Lexmark unveils new suite of cloud solutions

February 19, 2019

Lexmark has announced the availability of Lexmark Cloud Services, a suite of cloud solutions designed to help businesses remove the IT burden of managing their printing infrastructure, and help partners save time and money by managing their customers’ devices remotely.

The new offering has already received industry recognition, today named Outstanding Print Environment Management Solution by analysts at Keypoint Intelligence – Buyers Lab.

“According to a June 2018 Gartner report, How the Cloud Office Duopoly Affects Wider IT Strategies, ‘…By 2021, more than 70 percent of businesses will be substantially provisioned with cloud office capabilities.’ It’s crucial that they do so in a way that minimises security risks and creates greater efficiencies,” said Allen Waugerman, Lexmark Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. “Our suite of services is specifically designed to simplify the pathway to the cloud by reducing infrastructure requirements for print, simplifying device management, and providing print solutions that enhance productivity, security and flexibility.”

The Lexmark Cloud Services offering includes:

•       Lexmark Cloud Print Management provides secure print release with deployment flexibility to meet the needs of each customer, including an innovative hybrid option that keeps print jobs inside the firewall for those environments that lack bandwidth or have unique compliance requirements.   
•       Lexmark Cloud Fleet Management allows Lexmark channel partners to remotely manage devices at customer locations. Partner technicians can update firmware, apps and settings from any location, saving time and money.
•       Real-time analytics provide a snapshot of all printing, copying and scanning activity across the enterprise, enabling data-driven decision making and continuous improvement.
•       Lexmark Cloud Connector enables organisations to access, store and print documents from popular content sharing sites.

Lexmark Cloud Print Management (CPM) holds submitted print jobs in a personal queue until the user authenticates at a specific printer to release the jobs. This lets the user choose the most convenient printer anywhere in the company, ensures unclaimed documents with sensitive information are not lying around, and eliminates waste from documents that are printed but never retrieved. Lexmark CPM lets IT organisations get rid of the cost and headaches of print servers, print queues, and print driver management. Lexmark CPM also supports mobile printing from iPhone, iPad or Android smartphones and tablets.

The innovative hybrid option is a good choice for organisations that are challenged with compliance and bandwidth constraints. The hybrid option keeps print jobs inside the firewall, sending only the print job metadata to the cloud to enable analytics.

Lexmark Cloud Fleet Management makes Lexmark partner technicians more productive by providing them secure remote access to their customers’ Lexmark devices within an easy-to-use portal. Through the remote access portal, partner technicians can update firmware and security settings to multiple devices; view, manage and configure each customer’s Lexmark devices and apps; troubleshoot issues; retrieve page counts; and easily configure devices. As a result, Lexmark partners save travel time and costs, while quickly and efficiently addressing customer concerns.

“Configuring devices onsite can be a costly and time-intensive endeavour for partners,” said Sammy Kinlaw, Lexmark Vice President, Worldwide Channel and OEM sales. “The remote management feature on Lexmark Cloud Fleet Management reduces the time needed to configure systems from days to minutes, enabling Lexmark partner technicians to update an entire fleet’s firmware with just a few clicks.”

All Lexmark Cloud Services are supported by a real-time analytics dashboard, which gives organisations greater insight into their printing, copying and scanning practices. The dashboard provides real-time statistics on usage levels across individuals, business units, devices or offices, allowing organisations to identify additional cost saving opportunities and export data for additional analysis.

For even greater functionality, the Lexmark Cloud Connector effortlessly connects users to files housed on popular content sharing sites, such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive accounts. Once registered, users can access and print from, or scan and upload to, their cloud service of choice.

“The Lexmark Cloud Services platform brings tremendous value to our customers and partners,” Waugerman said. “The ability to provide users with secure print release while eliminating internal print infrastructure aligns with our customers’ cloud-first initiatives. Lexmark will continue to deliver exciting new cloud services offerings in the months to come.”

The cloud solution is already garnering wide industry support, today recognised by Keypoint Intelligence – Buyers Lab. Jamie Bsales, Director, Solutions Analysis at Keypoint Intelligence commented: “Managing a print environment can be very resource-intensive for IT personnel. There are drivers, firmware, print queues, and device configurations to manage, devices to secure, and more. Lexmark Cloud Services is a wide-ranging solution that provides businesses with a simple yet powerful print environment management solution that can save time for IT personnel and cut print costs.”

For more information, go to www.lexmark.com.

Categories : Products and Technology

Tags : Cloud Solutions Lexmark