Adding full control to Multifunctional Printers greatly reduces downtime and saves on resources, money and unhappy users.
Today's modern Multi functional printers adds new built in features like scanning, direct email, professional color printing in all sizes, direct fax, ftp services etc. etc. This is all great – hoverer it does introduce a whole set of new parameters that can effect the individual services on the printer or even create a status were the whole printer is out of operations.
New great printer features introduces new control challenges! 
The modern feature rich multi-purpose printers of today requires direct access to potentially a list of services related to the actual printer.
For example:
- Connectivity via local and/or central switches
- Directory services such as Microsoft AD or similar
- DHCP server
- Application Servers
- Print Servers
A fault in any of the above examples could directly effect the services produced by the multifunctional printer.
”30-40% of all helpdesk calls are printer related” - Gartner Group
But are they really? Or is it so that the real problem causing different printer services to fail actually are caused by something else, something that the printer is depending on?
Problem process or what happens when the printer is down?
The pure volume in printer related problems are often solved by outsourcing the whole problem process. Hoverer this very costly and many times the problem analysis from the printing partner concludes that the printer is operational and the problem as the actual problem causing the downtime was generated by “something else” i.e. not the printer itself. This conclusion will generate two issues:
- An invoice from the service partner as the problem was not printer related
- Potentially longer downtime of the printer as the core problem was never detected so its not until the printer technician rules out the printer that the internal IT starts to look for the actual problem.
Understanding what the root problem is and getting a direct notification on effected services such as the printers saves time & money and perhaps most important, keeps the end users a lot happier.
Active monitoring of Multi Service Printers
The power of multi service monitoring with automatic alarms, notifications and professional service level reports are extremely efficient even at a relatively small number of printers. The easy of use and support for all brand printers makes the system very versatile and flexible.
Example view of a Toshiba 3510c
The list of services included in the base monitoring package are:
- FTP running and responstime
- Http/https service and responstime
- Ping
- Telnet
- Toner levels
- Paper levels
- Counters for total print, copies color and black/white, papers sizes.*
* = depending on manufacture
All services can be set up for low or high values and when breached alarms will be generated via sms or email. All data can be graphed in day, week, monthly views for trend analysis.
The power of Printer Service Groups in 3 Simple Steps
1/3 Service Group Summary
2/3 Service Group Overview
By grouping individual and independent services that the printer is depending on we create an easy overview of the dependency map for assuring uptime.
3/3 Detailed Service Status View for Toshiba Printer Host
Another simple click and we get all the full details of all individual dependent services. Any problems in any of the detailed service's will in this example generate a notification to the correct service responsible person or group.
Reports – Your Tool for better Printer Services and Cost of Ownership (CO).
Availability Reports
Automatic availability reports showing uptime and exact time frames on individual printers or groups of printers.
Service Level Reports (SLA reports)
Simple yet easy to read and understand Service Level follow up reports greatly reduces discussions and assures that responsible service engineers delivers the service you are paying for.
Summary
New generation printers adds easy to use and very efficient services to the organization. They do hoverer introduce a challenge in maintaining high uptime for both the classical copy/print functions as well as the new features. op5 Monitor introduces a simple and central way to gain control of the overall picture and greatly reduces time to problem resolution, better general uptime and avoiding unnecessary service charges from your service partner.
About op5
Our business concept is to offer the market the most cost effective solution for IT support organizations. We utilize the power and efficiency of Open Source as the prime component in our product development. op5 has more than 300 satisfied customers in Scandinavia.
For further information please contact us on +46-8-23 02 25 or info@op5.com
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