Multi-function Systems

The world is focused on recycling. One of the best places to start may be with your office laser printers and multifunction systems.

Here are three simple steps to cutting waste and saving money:

• Recycle Paper Put recycling bins next to your printers and copiers. Most municipalities have recycling services. You can also use recycled paper in your printers and copiers. Make sure to select a good quality of recycled paper that is rated for laser printers and copiers.
• Duplex Printing A great way to immediately cut paper usage is to set your printers and multifunction systems to default to duplex (two-sided) printing. This is especially helpful for long print jobs because duplex printing literally cuts your paper usage in half.

Fax Servers and Multifunction Printers offer a lot of the same capabilities and are a great tool for any office.

A Fax Server is a set of software running on a server computer that is equipped with one or more fax-capable modems attached to a telephone line or a software modem emulator that can transmit the signal over an IP network. A fax  server’s function is to receive fax calls and accept documents from users, convert them into faxes, and transmit them, store them, or pass them onto a different user. Users can communicate with the server through a local network or the Internet.

One little known fact is that a Multifunction Printer can offer a lot of the features a fax server can. A Multifunction Printer is an office machine that can incorporate multiple devices in one so a business can have a centralized document management system. A MFP combines the abilities of a printer, scanner, photocopier, fax machine, and email and is great with handling many processes at once.

Printers are now used daily and are a necessity to businesses. They are very useful for people, whether at home or office. The printer is a peripheral device for the production of paper copies of documents and data that are stored in a digital form. There are many types of printers available that are used for printing different things.

These days the preferred printer is a multi-function printer. These printers have many features, which is very convenient in everyday life. Computers are everywhere, and a computer without the printer seems to be incomplete. Multi-function printers have eased the tension of the people who have had to buy scanners, copiers and many other things to complete their office. Multi-function printers are a bit more expensive, but it is a profitable deal, because it has multiple functions in itself.

The multi-function printer can save electricity, because as a single device it will be plugged in to power serving the same purposes as three machines would. This power management feature is very useful, because the function that is required, can be used to work, while other functions are disabled. When a person uses a printer, scanner and copier can be switched off. You did not use the power over all functions into a single function. These printers also save space, whether it is kept in the office or at home. A multi-function printer reduces the number of devices in a room.

By Tristam Wallace

I wanted to pass along a link to a great article on MFPs and security in Computer Technology Review, written by Sharp's Vince Jannelli.  It is a very succinct and well-written summary of security concerns around  MFPs and I agree with nearly everything in it.

However, I want to address the following statement that Vince made in relation to platform virus security:

"A proprietary platform is idea, since it won't be susceptible to viruses designed to attack more popular operating systems available on personal computers."

I don't dispute the statement. But, it is important to weigh the trade offs between a proprietary platform and an open platform. While the risk of viral attack is lower because it is unlikely hackers will develop malicious code aimed at proprietary MFP platforms, the costs of managing those proprietary platforms are significant -- particularly for those companies that have mixed fleets (brands) of MFPs.

By Tristam Wallace

I wanted to pass along a link to a great article on MFPs and security in Computer Technology Review, written by Sharp's Vince Jannelli.  It is a very succinct and well-written summary of security concerns around  MFPs and I agree with nearly everything in it.

However, I want to address the following statement that Vince made in relation to platform virus security:

"A proprietary platform is idea, since it won't be susceptible to viruses designed to attack more popular operating systems available on personal computers."

I don't dispute the statement. But, it is important to weigh the trade offs between a proprietary platform and an open platform. While the risk of viral attack is lower because it is unlikely hackers will develop malicious code aimed at proprietary MFP platforms, the costs of managing those proprietary platforms are significant -- particularly for those companies that have mixed fleets (brands) of MFPs.

By Corey Smith

Every six months or so, comes a concern via the media that the MFP, or multifunction printer, is not secure and causes security holes on your network. When considering security on your network, there are some common sense approaches to ensuring you are protected from harm.

At eWeek, Rosen Sharma wrote a very simple article on securing your MFP. The article opens with the following:

Think you’ve plugged all of the vulnerabilities in your enterprise network? How about that multifunction printer over there in the sales department? As Dr. Rosen Sharma, president and CTO of Solidcore Systems explains, these devices frequently contain operating systems that are just as vulnerable to malware as your desktop computers.

By Jon Reardon

Because of the proliferation of MFP devices in the office, the accessibility to scanning has increased. Awareness and use of the MFP scanner have risen because of the ease of integrated solutions and openness to share the device. At InfoTrends, we believe that the acceptance of scanning due to this proliferation of MFP devices has exponentially increased scanning activity (the overall pie has grown). More workers in the office are becoming accustomed to scanning Ad Hoc documents; therefore, this is no longer a specialized application in the office environment. As workflow solutions begin to play a greater role in the office environment, scanning and scanner technology are becoming vital elements for knowledge workers. The following interesting statistics are from a recently published study (conducted at the end of 2007 and published in early 2008) from our Image Scanning Trends practice area entitled US Document Image Scanning Report 2007:

HP has released a new eBook for assisting companies with marketing. They are releasing a chapter per month and Chapter 2 has recently been released. You might find it interesting.

From the HP landing page:

This book provides actionable marketing and sales information for business owners and marketing managers. Sponsored by HP, all chapters can be downloaded for free six months before the official publishing date (regular retail value is $39.95). Beautifully illustrated and chock full of check lists, worksheets, tips and tricks, the book provides you with updated information on

• Finding your business focus
• Getting more client appointments
• Optimizing your web activities for search engines
• Creating word of mouth through new media tools like blogs, wikis, optimized landing pages and much, much, more

You can click through to the HP Landing Page and download the second chapter now. If you subscribe to this feed, we’ll let you know when the next chapter is available.

by Dan Costa

1. Think Before You Ink. The change has to start here. We all have to change how we look at paper. Before you print out anything, ask yourself if it is absolutely necessary. If you have a digital copy of that e-mail, why do you need a printed version? The green blog TreeHugger.com tried to build an eco-meme by asking people to add this line to their e-mail signatures: "Eco-Tip: Printing e-mails is usually a waste." Sure, it is a little preachy, but sometimes we need preachers to show us the way. I have complained in the past that people send too much e-mail, but printing them out is downright sinful. 

2. Preview Your Documents. The average employee prints six totally useless pages per day. All you have to do is walk over to the network printer in your office to see examples of them. I did just that and found a tray filled with blank pages, misplaced spreadsheet fields, and random HTML fields from printed Web pages. The average employee prints 1,410 of these wasted pages per year. And this problem is easy to fix: Just preview it first. The easiest way to do this is to use the print preview feature in whatever software you are using to print.

GreenPrint is a software package that automates the process. You can download a free version of GreenPrint from www.printgreener.com; an ad-free version is available for $35. GreenPrint Technologies claims that the average user of the package will save about $90 a year in paper and ink costs. This is a great feature that should become the default in both personal and office printers. Can you imagine the savings if this is rolled out across an enterprise or small business? That is money-saving Green IT.

By Daniel P. Dern

BOSTON—Quality color printing has historically cost too much for small and midsize businesses or branch offices to do in-house. Hewlett-Packard is out to turn that history on its head, announcing on March 4 that it is slashing costs for quality color multifunction printers capable of printing, copying, scanning and faxing.

HP made the announcement at the 2008 AIIM/OnDemand event taking place here between March 3-6.

HP's new color inkjet and laser MFPs range in cost from $100 to $600, aimed as they are at the SMB, SOHO and consumer markets. HP also announced related supplies, service and branding announcements.