Multi-function Systems

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.

HP has released a new eBook for assisting companies with marketing. They are releasing a chapter per month and 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 first chapter right now. If you subscribe to this feed, we'll let you know when the next chapter is available.

"That networked multifunction printer sitting innocently in the corner of your office just might be the most significant entry point for hackers to hijack sensitive data from your business," warns an eWeek article today.

"All the information that's being printed, scanned and faxed is susceptible to theft. Once under an attacker's control, it is simple to covertly save copies of other people's data on the machine's hard drive. With built-in network, fax/modem and network capabilities, there are a variety of ways to smuggle the stolen information out of an organization once it's been captured.”

Although this article was released today, the studies it mentions are from nearly two years ago. Multi-function systems have made significant advancements in that period of time. Not to mention, the skill of authorized technicians that support these products.

Sure, there are still risks, but those risks aren't any more significant than a computer or server sitting on your network. With the proper firewalls and security measures in place, you can secure your multi-function systems just like you can secure your desktop computers.

But, the fact is, most companies aren't overly concerned about the security of a printed document. Most documents that we print aren't sensitive. But, if you do print sensitive documents, make sure that you only work with a vendor that understands the challenges and knows how to mitigate the risks.

–

Corey Smith has fifteen years of document management industry experience and maintains the Master the Business blog.