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Despite the critical roles networked imaging and printing resources play in the processes and workflows of large and small organizations alike, IT professionals frequently ignore security threats to the imaging and printing infrastructure and often leave it entirely unsecured. Imaging and printing environments aren’t currently a primary target for network attacks, but this will likely change as hackers find traditional servers more difficult to exploit and look for other targets.

If IT fails to safeguard these valuable resources beforehand, attacks against unsecured network communications can endanger data confidentiality, which can increase litigation exposure and compromise compliance with government and industry regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Patriot Act, the California Database Protection Act of 2001, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB), the Basel II Accord, the IPv6 Mandate, and SEC rules.1 For example, print and digital-send jobs sent via traditional 802.11x networking can be intercepted, compromising the confidentiality and integrity of the information.

Imaging and printing security threats will undoubtedly increase. For instance, the Computer Security Institute reported in its 2005 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey that unauthorized access rose dramatically in the last year and replaced denial of service as the second most significant contributor to computer crime losses. And recent publications by hacker groups have raised the awareness that imaging and printing devices are more than simple appliances and that these devices have capabilities beyond printing and scanning. Unauthorized data access isn’t the only problem, either — denial-of-service strikes against networked MFPs and printers can diminish productivity, and unauthorized device usage can deplete consumables stocks and increase supplies costs. continue reading...

Document capture technology is not new. In the 1990s, many organizations that were generating or taking in large volumes of inbound documents and costly complex processes (think of insurance claims processing and credit card application processing) invested in sophisticated centralized scanning and document handling operations to digitize and automate paper-based processes. While the benefits of document capture are many (faster processing, improved quality and accuracy, reduced paper storage and tighter organizational control over critical content), the costs associated with this centralized approach made it inappropriate for all but those with the greatest paper pain point. Today, however, new advances in this proven technology enable IT organizations to take a less costly and more efficient decentralized or “distributed” approach to document capture.

Just as networked computing and the Internet forever changed how information is shared, innovations in bandwidth as well as advances in imaging hardware and software are similarly changing how, where, when and by whom information is captured. Today it is not uncommon for those who process an organization’s most time-sensitive and business-critical documents to be located in satellite offices around the globe. In many cases, the expertise provided by these remote workers is applied while the information is ingested or captured. Distributed document capture hardware and software enables such workers to capture and process information directly, ensuring that valuable business information is handled quickly, cost-effectively, accurately and securely. continue reading...

Dramatic changes in the ways that organizations define and use documents today have given rise to tremendous opportunities— as well as significant risks. The same documents that can have a negative impact on costs can have a positive effect on helping achieve an organization’s goals. To ensure that documents are used to their best advantage, it is important to have a clear understanding of the kinds of costs they can incur, as well as a sense of the ways in which they can create value. It may not be possible to determine precisely the value of a document in the same way that one can identify the specific costs associated with it, but recognizing that cost and value coexist is vital to managing documents effectively.

Why cost and value matter more than ever
Predictions of a paperless workplace were widespread as recently as ten years ago, when new technologies were radically transforming the ways in which people communicated and connected with each other. In the wake of developments from e-mail to electronic data storage, who could blame anyone for expecting the piles and piles of paper in organizations to eventually go away—along with the high costs associated with printing, sharing and storing them? Reality, however, has proven far different. Networked access to the Internet and all the information available there has led to more printing, not less, and e-mail appears to have caused a large increase, rather than a decrease, in paper consumption.* Documents have become a kind of currency for today’s far-frompaperless workplace, and the organization that hopes to realize the most value from them must build those hopes on a sound document strategy. Such a strategy starts by identifying some of the key sources of document cost and value. continue reading...

The right color printing solution can reduce
costs and improve efficiency in a variety of
printing and imaging environments. The
following scenario describes how one
organization is using HP color printers to
bring a key printing function in-house—and
dramatically cut costs and increase efficiency.

Scenario for Improvement

The organization: Professional sports team

The situation: Need for an alternative to outsourcing of
season-ticket printing

The problems: High printing costs, slow turnarounds,
limited ability to accommodate change

The solution: HP Color LaserJet 9500 printers

The results: 54 percent reduction in ticket printing costs,
as well as faster delivery and increased flexibility continue reading...