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To help track, manage and improve the total cost of ownership of output environments, Xerox Global Services, Xerox Corp.s professional consulting services division, released Aug. 6 Version 4.2 of its Xerox Office Services management software tools.
Xerox Office Services tools can be used on either a Xerox or an XGS customer server.
“XOS allows Xerox to help our customers effectively manage their office output devices in order to drive costs down and productivity up,” said Ashby Lowry, vice president of office services at XGS. “Most office output devices are not being managed by their enterprises today, so many companies are missing huge opportunities to truly control costs, reduce unnecessary assets and drive efficiency.”
“This software combines Xeroxs document management expertise and its office consulting services to give customers significant advantage in the race to cut costs and improve productivity,” said Angèle Boyd, group vice president of Imaging/Output & SMB Practices at IDC.
The new graphical-oriented Web-based features in XOS Version 4.2, based on the Print Infrastructure Mining data analysis technology (developed at Xeroxs European Research Centre), provide a dynamic, graphical view of an XGS customers output environment. XOS 4.2 lets XGS technical advisers look at, query, analyze, report and act on information generated by the monitored devices, so they can provide remote advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting, to make devices available again more quickly.
For example, said Lowry, “typically, very few companies understand how much theyre spending to support output devices for TCO, including consumables. XOS 4.2 can help a company decide things like where to move a device, when to take it out of service, whether color or multifunction is needed. The data mining from all the devices on the network helps lower TCO and manage devices more effectively. Were managing and supporting devices for some companies on a global basis—weve had clients with as few as 1,000 devices to upward of 40,000 devices.”
XOS can monitor output devices from Xerox and other vendors, via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). “IT takes the MIB [Management Information Base] data, conditions it, and analyzes it or puts it together for reports,” said Xeroxs Lowry.
XOS requires Windows Server (2000 or later, with .Net) and can be used with Windows and Unix/Linux environments.
Other new features in XOS 4.2, according to Xerox, include enhanced portal services, greater global support, device configuration management, and improved management and reporting.
Version 4.2 of Xerox Office Services is currently available in the United States and Europe. Expanded global deployment is planned by the end of 2007.
Daniel P. Dern is an independent technology writer.