Xerox offers tool for smarter printing
July 13, 2010 by Steve HannafordPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, New Products
Xerox Print Advisor is a newly announced software tool that is designed to give corporate users a better handle on printing costs. A more powerful Premium version with added analysis tools will also be available later in the year.
The Web-based software comes in two parts:
The end-user interfaces gives advice on how to print greener and more environmentally sound. The program pops up after a user submits a print job, advising them to, for example, print in duplex to save money. (Actually, that’s the only advice that I can find any documentation for.)
More important, the management component is more elaborate. It allows management to detect printing patterns, by user or group. It generates reports based on print tracking on how the management can save money on printing.
The catches (you knew there had to be some):
- The program, available in the fall, will be free for users of Xerox’s ColorQube 9200 Series MFPs, which are Xerox’s highly rated and economical solid ink printers. It won’t support other Xerox copiers or printers, at least at first.
- As sound as the software might be, it’s never going to advise you to print some jobs on, say, your Canon copier or Kyocera printer, we expect, even if those machines might be more economical or more green
- It’s not going to advise users to print less color and more black-and-white, especially for internal use.
In reality, this package is aimed at ColorQube-oriented shops, which Xerox states are growing in number. Given that Xerox has several different supply pricing schemes for the product, the advice is welcome.
And the principle is a good one, and I’m sure Xerox will expand its scope and other vendors will offer similar tools. Too bad it can’t analyze whether 40 of the 100 prints a user generates end up in the trash unread — now that will be provide some real savings!
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Tags: ColorQube, Print Advisor, print management, Xerox
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