March, 2008

By Chris Preimesberger

Hewlett-Packard announced March 31 that it will acquire privately held enterprise content management software maker Tower Software in a cash transaction.

The deal will give HP all the outstanding shares of the company in exchange for $3.39 (Aus.) per share. No other financial details were made available.

Tower, based in Canberra, Australia, but fielding about 240 employees around the world, was established in 1985 as a records management company dealing mostly with government offices and agencies, CEO Martin Harwood told eWEEK.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., March 31, 2008 - Oki Data Americas, Inc., which markets its products under the OKI® Printing Solutions brand, today launched the industry-leading B6250 Series, giving small workgroups advanced monochrome printing that consistently and reliably handles their heavy printing loads and demanding work environments. With the highest duty cycle, fastest processor and maximum memory in its class1, the B6250 Series supports a business’ every day processes, making users more productive and efficient.

Highlights of press release:

• New B6250 from OKI Printing Solutions offers the fastest processor and highest maximum memory storage in its class1, allowing businesses to expand software use and increase print volume
• Ideal for manufacturing and transportation, finance and insurance, retail, and education applications, the B6250 Series printers are designed to support the daily monochrome printing needs of growing workgroups
• Monochrome printer rounds out the full product line from OKI Printing Solutions, consistently delivering top performance and reliability with significant value

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 31, 2008 - HP and Tower Software today announced that they have signed a pre-bid agreement for HP to acquire Tower, a document and records management software company based in Canberra, Australia.

The deal will enable HP to expand its offerings in the fast-growing electronic discovery and compliance software market.

The acquisition of Tower will add electronic records management to HP Software’s existing e-discovery and compliance capabilities in information collection and retention. This includes both records management and identification,⁽¹⁾ which have become increasingly important for organization due to rules and regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts.

by Dan Costa

1. Think Before You Ink. The change has to start here. We all have to change how we look at paper. Before you print out anything, ask yourself if it is absolutely necessary. If you have a digital copy of that e-mail, why do you need a printed version? The green blog TreeHugger.com tried to build an eco-meme by asking people to add this line to their e-mail signatures: "Eco-Tip: Printing e-mails is usually a waste." Sure, it is a little preachy, but sometimes we need preachers to show us the way. I have complained in the past that people send too much e-mail, but printing them out is downright sinful. 

2. Preview Your Documents. The average employee prints six totally useless pages per day. All you have to do is walk over to the network printer in your office to see examples of them. I did just that and found a tray filled with blank pages, misplaced spreadsheet fields, and random HTML fields from printed Web pages. The average employee prints 1,410 of these wasted pages per year. And this problem is easy to fix: Just preview it first. The easiest way to do this is to use the print preview feature in whatever software you are using to print.

GreenPrint is a software package that automates the process. You can download a free version of GreenPrint from www.printgreener.com; an ad-free version is available for $35. GreenPrint Technologies claims that the average user of the package will save about $90 a year in paper and ink costs. This is a great feature that should become the default in both personal and office printers. Can you imagine the savings if this is rolled out across an enterprise or small business? That is money-saving Green IT.

For example. In a paper-based environment you might put your documents in a filing cabinet or on a shelf.

NORWALK, Conn., March 27, 2008  -- Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) received preliminary court approval to settle a securities lawsuit that dates back to 2000.

The company agreed to settle this case to avoid the time, expense and uncertainty of litigation. Xerox did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to final court approval and other conditions.

"Our strong financial position gives us the flexibility to resolve this issue while continuing to deliver shareholder value through share repurchase, dividends and acquisitions," said Anne Mulcahy, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer.

Burlington, N.J., March 27, 2008 – Canon Business Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. and leading provider of document imaging and office solutions, today announced the installation of its imagePRESS C7000VP digital color press within Print-Tech Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based commercial print provider. The company implemented the imagePRESS C7000VP to expand its service offerings, better personalize output based on specific customer needs, and provide superior quality printed material.

Print-Tech, which will use the imagePRESS C7000VP primarily for variable data printing (VDP) and short run color printing, also plans to accelerate its production of specialty advertising and marketing media, such as posters, post cards, and business cards thanks to the efficiencies already realized with the imagePRESS C7000VP. These services will supplement Print-Tech’s existing range of commercial, lithographic and offset print solutions.

March 27, 2008, Trumbull, CT – Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery solutions, and ESRI, the world leader in geographic information systems (GIS) software, today announced an agreement enabling ESRI to become a national reseller of Océ TCS300 large format color printers and Océ TCS500 color multifunction copy/scan/print systems. This new agreement reinforces Océ and ESRI’s business relationship and allows ESRI customers in the U.S. to secure the proven benefits of the Océ TCS line of printers – increased productivity; faster processing times for large, complex color files and uncompromising quality – from their existing GIS software vendor.

"Océ is proud to be partnering with ESRI, the leader in GIS software,” said Sal Sheikh, Vice President, Marketing, Wide Format Printing Systems division of Océ North America.  “This agreement enables ESRI customers to obtain the most productive large format color plotters and multifunction systems available today and extends Océ’s reach into the GIS market.  With ever more complex and data rich GIS files, ESRI users can now increase their productivity by easily and quickly plotting their GIS drawings from their desktop to an Océ TCS300 or Océ TCS500 device."

emFAST Inc. introduces three new FACSys GREEN bundles with its "RoHS from the Pros" Rebate Program [Bridgewater, NJ – March 27, 2008] emFAST Inc., the publisher of the FACSys Fax Messaging Gateway, has announced the introduction of three new FACSys GREEN bundles with its "RoHS from the Pros" Rebate Program. Aimed at reducing an organization's carbon footprint, the rebate program replaces existing fax boards with RoHS-compliant boards and offers a discount on FACSys GREEN Bundles.

"This couldn't come at a better time," says Elvis Cabral, Director of Sales, emFAST Inc. "Companies are finally starting to understand the global impact of their carbon footprint and many of them are now scrambling to update their existing environmentally unfriendly systems." "With our 'RoHS from the Pros' Rebate Program," states Cabral, "customers can send us their existing (non-compliant) fax hardware and receive a credit of $100 per port when they request a FACSys GREEN bundle. We'll also make sure that the old fax hardware is recycled in accordance with environmental regulations," he adds.