Epson expands business solution
Published May 28, 2008 at 11:03 pm · Filed under Fax / MFP
The focus on reducing the environmental and financial costs of uncontrolled office printing means that it is no longer enough for printer manufacturers simply to supply hardware. They must also provide software and solutions to enable their customers to control printer use.
Epson, like many printer companies, is responding to changing demands of customers by expanding its business offering to include free print audits and a range of print monitoring solutions.
As Simon Kitson, Epson sales and marketing manager for business products, told Business Info: “We are not going to stand toe to toe with HP and sell colour lasers for £99. We want to sell a solution.”
A good example of this strategy is Epson’s newly launched follow-me printing package.
The EpsonNet Authentication Print & Server solution maintains document confidentiality and minimises waste by not releasing a print job from a PC or server until the user has presented his card to a contactless card reader attached to the printer.
In addition, Kitson said that Epson might soon be launching a remote printer monitoring solution to meet growing demand for managed print services, where a supplier manages all aspects of an organisation’s printer estate and bills the customers on a cost per page basis.
“We have our own software that we have trialled in a couple of companies in Europe that we hope to roll out in the UK. It monitors the number of pages printed so we can calculate the cost per page and charge on that basis.
It also has a low toner alert sent to Epson or the channel so that supplies are delivered before the toner runs out for maximum uptime,” he explained.
For more information on Epson’s growing range of solutions, please visit www.epson.co.uk
