HP Draws Up New Imaging Systems, Inks Deals With Smaller Vendors

HP (NYSE: HPQ) on Tuesday announced partnerships with five printing vendors to grow its portfolio of security and manageability enterprise printer and imaging offerings. The new solutions range from check printing security to document capture.

The new additions to the HP Solution Business Partner (SBP) program is aimed at managing and securing workflow in imaging and printing environments.

"This is the next step in the evolution of our partners program. Our big focus now is on enterprise printing. HP can't possibly offer everything all our customers would need. By turning to its partners, HP is able to become the single point of purchase for all enterprise products," David Laing, technology solutions and partner program manager for HP, told TechNewsWorld.

New Partners

HP announced its partner relationship with the Troy Group, SafeCom, Captaris, Kofax and Standard Register. These firms join 33 other partners in the HP Solutions Business Partner Accreditation, Certification and Test (ACT) Program.

Products from each of these partners are co-branded with HP via a reseller agreement. The vendor sells the product to HP, which in turn sells it to HP customers along with service contracts.

"This gives the partners a global reach and makes the whole solution have a look and feel as if it came from one company, whereas it comes from several," said Laing.

Plugging Gaps

HP Check Printing Security Solutions from HP and the Troy Group targets banking and finance operations. Design features help safeguard the printing device while meeting stringent check processing standards to avoid check fraud. Utilities are also available to reduce fraud with documents, including school report cards, prescriptions and birth certificates.

HP Imaging and Printing Job Accounting and Security Solutions from HP and SafeCom allows the user to control printing expenses and color use, protect confidential documents and decrease environmental impact by reducing paper and toner consumption. This is achieved through through enforced printing and copying policies, such as duplex printing, non-color printing and user authentication requirements. For example, security can be set so that any attempts to alter the final document will turn the paper red, Laing explained.

Another feature from the HP and SafeCom hybrid product is pull printing. This eliminates the practice of unclaimed printed documents being left in the print tray of numerous printers at a facility. Users can print an authenticated document from any printer. This provides a complete security package for document control by addressing authorship, authentication, accounting and auditing of every document, noted Laing.

More Features

The LAN Fax Solution from HP and Captaris combines Captaris' RightFax offering with HP multifunction printers (MFPs) and digital senders. Instead of using traditional standalone fax machines, users can send and receive faxes easily from an MFP, digital sender or PC, reducing the number of devices and supplies required for the office.

The Print Optimization Solution from HP and Standard Register is designed to enable organizations to control printing costs with an integrated print management system. The system monitors and reports usage data and printing job characteristics so it can show users the cost of printing and suggest or enforce the routing of print jobs to the most cost-efficient output device based on set rules.

Document Capture Solutions from HP and Kofax provide document capture tools that let users automate distribution and information exchange. The system is designed to meet privacy, security and compliance regulations.