Hewlett-Packard hopes to duplicate its successes in the
printer market with three combination copier and printer devices
for business customers.
The devices mark HP's entry into the copier market, building on
its successful line of enterprise printers, with the introduction
of the HP LaserJet 9055, 9065 and 9085, the company said at Comdex
in Las Vegas.
HP is calling the devices "multifunction products", because they
are based on copier technology but also allow users to print
documents off a network, said Greg Wallace, vice-president of
marketing for the commercial side of HP's printing and imaging
group.
The 9055 and 9065 are designed for workgroup and departmental
use. The 9055 can process 55 pages per minute, and costs $18,000
(£10,594), while the 9065 can print or copy 65 pages per minute for
$25,000 (£14,743). Both prices reflect base configurations of the
printers, which are available immediately.
The 9085 is more of a production-level printer for high-volume
jobs or specialised documents. It can handle 85 pages per minute,
and a base configuration costs $37,000 (£21,777). The 9085 will be
available in March.
Customers who wish to purchase any of the printers will be
required to sign a minimum two-year services contract. Those
services can be supplied either directly through HP or through the
company's service provider Ikon Office Solutions.
The printers are part of HP's overall strategy to help customers
consolidate the number of printers on their networks and reduce
their overall costs by improving the software that remotely manages
their printers over the networks.
HP has also introduced technology designed to help businesses
reduce the costs of form processing.
The HP Forms Automation System prints out a company's forms on
special paper that allows information to be digitally captured when
a customer fills out the form using a special digital pen. That
information can than be uploaded directly to a database without the
need for manual data entry.
The form is printed out onto standard copy paper using a special
dithering technique which prints a special series of dots that
resemble colours that can be read by the digital pen.
The software fills out the standard portions of the form already
present in the database, such as the customer's name, address or
telephone number. The customer then fills out the portions of the
form unique to that transaction using the digital pen, which can
read the information against the special background laid down by
the printer.
Financial institutions, healthcare providers and insurance
companies are expected to be the primary markets for the forms
automation software.
For a 10,000-user deployment, the software costs $45,000
(£26,484), and each digital pen costs $200.
The forms automation software can be used only on select HP
LaserJet printers.
Customers using the LaserJet 4600 can install the software, and
HP will soon introduce the LaserJet 3500 and LaserJet 3700, which
can also use the software.
The 3500 and 3700 will be available in the US in early next
year.
In addition, HP released the next version of the company's
printer management software, HP Web JetAdmin 7.5. The software
links to HP's System Insight Manager server management software,
and helps customers reduce helpdesk costs.
Tom Krazit writes for IDG News Service