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Employees at household goods company Procter & Gamble will soon be able to print e-mails, presentations and other business documents directly from their smartphones, according to a press release from printer vendor Xerox.
At the company’s Goldmine event today, P&G unveiled Xerox’s new mobile print solution as part of its Enterprise Print Services (EPS) strategy. The company said through EPS, P&G can simplify and digitize its global printing infrastructure by consolidating devices and controlling how and when documents are printed.
Using any smartphone device, employees can send documents to a secure server or cloud. Documents are held in the cloud until the employee walks up to any printer in the network and enters a code to release the prints.
The mobile print solution is the first result of the Xerox and P&G Innovation Council, created to explore future work and technology trends and to design solutions that will benefit the P&G business. Mobile print supports P&G’s “Give Back 500 Million Minutes” program by reducing time employees spend on print and output-related issues.
“We have more than 20,000 employees using mobile devices, so taking the hassle out of working on the road is also going to boost employee satisfaction and efficiency,” explained Filippo Passerini, P&G’s president of global business services and chief information officer. “Xerox’s mobile print capability keeps printing easy and secure-maintaining our agile global workforce and protecting P&G’s brand and intellectual property at the same time.”
The mobile print solution builds on the EPS platform, allowing employees to print without downloading software, mapping to a printer or booting up their laptops. Developed with customers like P&G, mobile print is the newest addition to Xerox EPS, a platform organized to address an organization’s entire print infrastructure.
According to research firm IDC’s recent managed print services MarketScape report, companies considering mobile print services should look at the breadth of a vendor’s offerings and the strategic direction for future services. The report found a well-executed MPS program can slash costs up to 30 percent, increase productivity and improve environmental sustainability.
“The mobile print capability is an example of how Xerox is extending the value of managed print services for our clients and empowering them with innovative services that benefit their core business,” said Stephen Cronin, president of Xerox Global Services. “Our comprehensive approach delivers the future of printing-cost-effective, productive, environmentally sustainable and mobile.”