Lexmark’s smart MFP ecosystem grows with new serverless capabilities, mobile solutions

Have you heard the industry term, “smart MFP ecosystem?” It’s one you’ll be hearing a lot from Lexmark.

The company has embraced this term as a way to describe our combination of hardware, software, tools and services.

The concept explains Lexmark’s portfolio of offerings and positions the evolution of our printers to help customers understand how our offerings fit together and work seamlessly to solve their pain points.

Enhancing the ecosystem

To make the ecosystem even more dynamic, Lexmark today announced new serverless solutions and apps for large and small businesses, government agencies, schools and universities.

By reducing or eliminating servers, the solutions help minimize investment related to hardware costs, IT administration and energy consumption, among others.

Included in the announcement:

Lexmark AccuRead Automate

The new serverless Lexmark AccuRead Automate runs entirely on a Lexmark smart multifunction product (MFP) embedded with Perceptive technology. It automates back office processes by helping users capture, automatically classify and route information.

“The solution trains the MFP to classify and preprocess hardcopy documents and extract data before they ever reach an ERP or accounting system,” said Rick Kallop, process improvement consultant for Lexmark. “For what this serverless solution can do, it’s a real game changer.”

“This solution is unique among MFP vendors,” said Rick Robinson, solutions marketing manager. “AccuRead Automate is ideal for small to midsize business customers who do not want to invest in server-based technology, as well as enterprise customers in distributed places, such as retail stores and bank branches, where bandwidth is tight.”

Lexmark Serverless Print Release

The new Lexmark Serverless Print Release enables users to print securely from anywhere within the organization.

Unlike standard Print Release – in which jobs are held in a server on premise or in the cloud before users print them – the Windows-based serverless solution holds the job on the local PC. When the user goes to a printer to release the job, the solution pulls the job off that person’s PC and sends it to the printer.

“With this offering, the IT infrastructure required for print can be reduced by eliminating print servers,” said Mark Vance, program manager in global marketing. “This adds another layer of flexibility to our Lexmark Print Management portfolio for customers ranging from small and medium businesses to global enterprises with remote locations.”

Lexmark Mobile Direct

Lexmark mobile printing solutions enable printing from any mobile device including iOS, Android, Windows, or BlackBerry. Lexmark Print Management is the first print management software solution to become AirPrint certified. Users can print directly into their print release queue using the native print features of iOS. A new offer for printing via direct mobile connectivity is also now available for Android.

Lexmark Mobile Direct allows an Android phone with the Lexmark Mobile Print App to print to a WiFi-enabled printer using near field communication (NFC). The benefit is you don’t have to know the address of the device or do any setup. You can simply hold your phone near the MFP or printer to connect, then tap “print.”

Learn more

Learn more about Lexmark’s smart MFP ecosystem and the new solutions at the following links:

• Lexmark smart MFP ecosystem on Lexmark.com
• AccuRead Automate

Training document data to behave

What if you could train your document data to behave? A new solution from Lexmark could help you manage key information during the pre- and post-scanning of hardcopy documents more efficiently than your current process.

Lexmark’s AccuRead Automate, a serverless application residing on a Lexmark Smart multifunction printer (MFP), helps ensure documents are routed properly and are easily available to those who need them.

“The AccuRead Automate solution trains the MFP to classify and preprocess hardcopy documents and extract data before they ever reach an ERP or accounting system,” said Rick Kallop, process improvement consultant for Lexmark. “For what this serverless solution can do, it’s a real game changer,” Kallop added.

The result is a simpler and easier serverless capture process, requiring little user training. Plus, it runs on your Lexmark MFP, saving the cost and management of an additional server, keeping all activity within your network and behind your firewall.

“Lexmark’s AccuRead Automate solution can be used in horizontal applications across multiple departments such as accounts payable and human resources,” said Doug Frazier, solutions business development manager for Lexmark. “This serverless solution is embedded on the Lexmark device, which helps automate processes and frees up valuable IT resources.”

Lexmark customer Dave Bell, executive director of the Greater Louisville YMCA, has been using the solution and is impressed with its functionality.

“This is one of the most amazing solutions we have implemented,” said Bell. “It will save us hours of time in the processing of our invoices.”

The application has several features to help speed processes and improve efficiencies, and can also be customized to fit a company’s specific data capture needs.

• Document classification: Identifies and automatically classifies the scanned images of documents loaded in the MFP’s automatic document feeder

• Data extraction: Locates and extracts up to four individual fields of data on a page and includes the data in an index file and/or the image file name

• Document routing: Sends images of documents to pre-defined network folders

• Notifications: Communicates job status, required actions or important messages on the MFP touch screen or via email

• Manual review: Lets user verify and edit extracted data at the MFP prior to routing

• Smart file names: Uses extracted data from a document with a time stamp to create dynamic file names and image indexing metadata

• Self-learning technology: Recognizes and automatically classifies new documents without requiring templates

• Searchable PDF creation: Uses AccuRead optical character recognition to make any scanned text-based document searchable

For more information about Lexmark’s AccuRead Automate, click here.

Going green: How Lexmark recycles your toner cartridges

Since 1991, Lexmark has offered its customers free and easy to use methods of recycling their empty toner cartridges through the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program (LCCP). But what happens once Lexmark receives those cartridges?

To gather more intelligence about LCCP, and to find out what the program offers our customers and how it helps the environment, we talked to Rob Burkholder, program manager of supplies sustainability for Lexmark.

Lexmark: What is the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program?  

Burkholder: At Lexmark we are dedicated to environmentally friendly business practices and since our inception, have been encouraging customers to do their part by sending us their used toner cartridges.

The LCCP program incents customers to recycle in several ways:

1. Lexmark provides free customer return methods for toner cartridges
2. Lexmark offers various incentive programs that make it easier to do the right thing
3. Lexmark reuses or recycles the components and parts of the toner cartridges, adhering to a zero landfill and incineration policy

With the help of our customers, the number of cartridges returned per year has increased more than 25 times since 1996, with more than 20 million pounds of material saved from landfills worldwide last year alone.

Lexmark: What are some of the goals of LCCP?

Burkholder: There are two specific supplies sustainability goals related to LCCP.

The first is to increase the amount of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in newly produced parts to 25 percent by 2018. What does this mean? After first sorting through the materials returned via LCCP to recover components that can be reused, some of the remaining plastic is then separated and shredded into flakes. The flakes are then either re-compounded into pellets or used as is. This material is referred to as PCR plastic. The PCR plastic is then combined with new plastic material during the injection molding process to create new components for our toner cartridges.

What previously could have been considered waste contributes to the production of a new product. As more PCR plastic is used, less new material is required, resulting in positive benefits for the environment.

Our second goal is to increase the reuse of cartridge material, by weight, to 50 percent by 2018. For materials returned through the program, reuse has the greatest sustainability benefit for the environment.

In the last 10 years alone, Lexmark has been able to incorporate more than 40 million pounds of material (select components recovered through the LCCP) into the new production of toner cartridges across our line of monochrome printers. These cartridges are produced on the same production lines and are subject to the same rigorous quality tests as cartridges built with all new components. Recent research and development efforts have aided this goal by focusing on the creation of even more robust, durable cartridge designs in conjunction with more energy-efficient printers. The more durable product enables a greater percentage of designated toner cartridge components to be reused after recovery through the LCCP.

Lexmark: How long does the recycling process take?

Burkholder: It could take as little as one month for the transformation from used cartridge to a cartridge ready to print again – from customer replacement to return shipment to receiving, sorting, cleaning, production, testing, distribution, customer receipt, installation and finally printing.

Lexmark: Where in the world can you recycle a Lexmark toner cartridge?

Burkholder: Our collection programs are currently available in more than 60 countries, which represent approximately 90% of our global market. You can go to lexmark.com to find out how you can specifically recycle your toner cartridge in your country.

Lexmark’s Perceptive Software positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for enterprise search

Lexmark announced that Perceptive Software has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders Quadrant for enterprise search solutions, published July 16, 2014. Gartner evaluated 17 vendors in their most recent iteration of the annual Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Search.

“Enterprise search technology enables organizations to make their information, typically from multiple sources, searchable to authorized users in a single user interface,” said Scott Coons, President and CEO, Perceptive Software. “The value of information increases when it is immediately accessible, from any location, on any device and at the precise time it’s needed.”

Perceptive Enterprise Search makes locating key information simple, straightforward and quick. With enterprise search, users can rapidly access the information they need and then take action — completing a task, solving a problem or advancing a business process. And with faceted navigation, entity extraction, natural language support and other intuitive features, users don’t have to enter perfect queries to get the right results.

Perceptive enterprise search products offer class-leading content discovery and output technology that unlocks valuable content regardless of where it exists — enterprise systems, SharePoint, email systems, network shares, websites, databases, social media and any other source. Users also can analyze and explore the relationships between disparate pieces of information.

Perceptive Document Filters, a component of the Perceptive Search product group, is a single product that gives software developers the power of deep inspection, format conversion, output manipulation and viewing for virtually any type of document. It enables you to work directly with extracted content in memory and choose the output modes that fit the diverse needs of your applications—TXT, HTML5, structured XML, searchable PDF or image (JPG, PDF, PNG, BMP or TIFF).

To learn more about what makes Perceptive Software an ECM leader, download the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Search, Whit Andrews, Hanns Koehler-Kruener, July 16, 2014.

My SignShop creates high quality retail signs, labels, tags and more

In many cases, retail businesses rely on a local print shop or corporate headquarters to print their in-store signage. Corporate offices print the signage based on the following week’s sales, then sort, package and send the signage through the mail in bulky, expensive-to-ship containers to franchise stores across the country. The signs are then unloaded, sorted and placed on merchandise throughout the store.

Often times, these signs arrive late, damaged or both, among a host of other issues. This method of distributing signage also leaves the retail manager unable to respond to local price actions, which is key in today’s retail marketplace.

Lexmark is solving the need of retail stores to print signage on demand and on site with the announcement of the Lexmark mySignShop application. MySignShop dynamically builds professional looking signs in a variety of sizes and styles incorporating the customer’s brand and source data from a repository of product details. Combined with Lexmark color single function or multifunction printing devices, this application provides quality high impact signs on demand and in-house.

“This SMB solution delivers the capability to take a unique solution into a new vertical market for our authorized dealers,” said Doug Frazier, manager of Solutions Engagement, North America Channel Business Development, Lexmark. “MySignShop gives dealers a targeted and proven platform to gain entry into the retail environment.”

Because mySignShop is a hosted solution, there’s no server to set up or software to install. You just need a computer with Internet access and a printer.

License, maintenance, setup and a selection of sign templates are included with your subscription. Select from predesigned layouts of branded sign templates in various types and sizes. You can retrieve product information and “point and click” to print signs on demand.

Lexmark adds four new A3/ledger-capable devices to portfolio

Lexmark announced the addition of four new A3/ledger-capable devices to our portfolio of smart MFPs and printers. The Lexmark MS911 monochrome laser printer and Lexmark MX910 series of monochrome laser MFPs replace the previous Lexmark W850 and X860 series, providing a new design and more competitive A3 offerings to complete our enterprise portfolio.

Among the enhancements:

•All of the devices have a tilting eTask touch screen – 4.3-inch on the printer and 10-inch screen on the MFPs – enabling easy access to Lexmark solutions.

•The series reduces downtime with quick time to first print (as fast as 5.2 seconds), “shake-free” toner for fewer user interventions, high capacity input of up to 6,650 sheets and long-life components that require fewer interventions.

•Optional finishing features such as multi-position stapling and hole punching as well as automated folding functionality with saddle stitch binding simplify professional presentation.

•The ability to centrally manage device settings, even from a remote location, provides added security.

"Cost and size advantages of A4/letter devices often make them the best fit in most enterprise environments; however, having A3/ledger devices that can print on 11-inch by 17-inch media can be crucial for certain business applications," said Marty Canning, Lexmark executive vice president and president, ISS. "For those instances, the Lexmark MS911 and MX910 series products are excellent choices, providing simple and consistent user experiences across the fleet with productivity-enhancing solutions that bridge the paper and digital worlds across the enterprise."
 

Four reasons to bank on optimized workflow

What should your company look for in an optimized workflow solution? Perceptive Software’s InContext Magazine examines the benefits and defines the results to aspire to.

Information may be power, but it can also be a complex mess. That’s why organizations across the world and in all types of industries identify better information management as one of their most important goals today.

For example, when asked to name their current top priorities, more than half of the U.S. firms in a recent survey chose the ability to effectively make content available to their staffs when and where they needed it. 

While many workflow solutions are now available, not all of them provide the optimization and comprehensive range of capabilities organizations require. How can decision makers be sure they’re getting the best solution for their needs? 

Read the rest of the article on InContext’s blog, to learn more on how optimized workflow solutions can help streamline your business.