Case Studies

With the need for multiple printer brands, models, and devices within an organization to handle an assortment of printing needs, firms have become accustomed to supporting dozens (if not hundreds) of printer drivers as a necessary evil. This multi-driver environment results in higher costs, the negative aspects of which may have previously lacked consideration. With the arrival of the Universal Print Driver, this is an area where improvements can and must be made.

Hewlett-Packard recently announced the second iteration of its Universal Print Driver (UPD), which is focused on streamlining the print processes and operations within an organization by employing a single driver to handle all supported HP-branded devices. The benefits of a product like this appeared obvious. The necessary investment for UPD is minimal—the driver is essentially free, it requires little training, and it can be up and running within an organization in a matter of weeks. InfoTrends believed that the “return” on such an investment would be substantial for help desks and IT departments as well as end-users, offering a consistent printing experience across a multitude of devices. As this white paper will show, users are in fact experiencing a variety of benefits from this type of driver. continue reading...

A Business Case for Effectively Deploying MFPs to Gain Control Over the Management and Cost of Printing and Imaging Environments

 Much has been said about the escalating cost of creating and working with documents.
• About the impact on operations: “Imaging and printing accounts for up to 15 percent of an organization’s overall operating costs.” Source: CAP Ventures
• About the effect on labor costs: “Printing and imaging processes can account for as much as 40 percent of labor costs.” Source: Avi Basu, IT Journal
• About the threat to revenue: “Through YE08, enterprises will spend between 1 percent and 3 percent of their revenue on document output.”
Source: Gartner

But how much do organizations really know about the surprisingly simple reasons why these costs are increasing and how an evolving digital technology can be effectively deployed to fix this growing problem?

Nailing down costs
Think quick: how many hardcopy devices are in use in your organization? Drawing a blank? You are not alone. According to IDC4 most large organizations (those with 1,000 or more employees) have no idea how many hardcopy devices they have. Less than half (48 percent) routinely track their hardcopy costs companywide. Even fewer (38 percent) track related IT help desk and support costs.

It’s hard to imagine organizations taking the same haphazard approach to other valuable business assets such as their IT infrastructures or even office furniture. Yet as this chart shows, the current state found in many printing and imaging environments can actually be traced to two key historical management practices. continue reading...

The HP Universal Print Driver for Windows is the single driver that gives users instant access to virtually any HP LaserJet printer or MFP, without downloading separate drivers.

Anything but generic
The HP Universal Print Driver is more than a onesize-fits-all print solution. The sophisticated yet simple print driver communicates directly with each HP device, gathers configuration information, then customizes the user interface to show the device’s
unique, available features.

While some multi-device print drivers only enable the most basic functions, the HP Universal Print Driver enables most available features—no matter how advanced—from two-sided printing and stapling to watermark printing on all of the devices
it supports. Users are never held up or held back.

While the user interface is customized for each device, users enjoy a familiar experience regardless of device.

Speaks your language—and your printer’s language
It’s just as important for print drivers to communicate with people as with printers. That’s why the HP Universal Print Driver is available in 26 different languages. This multilingual driver also supports multiple printer languages, including
PCL5, PCL6, and HP postscript 2 and 3 emulation and is compatible with a range of Windows® environments, including Windows Vista™.

This means the HP Universal Print Driver is compatible with more HP print devices than ever, including most color and black-and-white printers, MFPs, and digital copiers.

Proven to perform
The HP Universal Print Driver is built on proven HP print driver technology. Tested thoroughly and used in many applications for years, the HP Universal Print Driver is a powerful solution that you can rely on to perform consistently. continue reading...

As business infrastructures become increasingly complex, managing printing and imaging peripherals develops into a major challenge. It is often difficult to obtain a global perspective on the quantity and capabilities of your
company’s printing and imaging devices. In addition, as the number of your peripherals increases, so do your support and maintenance responsibilities. HP Web Jetadmin offers a solution to these challenges.

HP Web Jetadmin is a simple printing and imaging peripheral management utility for remotely installing, configuring, and managing a wide variety of HP and non-HP network peripherals via your Microsoft® Windows® desktop. Rest assured that HP Web Jetadmin and your network-connected peripherals are well protected with advanced security features, including Microsoft .NET platform technologies, Windows Active Directory integrated role-based user authentication, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v3.0, IPsec device configuration, and a secure online update feature.

HP Web Jetadmin increases business productivity by helping you manage supplies, proactively address potential printing problems, configure peripheral drivers, and update firmware. HP Web Jetadmin provides all of the peripheral management capabilities you need in one easy-to-use interface. Best of all, HP Web Jetadmin is a free software tool that you can download from www.hp.com/go/webjetadmin. continue reading...