This year over 1.2 million office multifunction systems will be installed in the United States and the movement continues to grow. These systems provide printing, copying, faxing, and scanning features in one cost-effective device.

The basic logic behind these systems is obvious: it is just practical to combine these similar functions for cost savings and fewer devices to supply.

However, some of the largest reasons behind the rapid implementation of these systems extend beyond cost savings. Multifunction devices can merge with document management software to allow process automation and deliver bottom line results.

• Modernized Communication: Multifunction systems email, fax and print together. Scan to email functionality delivers paper documents securely to their recipients as email attachments. Fax routing directs incoming faxes to email addresses.
• Automated Business Processes: Multifunction systems offer a convenient on-ramp to get paper onto a digital network. New capture software provides the technology for information to be read from scanned documents where it can be routed through a pre-defined workflow.

By Marlene Orr, Senior Printer Analyst, June 8, 2010

HP kicked off Internet Week NYC with a news conference broadcast live via the Web. Appropriately, the theme was harnessing the power of the Internet to customize and simplify the printing experience. In his introduction, Vyomesh Joshi (VJ), president of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group, noted that since the advent of Web 2.0, there has been an explosion in the amount of available content on the Web. In fact, HP's research shows that by next year, Internet printing will surpass printing from word processing programs.

VJ said that while creating the content has become easier (think of the countless social networking and photo-sharing Web sites), capturing and printing that content has not always been so easy.

Addressing the shift last year, HP introduced its first Web-connected printer (the Photosmart Premium All-in-One), which let users download software to the AiO so they could access and print Web content from the control panel. Since then, the company has paid close attention to customer behavior, learning that about 70 percent of users downloaded applications to allow them to capture and print content without turning on their PC. 

To keep up with what it says is a growing customer need, HP will Web-connect every new HP printer with a purchase price greater than $99. But it’s not just about the software applications anymore. Cloud printing (untethered/wireless printing, whereby data is sent over the Internet to a selected printer) is nothing new, but HP is taking it to the next level by allowing users to print from mobile devices with no additional software or drivers required. As VJ said, “If you can e-mail it, you can print it.” With ePrint technology, users can print a document by using nothing more than the resident e-mail program on a device to send it to the printer. So, not only can users download apps to access and print content without turning on their PCs, they can now print from mobile devices (like smart phones and tablet PCs) that have traditionally had inherent limitations to printing.

HP today unveiled a new category of web-enabled printing solutions designed for the cloud that will, for the first time, allow people to:

• Print from any email device to any new ePrint-enabled printer from anywhere in the world through the new HP ePrint platform;⁽¹⁾
• Store documents or files in the cloud and print direct when needed;
• Transform their printers into publishing platforms from which they can customize print apps and schedule timed delivery of content – such as news from msnbc.com and Yahoo! and creative after-school activities from Disney – directly to their home or business printers;⁽²⁾
• Manage and customize their full printing experience through the new HP ePrintCenter to enjoy relevant, fun and interesting content that is formatted for efficient printing.

To showcase these new solutions, HP announced a full suite of web-empowered e-All-in-One printers for home and business that start at $99.⁽³⁾ These will be the first printers able to “talk” to the “Google Cloud” without requiring a local proxy PC or web appliance, which means people will be able to access Google Docs, Photos and Calendar directly from their printers. A selection of new print apps from partners such as Yahoo!, msnbc.com, Facebook®, Live Nation, Crayola, Reuters, DocStoc and Picasa Web Albums™ also will be available.

“We are once again revolutionizing printing to make web-empowered, cloud-enabled printing the new industry standard,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “We know that our customers want an easy way to print their content, anywhere, anytime. We’re making that a reality today by giving people the power to print from any web-connected device – smartphones, iPads, netbooks and more – to any printer in our portfolio above $99. The world has changed.”

HP today expanded its graphic arts portfolio to help its customers print top-quality, high-value materials and capture a larger share of a $124 billion global digital printing market.⁽¹⁾

Delivering on its strategy to drive the analog-to-digital print transformation, HP introduced digital presses, large-format printers, finishing and workflow solutions, services, and business-development programs, while also announcing significant progress in reducing the environmental impact of printing.

The company’s broad portfolio helps print service providers grow their businesses through new high-value digital applications ranging from publishing and transpromotional statements to marketing collateral, packaging and large-format signage.

HP is demonstrating its new solutions at Ipex 2010, the major graphic arts tradeshow of the year. HP has the largest stand and display of digital printing technologies at the show, including a simulated production floor and customer presentations that showcase HP’s extensive range of real-world applications.

Highlights include:

• the HP T200 Color Inkjet Web Press, the company’s first extension to the high-volume inkjet portfolio, which offers a lower-cost⁽²⁾ and smaller, 20-inch solution for print service providers seeking to adopt full-color inkjet web printing
• the HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press, a top-of-the-line, highly automated press designed to replace small and midsize offset presses for high-quality color applications such as photo books, marketing collateral and personalized direct mail
• the entry-level HP Indigo 3550 Digital Press that offers proven HP Indigo quality at a more affordable price
• four new HP Scitex large-format printers, including the first HP Scitex systems to offer odorless HP Latex Inks and two UV-curable printers, significantly reducing environmental impact compared to solvent inks while also delivering superior quality for high-profit signage applications
• the HP Designjet Z5200 Printer for copy shops, quick-printing firms and other small commercial print businesses interested in entering the large-format market
• new HP SmartStream workflow solutions and a range of finishing systems from HP and its partners, which improve productivity by up to 20 percent for commercial print jobs
• the HP Color Print Module, available for the first time in the new Pitney Bowes Envelope Messaging System, for high-value direct mail with color text and graphics personalization

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 18, 2010 – HP today presented automated, interconnected workflows for HP Inkjet Web Press customers, driving productivity to new levels in high-volume market applications like publishing, direct mail and
transpromotional printing.

HP and companies in the HP Graphics Solutions Partner program(1) displayed their connected solutions in live operating environments within the HP stand at Ipex – No. AB150 in hall 12 of Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. “Our customers need more than a high-quality press or a printer to be successful; they are looking for products that are reliable, productive and have automated workflows that drive efficiencies while reducing turnaround times and cost,” said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions, HP. “Our end-to-end demonstrations at IPEX highlight how HP and its Graphics Solutions Partners have collaborated on some of the most
productive, flexible and efficient digital printing solutions available in the graphic arts industry.”

Making the most of the publishing and mailstream print opportunities

The introduction of high-volume continuous-feed digital color presses from HP expands print solution providers’ ability to address and grow the publishing market as well as the mailstream print market with its need for personalized, full-color variable-data printing.In its booth at IPEX, HP is presenting an advanced, end-to-end print-on-demand book printing workflow. The live demonstration features the new HP T200 Color Inkjet Web Press(2) printing book content that is then fed to a Lasermax Roll Systems Stream Folder system with double plow-fold capabilities for producing book blocks. The blocks are finished into books with covers printed on an HP Indigo press using a C.P. Bourg Binding system. Another end-to-end workflow demonstration features the HP T200 printing brochures that are folded by the Lasermax Roll Systems Stream Folder and then inserted into a JWR wrap envelope solution that prints personalized, full-color text and images on the outside of the envelope to match the contents of the brochure inside.

HP today announced it has completed a sale agreement for an HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press with Consolidated Graphics (CGX), which is already using the press to produce a wide range of products on coated and uncoated paper.

CGX, one of the nation’s largest commercial printing companies with the world’s largest integrated digital footprint, installed the HP T300 at its Denver-based Frederic Printing company last year. The initial installation of the HP T300 enabled CGX to begin producing multiple titles of textbooks every day, as well as maps, engineered drawings, saddle-stitched books and other products that have traditionally been produced on analog presses.

CGX also has selected HP as its solution provider for digital color book printing applications, one of CGX’s fastest-growing markets. Unlike analog press technology, the HP T300 digital press can change content on the fly. This allows CGX to print multiple titles of varying page lengths, as well as personalized books, during the course of a single press run. The press also eliminates many of the fixed costs associated with analog press technology, substantially reducing minimum run-length requirements needed to meet economies of scale.

Since the first HP T300 commercial installation in December 2008, the press has helped advance digital print from niche to mainstream applications by offering cost-effective, high-volume digital color production.

“With the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, CGX has established itself as a true innovator,” said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions, HP. “By using the only digital color press available today that offers this level of productivity, CGX is setting an excellent example of how the HP T300 can help reinvent print’s role in publishing.”

Tags: Document Management Systems

This is the challenge businesses face today—to take fragmented repositories of information and combine them into one, concise system. From copiers and fax machines to Microsoft Office and email, we expect these technologies to make our life simpler. Instead, they can tend to make it more complex.

Enter Document Management Programs

Many small businesses and corporate departments are enjoying the benefits of new document converging technology. Paper, digital and email documents are finally able to be handled by one system.

- Scanners and Multifunction Systems enable the rapid conversion of paper documents into common digital formats like PDF files. These documents can be sent as email attachments our directed to a network folder.

- Optical Character Recognition technologies convert scanned text into editable text. Documents can be scanned directly into applications like Microsoft Word where they can be edited.

Mahwah, NJ, May 7, 2010 -- Providing business owners with flexibility, versatility and reliability along with an array of features and sleek, functional designs, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America today introduced the UP-V5500 Series POS System. As with other UP-V Series models, the UP-V5500 delivers a flexible architecture that can be used with a wide range of software and exceptional operation capabilities to meet the rigors of heavy daily usage in virtually any retail, restaurant and convenience environment – all at a competitive price point.

The UP-V5500 is an expansion to the UP-V family of POS products that includes the UP-V9900 base model without customer display; the UP-V9900V with 2-line, 20 character VFD customer display screen; and the UP-V9900L with a 12.1" Class (12.1-inch diagonal) customer display TFT Screen. With these four models, dealers now have a full line of POS products that meet customers' requirements, and end-users have a great selection of reliable, easy-to-use products to choose from.

"The UP-V5500 offers the advantage of a 15" touch screen in a small package," said Greg Tucker, Product Planning Manager, POS Sales, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, a subsidiary of Sharp Electronics Corporation. "Business owners who were considering a UP-V Series product before, but did not have adequate counter space, could use the UP-V5500 now. Plus, with the open system architecture, different terminals can be used together throughout one location, or across a number of locations."

Built with Microsoft Windows^® operating systems to meet a myriad of hospitality, convenience and retail needs, Sharp's open architecture systems offer the flexibility to run the management software that best fits your business. Seamless integration with a variety of third-party applications make them ready to provide exceptional operational capabilities, and a high level of service for customers. With open architecture, operators can choose from Sharp-Certified Software Partners, or use their own applications and build a system that perfectly fits their needs and can grow or change with their business.

When considering the many costs that an organization has to expend, one of the most misunderstood is that of printing costs.

The Gartner Group estimates that as much as 30% of organizations' print costs can be eliminated with simple technology solutions.

The Business World is a rapidly changing entity, and technology helps adapt to these changes quickly and will help a company keep its competitive advantage. Paper has always been an inefficient medium for conducting business processes, and recently has become a key focus for Business Process Improvement (BPI) initiatives. So what are the main reasons for a company or organization to move towards the paperless environment?

Below are the two main categories:

1. Operation Efficiency and Business Process Improvement

Using a digital repository can improve productivity. This is an obvious benefit. Any time you can reduce the time required to perform a required task, that time can be applied elsewhere. A basic online search for a customer file requires about 5 seconds. To accomplish the same information lookup with a physical file cabinet can take 10 – 25 minutes, or perhaps even days if the file is held in offsite storage. This is just for basic lookups, and not complex searches, which could take weeks if performed through the physical file system.

The core of any business is a group of processes. Predictable processes like invoicing and collections, order fulfillment and customer support are the fundamentals that drive businesses to success. Continual improvement of business processes leads to better results like increased revenue, reduced expenses, faster collection, regulatory compliance, and reduced risk.

The following are a few points to consider that will help improve your business processes:

1. Begin with the end in mind. Define what the real goal of your process is.

2. Map Out the Process. Think of the four Ws: Who, What, When and Where.

3. Determine what inhibits your process. There is always a more efficient way to complete a task.

4. Consider any risks. Are you overlooking any potential regulatory or legal problems? Is your business prepared for a natural disaster?

5. Determine the costs. Consider the hard costs of the process along with the labor costs.