The services and printing divisions of Hewlett-Packard
are teaming up to offer companies on-demand printing and digital
publishing services that are designed to help reduce costs and
improve document management, the company announced
yesterday.
HP will offer three main services to companies: secure transfer
of documents, printing from multiple locations, and digital
publishing, said Steve Culhane, vice president and general manager
for imaging and printing services.
The first service, called business critical services, will help
companies ensure that crucial documents are securely transferred
around their organisations to a variety of devices, including
printers, scanners, and other hardware. HP will also help companies
integrate their legacy document-management applications with the
newer products they have purchased.
The second service, call infrastructure services, will focus on
helping improve worker productivity through the ability to print
documents from locations other than the desktop, Culhane said.
Finally, the digital publishing services will allow companies to
print documents, such as marketing brochures, as they are requested
by their customers, rather than having to estimate demand and wind
up with unused marketing materials, he said. Companies will also be
able to personalise marketing documents for particular
customers.
HP has the ability to offer these services immediately, Culhane
said. The printing and imaging group has been working closely with
HP services to deliver these capabilities, he said.
"We've been doing this for a while, informally. Usually we can
get a 20% reduction in costs, something that fits perfectly in the
current environment," said Bernard Meric, senior vice president of
the imaging and printing group for Europe, the Middle East, and
Africa.
HP will use some of its existing products in rolling out these
services to customers. The company will use its HP output server
software which helps route documents through an enterprise, and the
HP managed print portal which allows IT managers to track and
monitor printer use.