Inkjet & Digital Printing
Sharp and Equitrac Announce Equitrac Embedded Solution for Sharp OSA(TM) Multi-Function Peripherals
Wednesday 05. March 2008 - Equitrac Office(R) and Equitrac Express(R) with Sharp OSA-enabled MFPs Provides Easy Front-panel Access to Industry-leading Print Tracking & Cost Management Solutions
Equitrac Corporation and Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) announced today the integration of Equitrac’s award-winning print management and cost-control solutions with Sharp OSA(TM)-enabled multifunctional peripherals (MFPs).
Announced here today at the annual AIIM-On Demand Conference & Exhibition, the integration of Equitrac Office(R) 4 and Equitrac Express(R) 4 solutions with Sharp OSA(TM)-enabled devices will provide users of Sharp MFPs in the general office, enterprise and education environments with embedded front- panel access to popular Equitrac document tracking and cost management features, including Secure Print Release and Follow-You Printing(TM).
Equitrac Embedded for Sharp OSA-enabled MFPs provides IT managers in enterprise, office and educational environments with flexible authentication and authorization capability, and the tools they need for accurate tracking of all document activities, including printing, copying, faxing and scanning. This advanced solution captures the number of pages, size, color and other job attributes, and designation of the desired output destination for all documents.
It also enables highly efficient cost-saving rules implementation and management, including color quota enforcement and output rules for copying, as well as centralized and easy application and management of account limits for all printing and copying functions.
“Equitrac is very pleased to announce this integration of Equitrac solutions with Sharp OSA(TM)-enabled MFPs, giving Sharp customers front-panel access to the award-winning features of Equitrac Office for enterprise users and Equitrac Express for the education environment,” said Michael Rich, CEO, Equitrac. “Equitrac’s integration with Sharp OSA(TM)-enabled MFPs provides customers a highly secure and scalable solution for document tracking and cost management in offices, enterprises and educational institutions of all sizes.”
“Equitrac is leveraging the open, flexible development capabilities of Sharp OSA(TM) to create personalized document tracking and cost-recovery solutions for Sharp MFPs,” said Tom Davis, Vice President Marketing Applications Development, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. “This enables improved workflow, document accounting efficiency and cost control for the many enterprise and education customers of Sharp multi- function peripherals.”
Sharp OSA(TM) is a development platform that turns an MFP into a gateway for document-based business communications by integrating the device with network-based applications. It allows businesses to connect their MFPs with a wide range of enterprise applications, including document management applications, reporting functions and programs developed internally. The result is a truly customizable MFP that can be designed to meet virtually any business need.
Users of Sharp OSA-enabled MFPs with Equitrac can be certain of a more complete document security through Equitrac Secure Print Release, which enables the use of an access control card, PIN or network credentials for the secure release of documents from the print queue at a selected device after authentication. If one printer is undergoing maintenance, the job can be rerouted to any other available device using a centrally managed print server, with Equitrac’s Follow-You Printing enabling employees to release documents after authentication at the printer of their choice.
Sharp OSA(TM)-enabled Equitrac solutions for MFPs in the office, enterprise and educational environments are fully integrated with the Equitrac Office/Express Device Control Engine (DCE) to manage authentication, enable Follow-You Printing and collect usage data from the Sharp OSA-enabled MFPs.