Hewlett-Packard has traditionally left high-volume printing to its competitors. But on Dec. 10 it introduced the S900 Series, a line of multifunction printers (MFPs) with integrated fleet management, security and document workflow features built in, and built for the biggest jobs.
“We’re finding the balance between productivity and costs,” Brian Schmitz, director of Future Product Marketing for HP, told eWEEK. “The real cost savings come in when you talk about workflows.”
Customers of HP’s desktop and midrange printers have been asking the company to expand its range upward, Schmitz continued. “We want to be a one-stop shop, so they can get everything from us, from a $99 desktop printer to the highest-end model.”
In HP’s printer spectrum, the 900 Series is now at the farthest right, supporting offices where monthly page volumes (MPVs) can range from 10,000 to more than 100,000.
There are three color printers in the group and one monochrome—the MFP S956dn. The latter can print 56 pages per minute (ppm) has a first copy output rate of 3.7 seconds, and includes saddle stitching, booklet making and hole-punch finishing options.
The Color MFP S951dn includes the same finishing options, prints in color at 51 ppm and has a first copy output rate of 5.7 seconds in color and 4.1 in monochrome.
A Color MFP S962dn adds an inserter function, folding unit and trimming module to the above-mentioned finishing options; prints 62 ppm; and has a first copy output of 5.6 seconds in color. A Color MFP S970dn includes all of the above finishing options and can print 70 ppm.
What really differentiates the series, though, are HP’s included security, mobility and monitoring solutions.
“Everything is tied to four big trends,” said Schmitz, “mobility, the cloud, big data and security.”
HP’s MFPs offer single-pass, two-sided scanning with EveryPage—the same technology that guarantees how many bills are pushed out by an ATM—so that no page is missed. A 100-page document, for example, can be scanned on both sides and saved to the cloud—or, of course, printed.
HP’s in-printer services include:
—Flow Content Management Professional, a cloud-based content-management solution that provides document capture, storage, search, retrieval, sharing and other tools;
—Access Control, which helps to create a more secure and cost-efficient environment by enhancing device security and management and enforcing companywide printing policies; and
—HP Capture & Route, a server-based, cost-effective tool for scanning and digitally distributing documents. It also enables users to scan and fax information from an existing fleet of multivendor MFPs and scanners, or to do things like scan receipts and send them straight to accounting.
According to HP, customers are increasingly combining managed print services and print-room contracts. Currently 15 percent of enterprises are doing so, and 22 percent are looking into, or planning to look into, using a single provider for their print and office needs.
The new HP S900 Series MFPs, combined with HP’s print solutions, increase the “choice and flexibility” for HP customers, Pradeep Jotwani, HP’s senior vice president of LaserJet and Enterprise solutions, said in a Dec. 10 statement.
“In turn, customers are able to unify their print environments with one vendor to reduce costs, improve workflow and increase productivity,” Jotwani said.