Managing printers and controlling costs

This time round we consider the costs and difficulties of managing printers, and how to control their associated costs.

So, how many printers does your company own? How many people are on staff, and how many pages do they print each day? Do some people use those expensive color printers for everything they print? Try to add up the cost of paper, toner, ink cartridges, the maintenance, wear and tear on the equipment, and you begin to get the picture! Despite this huge expense and its impact on profits, most organisations both big and small just view it as “the cost of doing business” since it’s impossible to control without the right information and tools.

There is an easy solution to these “hidden” printing expenses. They can be easily managed – Print Manager Plus.

Print Manager Plus allows you to monitor Users, User Groups, and Printer usage for a complete print management solution. This system gives you control over these valuable resources, namely printers, paper and toner. No more wasted budget resulting from uncontrolled and irresponsible printing. You’ll be amazed how much you can save by just tracking this outflow.

Print Manager Plus allows you to monitor and reporting on all printing activity on a Windows NT/2000/2003 network. It will track pages being printed from Windows 2003/2000/NT 4.0, 3.51, Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, DOS, Macintosh, UNIX (all flavors), and OS/2 clients.

Print Manager Plus installs in seconds on any Windows Print Server or Work Group and is so cost-effective it often pays for itself within 10 days. If you run on budgets and especially if you are responsible for printing, you need Print Manager Plus.

Print Manager Plus:

• Tracks, controls and reports printing usage and costs across networks.
• Budget or restrict users by dollar (or any currency) amount, number of pages per job, job size and file type.
• Restrict printers by number of pages per job, job size and file type.
• Complete cost and usage accounting.
• Complete reporting.
• Client Billing and Authentication Module available.
• Simple licensing. The product is licensed by print server. Each license covers UNLIMITED printers, users and workstations.

If you would like to learn more about what Print Manager Plus can do to hel;p you manage your printers more effectively, please visit http://www.purplerage.com/printmanagerplus. A 30-day trial is also available from our site at http://www.purplerage.com/download1.php?prod=080.

Understanding the Challenges of Mobile Workers

Here we discuss protection of data held on laptops, and how to provide the best protection with the minimum of overhead.

According to the 451 Group, industry trends point to the rapid evolution of the enterprise mobile laptop as a viable – and permanent – desktop replacement. “Mobile-enabled laptops are getting cheaper; wireless networks are becoming faster and more ubiquitous, and the suite of software needed to securely connect the mobile worker with the office, on the go, is rapidly solidifying.”

For some years IT organisations have focused on mobile, laptop-lugging workforces and the attendant security and data availability issues. As the laptop supplants the desktop, these issues can only be compounded.

How do mobile users or those who “take their work home with them” (even those who decide to take their work to the wi-fi enabled coffee shop on the first floor) keep their data backed up and just as importantly, synchronised? Transparently, consistently, reliably. Synchronisation is a particular challenge as entire business units are increasingly virtual, requiring seamless, real-time collaboration. With information stored on one’s laptop, what happens when that laptop is misplaced, stolen or tampered with?

Given the fluid nature of today’s workforce – with employees jumping from one company to another, what happens when an employee returns a company laptop with an erased hard drive? Presentations, contact information, key documents created, modified and housed on this laptop can be lost forever. These are just several of a number of scenarios that can put your data at risk.

Moreover, with all organisations making data availability a bottom line business imperative, having a backup/synchronisation scheme in place that is tailored to the way laptops are being used – both as mobile devices and, increasingly, as replacements for desktops – is critical.

PeerSync offers a seamless solution to allow mobile users to be backed up at all times, making sure data is constantly available in the event of a system failure. Below are some of the features offered:

* Automated bi-directional backup:
Backup your local files in Real-Time, on a Schedule or on Demand, to a network share device, or any device visible from the Windows machine, allowing for updates to be pushed and pulled from the backup location, based on latest updated file.

* File Revisioning:
Keep multiple versions of a file to allow for retrieval of previous file update.

* Deletion Archiving:
Empower users to store deleted files for x number of days in central location for later restore in the event of a mistaken deletion.

* Byte-Level replication:
Transfer only byte-level changes of a file to minimise bandwidth utilisation.

* Open/Locked Files replication:
Access and transfer locked files, such as PST files, without interrupting the user from using the files.

* TCP Replication :
Synchronise over the internet to a TCP target location.

* PeerSync Observer Enterprise Console:
Allow the Administrator to monitor the multiple PeerSync installations and their individual status to take action in the event of a PeerSync failure, or simply to review the ran backups for the individual users and groups.

If you have 10 or more laptops you need to protect, give us a call on 0871-2500058 (international +44-1684-576373) or email enquiries@purplerage.com so we can discuss your project and the availability of volume licensing.

There are full details on all of the features and modules available for PeerSync on the Purple Rage website at http://www.purplerage/peersync. There is also now a new feature we’ve created on the website so you can create your own quotation. If you’d like to try it out go to http://www.purplerage.com/peersync/quotation.php.