Hewlett-Packard and Blue Lance joined forces to put each company's expertise to work in the development of a one-of-a-kind print accounting software to meet increasing demand for such a product. After months of working in close conjunction with Hewlett-Packard, Blue Lance recently announced the release of PrintMeter v2.0, the end-result of the corroborative effort. PrintMeter is a sophisticated print accounting program which will enable organizations to identify, track, analyze and save on print-related expenses.
In order to reduce costs, sources of expense must first be identified so that a realistic effort can be made to develop methods for reducing expenses. In the area of printing, this is extremely important due to the fact that organizations have utilized printers for decades without giving much thought to the costs associated with such use because of the lack of a reliable and efficient method of identifying, tracking and analyzing print-related costs. For example, when someone within an organizations needs a document, they simply print the document without giving thought to the costs involved or to possible methods of reducing those costs. PrintMeter provides a detailed insight into sources of print-related expense which has never before been available. Upon identification and analysis of print-related expenses, organizations can fine-tune print budgets, increase user efficiency by educating users on how to print smarter, optimize existing printer workload, and charge back costs to the appropriate user or customer.
Blue Lance relied on its more than ten years of expertise in developing metering software, and Hewlett-Packard's expertise and knowledge relating to printers, to design a product that would provide organizations with a wealth of information regarding print usage. PrintMeter tracks print jobs and accumulates information by user, printer name, company, division, department, work group, organizational level and customer or project. At each level, PrintMeter tracks information on who printed how much, which printer was utilized, which project or assignment the print job was for, the paper type, and whether the job was color or black and white, single or double sided, PCL or postcript. Once collected by PrintMeter, this data can be further analyzed so that organizations can determine sources of various expenses and develop policies to save on print-related costs.
Since the release of PrintMeter v2.0, Blue Lance has seen a tremendous interest in the product by firms of all sizes and from all industries. According to Blue Lance's CEO, Umesh Verma, "Although we knew there was a huge market for this type of product, we are still surprised at the lack of boundaries the market possesses. We have seen interest from very small firms with only one printer to large firms with hundreds of printers. Reasons for purchasing PrintMeter are even more varied than the purchasers. Clients have stated that they intend to use PrintMeter to charge back printing costs to their clients, to justify the expense of a new printer by documenting the level of use of existing printers, to allocate printing costs to appropriate users or departments, to eliminate abuse of print privileges, to reduce overhead, and more. PrintMeter was developed to perform a variety of tasks and to serve a wide range of needs and we are pleased to see that the market has received the product so enthusiastically."
PrintMeter is fully compatible with Novell NetWare. It is a Network Loadable Module and allows fully transparent tracking of print jobs. In addition, it is enriched with features that make it easy to use and enable organizations to better manage printing costs and plan for future printing requirements. As stated by Ormond Rankin, Marketing Manager of Hewlett-Packard's Business LaserJet Division, "PrintMeter is a valuable application for organizations with HP network printers concerned about understanding their network printing activity. Now these companies can easily measure and analyze printing activity and optimize their investment in network printing."
