Trend

Print 2.0

Printing in India has moved from standalone printers and scanners to multifunctional devices or centers, as some vendors choose to call them. By Varun Aggarwal

Multi-function devices have come a long way from devices that combine a printer, a scanner or even a fax machine to more sophisticated systems. Today’s MFDs are capable of printing through wireless protocols such as Bluetooth or Infrared, sending documents directly to an e-mail address and at the same time ensuring better manageability of an organization’s entire printing infrastructure.

Gone are the days when we used to talk about print speed in terms of 10-15 pages per minute. Even the most basic printers offer speeds of up to 20-25 ppm and some high-end printers can even print more than 900 copies of A4 size sheets in a minute. This remarkable achievement is a result of years of research and investments made by companies such as HP, Canon, Xerox, Brother, Epson etc.

Anand Kumar, General Manager, Brother International (India) Pvt. Ltd. said, “Considering the fact that the needs in the office have migrated from just printing to imaging (scanning, archiving, transmission through e-mail, printing on demand etc.), Multi-Function Devices (MFDs) have become an integral part of the office infrastructure and document management.”

Innovation seems to be the buzzword in every industry vertical, and why should the printing industry be left behind. Growing competition and margins on a crash diet are forcing companies to come up with innovative features through which they can try to pull out some extra bucks from a customer’s pocket and even the customer will not mind extending his budget a bit more for more benefits.

HP’s new multifunction printer (MFP) lineup adds to the HP LaserJet portfolio, which offers options for both enterprise and small and medium businesses. “The emerging trend here is the adoption of printer-based MFPs which offer better value and additional features, which compared to a standalone infrastructure offer better value with a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).”

“The Indian printing industry is pegged at approximately Rs. 65,000 crore. With all industries moving towards specialization, our strategy is to offer customized solutions and solutions that cater to vertical segments like telecom, banking, retail and pharma. With the digital printing market growing at 25 percent, India is a flourishing market for digital printing,” said Som Gangopadhyay, Director Business Imaging Solutions, Canon India.

Inkjets live on

Inkjet technology is still alive and kicking. Although it was anticipated that laser technology would eat up inkjets, the prediction was proven incorrect through constant improvement and innovation in inkjet technology.

Ram Prasad, Product Manager, Epson India said, “Business Inkjet technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Therefore, increased adoption is definitely on the cards. Laser printers will have their own space and this segment will continue to grow as well.”

Kumar explained, “Both inkjets and lasers operate in different markets and segments.  Inkjets are used more in homes, home offices, small offices and personal printing spaces in large offices where the printing volume is low. Lasers are used in heavy-duty printing and imaging environments, in small offices, SMEs, and corporates.”

“Printers are no longer viewed as peripherals considered as an after-thought purchase by enterprises. Laser printers have emerged as solutions that both vendors and partners can position as a must-have for most corporate buyers. Laser technology is emerging as the most sought after mainstream printing device. The two dominant technologies continue to be laser and inkjet. The choice between these two and the printer depends on the user’s requirements and factors such as price, color and speed,” said Samir Shah-Director, Commercial & Enterprise Printing, HP-IPG.

Secure MFDs

Printers and MFDs have long been easy targets for hackers as most documents that are printed or scanned through these devices traverse an insecure medium in an unencrypted format. Corporates are now realizing the importance of securing their printing infrastructure from malicious users to safeguard their organization.

Taking such security breaches into consideration, vendors have come up with devices, bundled with applications that encrypt data before it is sent out on the network for printing. “Secure Function Lock is a feature in our network-ready printers and Multi-Function Centers (MFCs), allow for printing securely using passwords,” said Kumar.

Apart from securing printers and imaging devices from hackers, it is essential to protect confidential documents from going into print. Vendors started focusing on this aspect many years back and it is time to take this to the next level.

A more managed approach is required to ensure better productivity and efficiency in utilizing print resources. A print server could be an ideal option for those who wish to monitor their printing activities and at the same time want to enforce stringent policies for print administration. It reduces long print queues by putting a priority on print jobs sent by different users. Users can be allotted a fixed quota of printouts that they can take in one go or in one day. It also helps you decide who should be given access to color printing and who should not.

Xerox has the CentreDirect External Print Server that enables the sharing of printing resources, be they inkjet, laser, printer, copier/printer or all-in-one. The CentreDirect External Print Server allows users to send print jobs from multiple PCs.

In addition the CentreDirect External Print Server supports Novell NetWare, Unix, Windows, EtherTalk and more.

Color revolution

Despite all the noise made about color printing, more than 90% of all prints taken are in black. That said, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to make color printing a reality. Ursula M Burns, President, Xerox Corporation said, “Color is everywhere, except for perhaps the print industry. We want more and more people to have access to color by reducing the cost of color printing through continuous process innovation.”

Everybody loves to use color prints, but it is the people who have to pay for these prints who curb its usage. As color printing becomes more affordable, there will be wider adoption. Color brings in a lot of business benefits especially to advertising and sales. There is no better way to present your product or service to potential clients than with a glossy, full color brochure.

Commenting on future technology in printing and imaging, Prasad concluded, “In a huge country like India, with varied usage requirements, no single technology is likely to dominate in the near future and every technology will continue to have its own user base. As we have seen impact printers (Dot Matrix Printers) continue to be hugely popular for the business printing market due to the fact that they offer the lowest running cost compared to any other technology. Likewise there is space for both inkjet and lasers to grow parallelly.”

varun.aggarwal@expressindia.com