Employees at household goods company Procter & Gamble will soon be able to print e-mails, presentations and other business documents directly from their smartphones, according to a press release from printer vendor Xerox.
At the company’s Goldmine event today, P&G unveiled Xerox’s new mobile print solution as part of its Enterprise Print Services (EPS) strategy. The company said through EPS, P&G can simplify and digitize its global printing infrastructure by consolidating devices and controlling how and when documents are printed.
Using any smartphone device, employees can send documents to a secure server or cloud. Documents are held in the cloud until the employee walks up to any printer in the network and enters a code to release the prints.
The mobile print solution is the first result of the Xerox and P&G Innovation Council, created to explore future work and technology trends and to design solutions that will benefit the P&G business. Mobile print supports P&G’s “Give Back 500 Million Minutes” program by reducing time employees spend on print and output-related issues.
“We have more than 20,000 employees using mobile devices, so taking the hassle out of working on the road is also going to boost employee satisfaction and efficiency,” explained Filippo Passerini, P&G’s president of global business services and chief information officer. “Xerox’s mobile print capability keeps printing easy and secure—maintaining our agile global workforce and protecting P&G’s brand and intellectual property at the same time.”
The mobile print solution builds on the EPS platform, allowing employees to print without downloading software, mapping to a printer or booting up their laptops. Developed with customers like P&G, mobile print is the newest addition to Xerox EPS, a platform organized to address an organization’s entire print infrastructure.
According to research firm IDC’s recent managed print services MarketScape report, companies considering mobile print services should look at the breadth of a vendor’s offerings and the strategic direction for future services. The report found a well-executed MPS program can slash costs up to 30 percent, increase productivity and improve environmental sustainability.
“The mobile print capability is an example of how Xerox is extending the value of managed print services for our clients and empowering them with innovative services that benefit their core business,” said Stephen Cronin, president of Xerox Global Services. “Our comprehensive approach delivers the future of printing—cost-effective, productive, environmentally sustainable and mobile.”
Xerox has introduced the WorkCentre 3550, a monochrome laser multifunction printer. The 3550 can print at up to 35 ppm and is geared to small- to medium-sized businesses.
Features include standard duplex printing and a 50-page duplex automatic document feeder (ADF). The 3550 has a standard paper capacity of 550 sheets, with optional expanded paper capacity of up to a total of 1,050 sheets; it takes a maximum paper size of 8.5-by-14 inches and has a 14-inch platen for scanning. It has a maximum optical print resolution of 600 dpi.
Among the 3550′s other printing features are secure print, which keeps documents from printing until users provide a PIN code to release the job; print-from and scan-to USB thumb drive functionality on the front of the MFP. Scanning and faxing features include network scan to PC, scan-to-e-mail, and fax-forward-to-fax/e-mail. It can also scan to include scan to FTP and SMB sites, USB memory device, and scan directly to applications including optical character recognition (OCR).
The WorkCentre 3550 is available immediately and starts at a list price of $1,099.
The Rialto Unified School District signed on for imaging solutions specialist Xerox’s Enterprise Print Services in a plan to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in document-related costs. Using Xerox’s print governance feature, the newest addition to the company’s managed print services (MPS) portfolio, Rialto said it hopes to increase savings to nearly half a million dollars by better managing print across its 25 buildings in California.
Rialto’s five-year EPS contract will bring multiple print budgets and output devices, like printers, copiers and fax machines under Xerox management. Using print governance, Rialto will implement automated, rules-based settings that help staff make smarter printing decisions. For example, when a teacher hits print on a 250-page document, a notification appears advising them that the print job would cost less if sent to the school’s print center instead of a printer in the main office. Xerox said print governance means Rialto could set budget guidelines for teachers and departments, better empowering school district employees to manage printing costs during the school year.
“With stretched budgets and staff we can’t be doing what others can do more efficiently and more cost-effectively,” said the school’s deputy superintendent, Joseph Davis. “As a strategic partner, Xerox is solving our business problems so we can stay focused on educating our 27,000 students – and saving valuable budget dollars that can now be redirected to student programs and employee retention.”
Xerox’s EPS plan manages all elements of an organization’s print infrastructure, from the office to the in-house print center to the virtual workplace. The services are designed to improve environmental sustainability, protect valuable information and support regulatory compliance, improve device availability and increase employee satisfaction and accelerate business innovation through automated workflows.
At school sites, onsite Xerox document advisers will also help the district further environmental initiatives by capturing existing paper records and converting them to digital documents using Xerox DocuShare, a content management solution that allows information to be shared and stored online. John Kelly, Xerox’s president of the North American global document outsourcing division, said the public sector is discovering the MPS opportunity. “Schools, universities, counties and state governments are reaping the cost savings and efficiency benefits of letting us manage print for them while they focus on their core business,” he said.
Recently launched compact, professional 4-in-1 monochrome laser MFP, Lexmark X204N offers high-quality laser printing, copying and scanning and also features standalone fax.
It includes features such as scan to e-mail—whereby documents can be scanned and directly e-mailed from the device—30-page automatic document feeder, PC-free copying, and output speeds of 24 ppm. It comes with a 266MHz processor and 64MB memory.
Lexmark X204N is distributed by Cyberstar Infocom and includes 1-year onsite solid service guarantee.
“The Lexmark X204N printer simplifies work with user-friendly tools and exceptional accessibility right out of the box, from hassle-free setup and intuitive operation to convenient front-loading supplies and straight forward maintenance,” said Raj Rathi, Managing Director, Cyberstar Infocom. “Its features like scan to mail and 30-page automatic document feeder makes it easy for consumers to scan, copy, e-mail or fax multi-page documents anywhere, geographically.”
(RTTNews) – Inkjet printing technology group Xaar plc (XAR.L) Tuesday said revenues for the first half of 2010 were ahead of the same period last year. In addition, sales of the group’s Platform 1 products have remained relatively stable, and demand for Platform 3 products has continued to increase significantly.
Xaar noted that net cash and cash equivalents at June 30 were around GBP 8.2 million, after around GBP 2.8 million of capital expenditure and GBP 0.9 million of dividends paid, while last year’s net cash and cash equivalents were GBP 10.3 million.
Result for the six months is expected to be announced on August 18.