HP Middle East disrupts enterprise printing market

Additionally the company unveiled ground-breaking, ink-based colour multifunction printers (MFP) for departmental use, marking its intent to capture more copier pages.

The HP CM8060/CM8050 Colour MFPs with HP Edgeline Technology offer a powerful new printing engine which leverages HP's investment in Scalable Printing Technology (SPT). Enabling mid and large-sized enterprises to improve productivity and control operating costs, these MFPs for high-volume office document workloads deliver a powerful combination of features addressing key end-user needs such as high-speed performance(1), best-in-class operating costs(2), best-in-class reliability(3), excellent output quality, and intuitive usability.

HP is aiming to deliver more value to customers and capture a significant portion of the $147 billion enterprise printing market, where the digital content explosion has led to a paper-process dominated environment in which printing costs have grown and workflows have become unmanageable for many. Today's introductions are designed to give business customers the tools they need to optimise their printing infrastructure, better manage their printing environment and improve information workflows.

"HP's $1.4 billion investment in Scalable Printing Technology (SPT) has helped understand the challenges that businesses face today, such as navigating through the explosion of digital content while paper processes still dominate and managing costs while improving productivity,"

said Amr Hassan, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East.

"The HP innovations announced today are a direct result of our constant interaction with our valued customers and will surely help redefine how they take hold and manage their imaging and printing environments."

HP also announced HP Web Jetadmin 10.0, a major upgrade to the industry's leading printing fleet management software solution, and the new HP Universal Print Driver 4.0 for Windows®, which is now compatible with Windows Vista™.

Redefining Business Printing with HP Edgeline Technology
The combined market opportunity for HP Edgeline Technology will be more than $30 billion by 2009(4). The new MFPs with Edgeline Technology help customers improve productivity, control expenses, and achieve unprecedented performance and print quality.

The HP CM8060/CM8050 Color MFPs share all features in common, except that the HP CM8060 Color MFP prints at an accelerated rate - up to 60 ppm black and white and 50 ppm colour - while the HP CM8050 Color MFP prints at 50 ppm black and white and 40 ppm colour on plain papers.

The HP CM8060/CM8050 Color MFPs with Edgeline Technology also feature:
• HP Easy Select Control Panel, an award-winning 10-inch colour touch-screen that clearly displays all available applications and settings
• HP AutoNav, an automatic navigation tool that empowers end users with an intuitive way to resolve problems while reducing help desk calls through features such as live action video, step-by-step control panel instructions, and a series of LED guide lights and door sensors that act as "digital breadcrumbs" to easily guide users to the source of the problem for faster time to resolution
• Innovative usage-based service options, saving up to thirty percent on colour printing and copying with usage-based pricing. HP will charge varying pricing for Professional colour usage, General Office colour, and monochrome pages. The new HP Color Accent feature(5) also further reduces costs by charging the black-and-white price for pages that use small amounts of colour.
• New HP Vivera office inks and a bonding agent produce fast-drying, vibrant colour images and crisp text quality at any speed on plain paper, and deliver water and smear-resistant results(6), even with normal highlighter use
• Sold direct from HP or through channel partners with service and support options, customers can lease or purchase the new MFPs from HP with Managed Print Services with multi-tier pricing or Smart Printing Services

Improve Productivity by Effectively Managing the Imaging and Printing Environment
HP Web Jetadmin 10.0 is an imaging and printing fleet management software solution for remotely installing, configuring and managing a wide variety of HP and non-HP network peripherals using only a standard Web browser. Celebrating its 10th year, HP Web Jetadmin 10.0 boasts new features - such as enhanced security, a more intuitive user interface, integrated usage reporting with additional customisable reporting capabilities, links to HP Instant Support and new supplies management capabilities for multiple devices.

New HP Web Jetadmin Consulting Services will make recommendations for the management infrastructure based on Web Jetadmin capabilities. HP Web Jetadmin 10.0 is available for download at www.hp.com/go/webjetadmin.

New features for the award-winning HP Universal Print Driver version 4.0 for Windows include:
• A plug-and-play capability to work with both networked and direct-connected HP devices
• Two operating modes to offer greater flexibility and accommodate the changing needs of the end user
• A single-click print setting for common print jobs to provide a printing shortcut for users
• Real-time print job and device information empowering end users to resolve issues themselves and place fewer calls to the help desk to improve printer uptime, increase productivity and reduce help desk staffing expenses

The HP Universal Print Driver, version 4.0, is expected to be available at the
end of April at www.hp.com/go/UPD.

HP's expanded supplies portfolio enables business customers to bring marketing collateral production in-house in a cost effective manner that matches the quality found with traditional outsourced print jobs.

• HP's new Professional Glossy Paper for Edgeline, designed specifically for use with the HP CM8060/CM8050 Color MFPs, enables business customers to easily and affordably produce professional-quality glossy brochures, flyers and marketing materials right in the office. HP Professional Glossy Paper for Edgeline produces vibrant colours, crisp photos and brilliant graphics with a smooth, glossy, bright white finish.
Reduce Total Costs by Optimising Infrastructure
HP also introduced the following products to allow customers to take control and optimise their imaging and printing infrastructures.
• The newly redesigned HP Color LaserJet CM4730 MFP adds the innovative and award-winning HP EasySelect control panel (touch-screen common across all HP MFPs) that clearly displays all available applications and settings.
• Designed for medium to large-size organisations with paper-intensive workflows, the HP 9250c Digital Sender is equipped with an external pull-out keyboard, provides a fast and secure method to digitise paper documents and electronically distribute, archive and organise them easily and efficiently.
• The HP JetDirect 630n IPv6 Gigabit Ethernet Print Server and Jetdirect en 1700 IPv4/IPv6 Print Server maximise IT efficiency and optimise device utilisation for highly efficient printer networking.

Enhance Business Results through Improved Workflow
HP helps its customers automate manual processing to streamline information flows, from a departmental to a global basis, resulting in greater compliance readiness while reducing the risk of error. These solutions improve business results by increasing the operational effectiveness of customers.

New solutions to improve workflow include:
• HP Output Management Web Console: Job Manager (powered by SAP® NetWeaver™) is a powerful web-based tracking and management solution for both administrators and end users. It provides reliable, seamless delivery of business-critical documents to multiple destinations within an enterprise, as well as extensive management and delivery features.(7)
Additional information on the HP products announced today is available at www.hp.com or join the conversation about today's announcement by participating in the LaserJet blog at http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/laserjet.