analytics.

This value proposition then opens the door to approach the customer with related spend categories as well as non-traditional areas in which we have expertise such as managed print and data center services..."

Furthermore, Martin adds, "...We believe that a deeper business relationship results in better retention...Our relationship with Young has evolved from basic office supplies procurement into a broader solution which includes managed print services.

Print is not a core activity for Young and they viewed OfficeMax as having a best-in-class solution that met their needs.

Other categories where OfficeMax has expanded its relationship with Young include certain data center services and other supply categories not originally priced with OfficeMax. Currently less than half of our business with the Young brand is traditional office supply procurement..."
------

On the OfficeMax Managed Print Services website, they use phrases like "scalable end to end solutions" and "...across all manufacturers...". On the site, they even say, "...We'll help manage all your print and multi-function machine supplies and coordinate the installation, servicing and redeployment of your hardware..."

In one session at the MPS Conference, Lawton Smith explained how Managed Print Services will one day soon be enveloped into the Managed Services Provider's portfolio of services.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, OfficeMax is pitching just that.

***** CORRECTION ********

OfficeMax was in attendance at the MPS Conference - my apologies!

The complete transcript here.

The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming!


Press Release

NewField IT Opens US Office


31st March, 2009, NewField IT, a leading UK based provider of software and independent assessments for the Managed Print Services market, today announced the opening of the company’s first office in the United States. NewField IT’s software, Asset DB, is widely used to accelerate and enhance the delivery of Managed Print Services (MPS).

The market for MPS is set to grow by a CAGR of 24% in the next three years according to InfoTrends; a growth which has led to a jump in demand for NewField IT’s highly regarded MPS toolset, Asset DB. Use of Asset DB in the US has been growing since the product was launched in 2004 and this new office will enable NewField IT to provide greater support and information to its North and South American based customers.

“Despite the economic climate, this is an exciting time for our industry because of the rapid growth of MPS. By opening an office in the US we can support our growing customer base with more direct and value-added services” commented Robert Newry, Co-Founder of NewField IT.

Leading the US office will be Ed Mosteller – Vice President, Americas. Ed has an extensive background in information technology and output management with ten years’ experience managing Professional Services at Lexmark International and a 15 year career with IBM.


Contact information:
Tollfree: (888) 870-0156
General office: (727) 538 4162

13575 58th Street North, Suite 136
Clearwater, FL 33760-3746

NewField IT is an independent software and services provider focused on reducing print and document management costs. Established in 2003, NewField IT has completed assessments on over 70,000 devices in 30 different countries. NewField IT’s innovative software suite, Asset DB, is the only toolset driven by a graphical interface and underpinned by an integrated and powerful database. Many of the leading vendors including Canon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, OcĂ©, Ricoh, Toshiba, and Xerox use Asset DB to enhance their MPS assessments and implementation.

Click to email me.

Contact Me

Greg Walters, Incorporated
greg@grwalters.com
262.370.4193