The most recent articles from IT Week

LG unveils tougher monitors

Daniel Robinson — 2008-07-08T13:10:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Tuesday 8 July 2008 at 13:10:00

Displays built to withstand the rigours of use in public spaces

LG Electronics has introduced a range of toughened monitors designed to survive the rigours of use in public spaces such as public libraries, schools, internet cafes and airports.

Available now, the L42PP series feature a tempered glass covering over the LCD panel instead of the acrylic seen on most other monitor designs. LG claimed this is almost three times as tough, and can withstand a 1.2lb (0.54kg) steel ball dropped onto its surface.

"The extra-thick glass used on the L42PP range protects the screen from those everyday knocks, so organisations don’t need to endure the cost of replacing their monitors so often," said LG marketing manager Fiona Landsberg.

The 19in L1942PP and the 17in L1742PP cost about £130 and £114, respectively, and both support display resolutions up to 1280 x 1024.

Multiple monitors ready for mainstream use

Daniel Robinson — 2008-02-08T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Friday 8 February 2008 at 00:00:00

DisplayLink offers users multiple screen technology via a simple USB connection

Multi-monitor displays are a familiar sight on trading floors and in design studios, but they could soon become a more common sight on the desks of ordinary users, thanks to technology that cuts the cost of supporting a second screen. It also makes adding one as easy as plugging in a USB mouse.

DisplayLink has developed technology that enables an extra display to be added to any PC using a USB connection. Support for this technology is now embedded in some flat-screen monitors from vendors such as Samsung and LG, while Toshiba has used it in a laptop docking station, and plug-in adapters are available that add a USB connection to standard monitors.

Jason Slaughter, marketing director at DisplayLink, said despite the productivity benefits of multi-monitor displays, cost has held them back from mainstream use.

“A typical Intel-based PC with embedded graphics needs an extra card to support more than one monitor, and this can cost half a day in downtime if it has to go back to the IT department to be upgraded,” Slaughter said.

By contrast, a monitor with DisplayLink support can simply be plugged in. “If the DisplayLink driver has been rolled out beforehand, someone can simply go round with the extra displays,” he added.

DisplayLink’s solution is a chip that can be embedded in a monitor, plus driver software that creates a virtual graphics adapter for each monitor connected to a PC. Up to six extra screens can be daisy-chained through the USB port.

While USB displays may not be suitable for the most demanding applications, the technology currently supports resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels and can even handle moving video, as the driver only updates each monitor when its display changes.

“DisplayLink uses little CPU time. You can play two DVD movies at the same time, depending on the power of your CPU,” said Slaughter.

Supporting DisplayLink adds about £40 to the price of a monitor, but the company expects this to eventually drop to £10. Slaughter said he hoped display vendors will offer it as a standard feature in business-oriented models.

DisplayLink is looking to support higher resolutions with USB 3.0, which will offer data rates up to 5.2Gbit/s. The firm is also planning for wireless USB later in 2008.

Wireless USB uses a low-power radio link to offer USB 2.0 speeds of up to 480Mbit/s over a distance of a couple of metres. It will enable laptop users to connect up a desktop screen and keyboard without needing cables, said Slaughter.

Why I'm cheesed off with the mouse

Alistair Dabbs — 2007-12-03T00:00:00.000Z

Alistair Dabbs, IT Week, Monday 3 December 2007 at 00:00:00

The mouse has constrained user interface design for decades - so when will it be replaced?

Tea week punt in any-come beauty work flow is the into face beet wean tea machine anti human.

Sorry, I’ll switch off this voice recognition software. What I said into the microphone was: “The weak point in any computing workflow is the interface between the machine and the human.”

About a decade ago, I sat on a panel of a user-level tech conference, blurting out off-the-cuff responses to questions from the audience. Inevitably, someone came up with the perennial favourite about whether the humble computer mouse will ever be replaced by something better. The responses from the panel were the usual silliness about virtual reality gloves, as seen in many movies.

Most of us expressed a frustration with having to interact with what we can see on-screen using just one hand, while the other, one assumes, withers away from atrophy. However, panicking under the harsh stage lights, we had forgotten that one of the panellists had only one arm. A friend of mine, he lost his arm as a teenager in a road accident.

Not only does he cope with one arm, he is a 3D modelling designer. If you have ever worked with 3D software, you will appreciate how difficult it is to interact in virtual space using a mouse pointer that only moves in two dimensions.

But his take on the topic had nothing to do with dexterity or dimensional space. His frustration was that mice only let you do three things: point, click and drag. Compared with the manipulative capability of the human hand, a computer mouse interface lacks versatility. As well as wanting to point, click and drag, my friend wanted to push, pull, insert, peel, stretch, flick, reach out, shake, grip, chop and more.

Ten years and thousands of repetitive strain injury (RSI) sufferers later, not a great deal has changed. Sure, there have been big improvements in the technical design of mice, most notably the introduction of optical tracking and Bluetooth connectivity. But what happened to the alternatives? If anything, because of the demise of trackballs and the sheer idiocy of those uncontrollable touchpad things on laptops, the mouse is more entrenched than ever.

Look back 20 years, and it’s clear that rather than supporting the development of desktop operating systems, the mouse has actually defined them to fit its own limited capabilities. To allow a true next-generation of client systems to develop, we need to invent a more manipulative device that will redefine how humans interact with computers.

The nearest thing to what my friend suggested a decade ago is the controller set-up for Nintendo’s Wii game console.

Firms should tone down green rhetoric

Alistair Dabbs — 2007-11-02T00:00:00.000Z

Alistair Dabbs, IT Week, Friday 2 November 2007 at 00:00:00

The happy-smiley environmental claims of printer makers are nonsense and should be ditched

Green has become the big business issue of 2007; every company wants to be seen as environmentally friendly. The optimist in me would like to believe that airlines, food producers and heavy industries are today run by people who grew up influenced by John Craven’s Newsround in the 1970s and 1980s. The pessimist in me sniggers that it’s a cynical plan to milk a trusting market.

IT is an easy target for criticism thanks to its massive power consumption and all those obscure noxious chemicals that are used in hardware manufacture. But the area about which IT vendors seem to make the loudest “green” claims is printing. I guess this is because of printing’s association with paper and, therefore, with trees, the enduring symbol of nature. Printer manufacturers don’t want to be seen to be encouraging people to kill trees.

The hippy-green publicity bandwagon is starting to get silly. Brother says it is working “in harmony with the environment”; Epson refers to its “Earth-friendly” products; Canon wants to be known as an “eco-tech corporation”. Kyocera’s corporate motto is “Respect the divine and love people”.

If you think a noisy chunk of mains-powered metal, plastic and electrically charged microdust that churns out management accounts and bad smells fits harmoniously within Mother Earth’s natural eco-sphere, I have some Wiccan friends who beg to differ.

We should also question that Holy Grail of so-called “green” benchmarks for business, the ISO 14000 series of standards. Achieving ISO 14001, for example, means that you have an environmental management system in place - but this is all about procedures, not proof that you are ecologically better than any other company. It’s a bit like your company publicising that it adheres to employment law - this doesn’t mean you’re a good employer, it means that you fire people nicely.

There’s a great deal more to printing than killing trees, anyway. How is the ink and toner made, and are there any toxic residues? Does the manufacturer have a cartridge return-and-recycle operation in place? Will it collect the old printer when you buy a new one, and how will it dispose of it?

The industry needs to ditch silly mottos about harmony with nature when they are just not true. Printing is not an eco-friendly business any more than McDonald’s selling salad makes it a haven for healthy eating.

The firms that deserve our respect are those that acknowledge their “environmental impact” and demonstrate ways in which they are limiting the damage. Printer manufacturers certainly talk the talk, but can they deliver on it?

IT Week Leader: The colour of money

IT Week Staff — 2007-10-08T00:00:00.000Z

IT Week Staff, IT Week, Monday 8 October 2007 at 00:00:00

Firms will welcome new technology from Xerox

Printing costs are one expense that businesses always seem to be trying to control, so the announcement by Xerox of new colour printers that it claims cost no more to run than mono lasers should be good news all round for firms.

Sadly, life is seldom so straightforward, and so it turns out here. Other factors have to be taken into account, such as the purchase price of the equipment. In this case, the higher cost of the printer hardware offsets the cost savings unless you produce a great many colour pages per month. Recent research by analyst firm Gartner also shows that solid ink printers consume more energy per printed page than the familiar laser technology – not ideal for IT managers under pressure to cut energy consumption as well as costs.

While Xerox should be applauded for taking a step in the right direction, it seems that printing still has some way to go until the difference between black-and-white and colour has been completely eroded when all costs are taken into consideration.

So, while the vendors would like everyone to use more colour, IT managers should pass a critical eye over the total costs first.

Xerox moves to cut colour print costs

Daniel Robinson — 2007-10-02T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Tuesday 2 October 2007 at 00:00:00

New efficiencies mean no price differentiator between colour and mono

In a bid to increase the use of colour in standard business documents Xerox has introduced new printers that output colour documents costing no more than the same prints would in black-and-white, according to the firm.

The Xerox Phaser 8860 printer is available immediately, while a multi-function print, copy and fax version, the Phaser 8860MFP, is due to ship in November. Both models are based on solid ink printing rather than a laser process, but Xerox claims to have updated this technology so that the combined cost of the three primary colour refills is the same as the black ink the printers use.

"Customers talk about colour printing and mono printing, but there's no need to differentiate between the two anymore – you can let the document decide," said Darren Cassidy, director and general manager for office business at Xerox.

Cost is the main reason for companies not using colour printing, according to figures from consultant InfoTrends. Xerox said the new formula it has developed for its solid ink media brings it in line with mono laser printers.

"If we take the price barrier away, there's no reason not to move to colour, " said Judith Schunke, European public relations manager for Xerox.

However, Sharon McNee of analysts Gartner said the new Xerox printers were more costly to purchase than rival hardware, adding that this cancelled out the benefit of cheaper colour prints for many buyers. "You would have to print a thousand colour pages per month or more before you would see any payback," she said.

The Phaser 8860 prints at up to 30 pages per minute in both colour and black-and-white and costs £1,699. The Phaser 8860MFP has comparable specifications but costs £2,919.

Jury still out on laser printer pollution

Martin Courtney — 2007-09-04T00:00:00.000Z

Martin Courtney, IT Week, Tuesday 4 September 2007 at 00:00:00

Are ultrafine particles emitted by laser printers damaging to office workers’ health?

Evidence that particle emissions from laser printers are harmful remains elusive, but a new report published last month suggests some devices at least have the potential to pollute offices more than others.

Testing conducted by the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia examined a range of printers from four manufacturers: HP, Mita, Ricoh and Toshiba.

The tests found that 12 of the 13 devices that emitted the highest level of particles into the atmosphere were HP LaserJet models, with the other a Toshiba. The QUT acknowledged that the printer test base was limited, however, and the toxicity of the emissions not defined, making an accurate conclusion difficult.

"While a more comprehensive study is still required – to provide a better database of printer emission rates, as well as their chemical characteristics – the results from this study imply that sub-micrometer particle concentration levels in an office can be reduced by a proper choice of the printers," the report stated.

Though the topic of laser printer pollution has been debated for many years, the question of whether printer particle emissions are harmful remains unanswered.

Mike Dinsdale, head of communications and corporate social responsibility (CSR) at printer manufacturer Brother UK, pointed out that QUT research was by no means the first to identify laser printers as a possible source of pollution in offices. But it is the first to be conducted by atmospheric experts and is therefore significant.

"What we are talking about is airborne dust that has a number of possible impacts. If the dust is very small, it can penetrate the pores and be a source of irritation to the skin, eyes and nose, and maybe have an impact on asthma sufferers as well," Dinsdale said.

Breathing in the toner used in laser printers, and the chemicals that it includes, represents the biggest fear for workers, but other substances may be to blame.

"It is not just toner, and the report does not identify the size and type of particles emitted, but I suspect it is primarily paper dust, which varies according to the paper type, size and the guillotine," explained Dinsdale.

The QUT survey did suggest that particle emissions were slightly higher when printing graphics, however, which require more dense toner coverage, and also when the toner cartridge was new.

HP was unavailable for comment but did release a statement in response to the QUT’s findings. The company said it conducts its own printer emission tests and has engaged with independent organisations in the US and Germany to do the same.

"Testing of ultrafine particles (UFPs) is a very new scientific discipline. There are no indications that ultrafine particle emissions from laser printing systems are associated with special health risks," the statement said. " Currently, the nature and chemical composition of such particles – whether from a laser printer or from a toaster – cannot be accurately characterised by analytical technology."

UWB pulls plug on laptop cables

Daniel Robinson — 2007-08-03T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Friday 3 August 2007 at 00:00:00

New laptops with ultra-wideband technology will be able to dock or link to peripherals without using wires

Laptop users could soon have a more convenient way to dock with desktop peripherals, thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communications. The technology promises to do away with the cables for devices such as the mouse and keyboard, and at least one vendor is using it in a wireless docking station.

UWB is a short-range wireless technology and chiefly refers to the WiMedia radio that underpins the new Wireless USB standard. The first products certified for Wireless USB have recently been unveiled in the US, including laptops from Dell and Lenovo. Meanwhile, Toshiba has also made available a docking station that connects whenever the laptop is close to the device.

UWB offers high data throughput by spreading communication across a broad range of frequencies, but its low power means it can only achieve high speed – up to 480Mbit/s – over a distance of a couple of metres. Low power transmission also means that although it overlaps with other wireless standards, it should not cause interference.

The WiMedia radio is being used in a number of wireless standards. Wireless USB uses it as a channel to carry USB signals, so devices such as a wireless mouse will work with existing drivers, according to the USB Implementers Forum. It will also be used in future Bluetooth devices that need an extra high-speed channel for large data transfers.

Dell’s Inspiron 1720 and Lenovo’s Thinkpad T61 and T61p are the first laptops to be certified for Wireless USB, enabling them to be used with wireless peripherals.

A Dell spokesperson said that the company plans to make the technology available as an option across its consumer laptops this year, but would not say when it may appear in the firm’s Latitude business range. Lenovo said its ThinkPads already have a built-in UWB antenna and that it will ship an add-in card later in the year for UK customers.

Meanwhile, Toshiba is using the basic radio to provide a wireless docking station for its Portégé R400 Tablet PC. This is now shipping in the US as an option, and connects the laptop to a wired Ethernet connection and a desktop monitor, as well as providing desktop USB ports.

“Using the UWB standard, we are docking automatically whenever the notebook is in range, supporting Ethernet as well as video,” said Toshiba’s product manager for portables, Ken Chan.

Toshiba does not yet have a date set for when UK buyers will be able to purchase the wireless docking station. The UK version of the Portégé R400 is also currently shipping without UWB, and the technology may not be added until it can be supported across Europe, according to Chan.

Brother goes back to the future with inkjet innovations

James Murray — 2007-07-20T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Friday 20 July 2007 at 00:00:00

Printer manufacturer invests in low energy technologies as paper becomes more precious

Innovations in inkjet, rather than laser printing, hold the key to developing a new generation of highly energy efficient printers, according to printer manufacturer Brother.

Speaking to IT Week's BusinessGreen blog, Mike Dinsdale head of communications and CSR at Brother UK and a former engineer at the company, said that it was impossible to deliver significant improvements in the energy efficiency of laser printers and as a result, environmentally-conscious firms were likely to turn to next generation inkjet printers as a means of reducing the energy consumption of their printers.

"We might be able to cut laser printers' energy use by 10 percent or so, but laser is by definition an energy hungry technology," he said. "If you are going to deliver real energy efficiency it has to come from inkjet, and the trick is to make the print head long enough so that it doesn’t have to move and you don't need a motor."

Dinsdale said Brother was currently developing a long head inkjet printer for printing photographs, which would be available by 2009 and promises to print 170 pages a minute boasting 600dpi and using just 13.5w/h of energy. In contrast, he said a current inkjet printer would use 40w/h and a laser printer up to 600w/h. He added that the company was also working on a similar long head printer for office use that would consume just 60w/h when in use.

Dinsdale predicted that growing concerns over the energy consumption of IT kit, particularly among public sector accounts, would convince many companies to adopt the new generation of inkjet printers.

"At the moment laser has an advantage in terms of speed, but long head will change tha," he argued. "We're convinced inkjet has a big future, though we accept it will need a real shift in industry and customer attitudes. It is concern over energy consumption that will stimulate that change in attitude."

The new energy efficiency inkjet printers are just part of a wider environmental strategy, according to Dinsdale, which has seen the company invest heavily in non-printer technologies, such as reusable paper and electronic paper display units that could help promote the paperless office.

"We have to accept that paper will become more precious and we may have to move on," he said. "We are throwing a huge amount of money into research and the vast majority of it isn’t going into conventional technologies, but into new systems."

Big Brother watches the print pennies

Martin Courtney — 2007-07-11T00:00:00.000Z

Martin Courtney, IT Week, Wednesday 11 July 2007 at 00:00:00

Printer giant unveils raft of new high speed laser printers aimed at branch offices and home workers

Brother will next month deliver three new colour laser printers supporting secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption for use in corporate branch offices and teleworker environments.

Announced yesterday the HL 4040CN, 4050CDN and 4070CDW all offer 20 page per minute (ppm) colour and monochrome print speed, 2400x600dpi resolutions and 64MB of memory, whilst the HL-4070CDW provides 802.11g WiFi alongside wired Ethernet connectivity.

Prices range from £299 to £470, up to 100 per cent more than printers from rival manufacturers such as Xerox, HP and Lexmark, which offer colour lasers of similar size and resolution with similar consumable costs.

However, Brother’s UK managing director John Sasaki points out that the faster print speeds, enabled by a new single pass print engine, help the HL-400 series achieve much lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

"Printing documents takes time, and that time is a cost to the customer as well," he said. "How much time would they waste if they purchased a cheaper printer?"

Fast colour printing remains the luxury rather than the rule in most offices, but Sasaki argued that many people working in corporate branch offices or their own homes now need more reliable colour lasers rather than monochrome lasers or colour inkjets to produce the documents they need.

"People in corporate branch offices need colour printing to produce customer documents where inkjets are still too slow. Even in shops, it is sometimes necessary to have a colour copier to produce leaflets, and we are seeing more documents feature Excel charts that require colour as well," he added.

Fujitsu helps mobile workers

David Neal — 2007-07-04T00:00:00.000Z

David Neal, IT Week, Wednesday 4 July 2007 at 00:00:00

New HDD can cope with large amounts of data

Fujitsu last week unveiled a compact 300GB External Hard Disc Drive (HDD) that should appeal to mobile workers looking to transport and secure large amounts of data.

The USB 2.0 device can be charged via a laptop and features a 16-point omnidirectional shock mounting design that should prevent damage to data through accidents. It also comes with Data Protection Suite for PC security and backup tools pre-installed.

Also bundled with the drive are Apricorn’s EZ Gig II for Windows, which lets firms back up a system as an image or exact clone, and can compress these into a single file; the Cryptainer encryption programme, which uses 448bit encryption to secure data; and Second Copy 2000 tools, which enable smooth file-sharing and multiple backups.

The drive is expected to be released in the US in autumn. UK pricing and availability details have yet to be announced.

Toshiba to add recyclable toner technology to more printers

James Murray — 2007-06-08T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Friday 8 June 2007 at 00:00:00

Recycling technology that promises to eradicate the problem of waste toner is to be rolled out across Toshiba's portfolio

Printing giant Toshiba has confirmed it is keen to expand its recyclable toner technology right across its portfolio in a move it hopes will eradicate the hassle and environmental problems posed by disposing of waste toner.

The company said it plans to introduce its 100 percent toner recycling technology to four more of its mono multi-functional printers (MFPs) next year, taking to 11 the number of models available with the new technology.

"A lot of our customers, particularly in the corporate market where environmental concerns are so prevalent, see it as an important feature and we want to make it standard on all our mono machines over time," said Jamie Mackenzie, Product Manager at Toshiba. "It will take a bit longer to introduce it to colour machines as it needs a different mechanical approach, but ultimately we aim to introduce it there too."

The system works by collecting waste toner that falls off the page and feeding it back into new toner, where an electronic charge process ensures it attaches itself to the new toner so it can be re-used.

Mackenzie said that this process could be undertaken with "no detriment to print quality", and not only removed the need to collect and dispose of the waste toner, but also ensured that toner cartridges last longer as none of the substance is going to waste. "You get a percentage more printing from the same amount of toner," he said.

The toner recycling mechanism is part of a wider strategy at Toshiba to limit the environmental impact of its products, according to Mackenzie, which has also seen it invest heavily in developing document management software solutions that help reduce the need for printing and power-saving mechanisms that enhance its products' energy efficiency.

Ricoh uses gel printers to attack inkjet market

Daniel Robinson — 2007-05-01T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Tuesday 1 May 2007 at 00:00:00

New GelSprinter printers offer laser speeds at a price closer to inkjets

Ricoh has introduced a range of desktop printers using a gel-based colour system instead of the familiar inkjet technology. This allows the devices to print at up to 30 pages-per-minute, according to the firm, and makes them an economical alternative to inkjets.

Unlike many other desktop printers, the company is also backing the models with a two-year on-site service warranty.

The new GelSprinter Aficio GX3000, GX3050N and GX5050N are the first printers to be launched in the UK using this technology, according to Ricoh. The A4 models are capable of producing up to 30 pages-per-minute in both colour, and black and white.

"The technology has the speed of a laser, but the purchase cost is closer to an inkjet," said Ricoh senior product manager, Helen Berentzen. Running costs are also lower, she added.

Developed by Ricoh, the GelSprinter process uses pigment-based colours that sit on the surface of the paper instead of soaking into the fibres. This produces a fast-drying and waterproof finish that does not smudge, blur or bleed, the company said.

It also enables duplex printing, allowing firms to save paper by using both sides, something that is difficult or impossible with inkjets. All three Aficio models support this as standard.

Confident of the technology's reliability, Ricoh is offering a two-year, on-site warranty for the new printers, and will swap out any unit that cannot be repaired.

"Not many suppliers are able to do this at this end of the market," said Berentzen.

Prices for the GelSprinter Aficio range start at £128 for the GX3000, which has a USB connection and optional network interface. The GX3050N and GX5050N cost £178 and £249 respectively and include networking as standard.

How to tone down printer costs

Martin Courtney — 2007-04-30T00:00:00.000Z

Martin Courtney, IT Week, Monday 30 April 2007 at 00:00:00

New leasing services and better output controls could help enterprises reduce their printer costs

Managing large fleets of printers is a tiresome job for any IT department, but it is particularly irksome if support staff need to cover multiple offices.

In this situation, passing the responsibility to a third party or printer vendor can sometimes be worth the expense. The problem then comes in calculating a fair price for leasing and maintaining a variety of print devices producing different types of output.

HP recently pledged to make the pricing for usage-based print services more transparent, giving IT managers an itemised list of exactly who printed what and where, and how much it cost per page in terms of paper, ink and maintenance charges.

Unfortunately, the vendor was unable to back up its pledge with hard numbers. An estimate for how much it would cost a firm to print, say, 500 colour pages on one of HP’s new CM8060 multi-function printers (MFPs) would have been useful, but the vendor couldn’t oblige because, it said, so many variables need to be taken into account. These include such things as volume discounts, which are set according to how many devices the service contract covers and how many years the customer is willing to sign up for.

The deal also involves HP making an assessment of an organisation’s print requirements, then applying a monthly charge based on what is essentially a prediction. A firm might end up paying more or less than it otherwise would depending on, say, how many holiday pictures are knocked out by staff during a particular period.

Eliminating such unwarranted use of business printers is an obvious way to cut costs, and is an issue that vendors are increasingly focusing on. Soon all business-class printers will feature integrated authentication mechanisms that make printers available on a strictly need-to-print basis. Biometrics and smart card readers may be a security step too far for most organisations, but obliging workers to input simple PIN codes alongside a user name and password at the device before a job can be processed will go a long way to making sure that nobody is frittering away expensive colour ink.

The average enterprise has a lot of printing slack, some of which can be tightened by replacing dedicated copiers with space-saving print-copiers that use less electricity than two separate units.

The big question is not whether money can be saved, but how much of those potential savings will fall back into printer vendors’ pockets through outsourced print services.

Dicom launches new Document Exchange Server

James Murray — 2007-04-18T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Wednesday 18 April 2007 at 00:00:00

New suite is designed to integrate document input devices with back office systems

Document management software specialist Dicom Group has today announced a major update to its Kofax document capture software product line with the launch of a suite designed to integrate document input devices with back office processes and systems.

The company said that the new Kofax Document Exchange Server would provide a central platform for integrating multiple input devices, such as multi-functional printers, scanners, faxes and emails, with back office ERP, CRM, content management and workflow systems that support transactional business processes such as invoice processing and new account openings.

Kofax product manager Bruce Orcutt said the new functionality would suit highly distributed environments where paper-based content initiates business processes. "For example, in the financial services sector, where a branch office often initiates a new account, the product could be used to scan new customer details and automatically transfer them into the back office systems," he explained.

The company said this integration would allow firms to streamline and standardise business processes, regardless of the input devices they are using, allowing them to reduce operational and management costs, automate paper-based processes, and enhance customer services.

Mark Wallace, product marketing manager at Dicom, said the new suite also incorporated scanning functionality that automatically improves the orientation and quality of scanned documents, and a browser-based document management application, called Document Exchange, that allows users to preview documents and send them to their desired destination. He added that the application can be accessed from both users' PCs and the control panel on new multi-functional printers.