Whitepapers

Delivering Cloud Services to the State of Texas

Introduction

Most government organizations spend a significant portion of their technology budgets procuring and maintaining information technology (IT) infrastructure, platforms, and applications. Purchasing hardware, upgrading software, and hiring administrators is a major undertaking, often consuming resources needed for other activities.

The State of Texas is setting a progressive example for other state governments by relying on cloud service providers to provision IT resources to dozens of state agencies. Led by the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), the state is creating the Texas Cloud Marketplace, a private cloud that utilizes engineered systems such as Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic to deliver new technology while fulfilling legislative mandates. Oracle is helping to transform the state’s widespread infrastructure, which spans hundreds of databases and tens of thousands of applications. The billion-dollar consolidation project was designed to help 300,000 government employees serve 25 million citizens in a more flexible and cost-effective way (see article in Profit).

The State of Texas leveraged the Oracle Enterprise Architecture Framework to structure the Data Center Services program. Initial business drivers included the following:

  • Establish an IT delivery model that reduces costs, meets demand, and fulfills the state’s legislative goals
  • Set up detailed OpEx business models to meet agency budget constraints
  • Re-align current strategic initiatives and delivery models to match the alternate models establishedin a new Roadmap and Future State Architecture
  • Develop a cloud service provider capability model, business architecture, and operating model for bringing state agencies into the cloud
Tags: 
Xerox
Whitepaper

Regulatory Compliance and MFP Security Solutions: Key Issues and Considerations

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1980s securing a computer, printer or fax machine meant placing it behind a locked door. That was before computers were on every desktop, and before the advent of multi- functional products (MFPs). The MFP consolidates functionality into a single, space-saving platform, enabled businesses to address varied document processing needs, specifically walk-up copy and fax operations and network scan, fax and print functions. From document creation through output and distribution, the MFP plays a pivotal role in today’s connected workplace.

Indeed, as a centralized document processing hub, the MFP has transformed the office landscape by speeding the generation and dissemination of information. In the pre-Internet era documents were carried by courier or express mail services. Now those same documents are easily converted into electronic files, via the MFP, and communicated locally or globally–in an instant. As technology has evolved, so too has the speed at which business moves.

This shift from paper-based to electronic business processes presents formidable challenges for IT security professionals, and others tasked with safeguarding information assets. With nearly instantaneous dissemination capabilities, business-critical documents can be routed to unauthorized individuals in seconds. 

To remain competitive in today’s challenging economic climate, organizations–now more than ever– have to protect information assets from theft or loss. Information security is particularly critical for businesses subject to a labyrinth of federal regulations, such as HIPAA, SOX and GLBA. In this white paper, we will examine the issue of regulatory compliance as it relates to office technology, and thus provide guidance on security solutions that can help support enterprise-wide compliance initiatives.

Tags: 
Muratec
Whitepaper

Xerox® ConnectKey™ Share to Cloud Transform Paper into Editable Information in the Cloud

Simplicity is what makes it so effective. ConnectKey Share to Cloud delivers all of the benefits of cloud computing to Xerox® ConnectKey MFPs in the same way that apps leverage the cloud on mobile devices. Employees use the intuitive touchscreen on every ConnectKey MFP to scan their documents, and the Share to Cloud solution converts the files and distributes them to the selected cloud service.

Not only does this enable knowledge workers to transfer information once trapped in paper to editable digital content, but it also provides on-the-go access to employees’ most important files and documents anytime, anywhere, including access to content from mobile devices.

ConnectKey Share to Cloud is a solution your administrators or IT department will appreciate. Share to Cloud is a serverless MFP application with no on-premise software or hardware required. So busy employees and administrators can work on more important tasks. Share to Cloud reduces their burden by eliminating the need for implementation, maintenance, and support.

Tags: 
Xerox
Whitepaper

Reducing Network Complexity, Boosting Performance with HP IRF Technology

What you will learn in this white paper

The fundamental nature of networking is changing, especially in enterprise data centers. With new, integrated applications deployed against large scale, highly virtualized server farms, server-to-servercenter communications are demanding a completely new level of intra-data-center performance. Traditional three-tier networks—designed to support data-center-in/data-center-out traffic and built using legacy, poor-performing redundancy protocols—can’t deliver the server-to-server capacity required for these types of workloads.

Purpose-built HP networking solutions, system architecture, and technology are streamlining the design of next-generation data centers and campus networks to ensure the superior resiliency, performance, and agility that enterprise networks now require. One HP innovation is Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF), a technology that far outstrips ordinary protocols designed to improve the performance of network switches. In this white paper you will learn about the challenges associated with conventional switch solutions; the advantages of IRF in terms of manageability, performance, and resiliency; and the very real business benefits that can result from installing HP A-series switches that employ this technology.

HP IRF is an innovative technology that lets you ‘flatten’ data center and campus networks, eliminating the need for a dedicated aggregation layer and providing more direct, higher capacity connections between users and network resources. And IRF helps customers achieve these goals in a cost-effective, easy-to-manage way.

Tags: 
Whitepaper
HP

Xerox and the Environment: Our Sustainability Commitment Briefing Paper for Xerox Customers

Executive Summary

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability is balancing the social, environmental and economic needs of business today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. At Xerox, we do this by simplifying the way our customers’ work gets done. It’s also about valuing our employees and communities, preserving our environment and returning value to our shareholders… now and for the future. Xerox views it as a way of doing business, rather than as a cost of doing business and our Annual Report on Global Citizenship provides a comprehensive report of our efforts in these areas.

Xerox regards three elements as critical for achieving sustainability: Leadership, Innovation and Partnerships that extend across its Value Chain.

Sustainability takes into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial performance – the “triple bottom line.”

The Triple Bottom Line at Xerox:

Social: We provide customers with simplified processes that bring cost, quality and productivity benefits and a greener way of operating. Our commitment to our employees shows in our actions: valuing diversity and inclusiveness, rewarding good performance, offering excellent opportunities for learning and development, providing a safe and healthy work environment and achieving the right work/life balance. We strive to take a leadership role in local communities as well as in the global community. This work is supported by the volunteer efforts of Xerox employees and support of the Xerox Foundation.

Tags: 
Xerox
Whitepaper

The Mobile Print Enterprise

The consumerisaton of IT, due in part to ‘bring your own devices’ initiatives, is accelerating the adoption of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in the workplace. Today’s dynamic and mobile workforce is now relying on personal devices in their professional lives and expect anytime, anywhere access to corporate systems – including printing.

As the office extends to an ever-wider range of work locations and businesses find themselves supporting a diverse range of mobile platforms, the print infrastructure is extending to the mobile worker, improving both employee and business productivity. Even in the era of smartphones and tablets, businesses continue to rely on printing. Quocirca’s research reveals that there is certainly the appetite for mobile printing, with almost 60% of respondents stating that their organisations would like to print from their mobile devices, with around 25% currently investigating mobile print solutions.

However, due to the diversity of mobile platforms and printer hardware, implementing an enterprise mobile print strategy is far from simple. Organisations face a complex array of hardware, software and service offerings, which vary both by mobile platform and printer device. Businesses cannot afford to ignore the consumerisaton impact on enterprise printing. If they do, consumers will bypass IT and potentially use consumer printer apps which offer IT no real levels of corporate security or control on what is printed.

Clearly, the future of enterprise printing will increasingly be shaped by consumer trends. The extent to which organisations and vendors can harness this trend will determine success or failure. Organisations must balance a mobile print strategy with security, cost, business process requirements, user needs and delivery models.

This report highlights the market drivers for mobile printing in the business environment, discusses some of the main offerings in the market and suggests some best practices for building a mobile print strategy.

Tags: 
Whitepaper
Canon
HP
Lexmark
Ricoh
Xerox

Kyocera's Hypas Technology

Introduction

Not so long ago, the MFP was a device for printing, copying, scanning and occasionally faxing. But technology has evolved, and the enhanced capability of the devices has brought about many additional requirements and fundamentally changed the way MFPs are used today. The transition to colour printing for instance relates to the increasing need for document accounting in order to control and manage output costs. Security became a topic with high relevance not only for PCs and networks, but also for MFPs: how to secure the data travelling between PC and output tray, and how to avoid that unauthorized users pick up confidential information from output trays. Other important issues for companies are to increase productivity and to reduce costs. Considering that costs related to document output can be as high as 3% of a company’s revenue, reducing these costs can have significant impact on a company’s bottom line. Process automation for example is an excellent productivity booster: instead of repeating complex steps each time, the automated process can be started with one click directly from the panel and saves users much time while at the same time reducing risks of errors.

All these topics – cost control and cost reduction, security, productivity – are fundamental for the survival of any company, with direct impact on their profit situation. Therefore companies are looking for solutions that address their requirements and individual situation in the best way.

To be able to answer the diverse needs of customers, MFP Solution Platforms were developed and integrated into the devices, as a basis for applications to be executed on the MFP. These platforms enable connectivity between the device and external business applications, which opens up endless options of advanced functionality. For instance, there can be a direct connection between the device and a company’s Document Management System so that documents can be immediately and correctly archived with little effort directly from the MFP panel.

Tags: 
Whitepaper
Kyocera
Kyocera Printers
Kyocera-Mita

Lexmark in Education: Testing and Grading Solution Success Stories

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District

SITUATION

  • Previously used the traditional centralized model of printing bubble sheets, distributing them to each school, and then collecting and shipping them back to a central location for scanning.
  • By the time bubble sheets were generated, shipped out, and reached teachers, new students often had entered the district and others may have moved to a different school
  • Agreement was universal that the entire process of generating and handling student testing bubble-sheets was in need of an overhaul.

SOLUTION

  • Lexmark installed a multifunction printer (MFP) that combines a business- class laser printer, copier, scanner, and fax machine into a single, fully networked compact unit.
  • Lexmark was able to provide total integration with the district’s internal systems.
  • Through the use of Lexmark management software, the district is now able to track paper and toner use at each device.

RESULTS

  • 99% reduction in time for teachers to scan bubble sheets and receive results (from days to minutes)
  • With 80 MFPs, teachers now print bubble sheets on demand
  • Elimination of the expense grading distribution and collection expenses
  • Elimination of delays associated with central site generation, distribution, and collection.
Tags: 
Lexmark
Whitepaper

High-Performance Fiery Digital Print Servers for Today’s Print Market

1 Production Performance for Today’s Market

Today, service providers and commercial printers make little money by simply printing on a sheet of paper; instead, they increase profitability by expanding services. A more powerful digital platform allows printers to offer services such as variable data printing (VDP), to take advantage of the flexibility and customization options of hybrid offset/digital environments and to simulate the quality of offset presses.

However, many of these services require print service providers to process complex jobs in an environment in which more and more jobs have smaller print quantities. This means service providers need the highest processing power available for more demanding requirements, such as VDP, along with advanced job-preparation and workflow automation tools to maximize productivity and throughput.

In addition, today’s print buyers require quicker job turnarounds and outstanding color output. Together, the combination of equipment and software — a highperformance digital front end (DFE), an advanced digital print engine, workflow automation software and color tools — allows shops to meet all these demands and remain profitable.

High performance DFEs, or print servers, give print service providers of all types the tools they need to meet both current expectations and future needs. The modular tools allow service providers to tailor the digital print solution to their particular situation, paying only for the functionality they need and adding additional capabilities as needs evolve and budgets allow. Investing in a high-performance DFE provides a platform for providers to be more competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

Tags: 
Whitepaper
EFI

Automated Data Capture: A Bridge to E-Transactions

Executive Summary

Electronic transactions have multiple benefits over traditional paper-based exchanges. They are typically faster, less expensive to conduct and can even be more accurate and secure than paper. In 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department estimated that it cost nearly $3 to process a paper tax return and only $.35 to process an e-return. Invoice processing studies have shown similar cost reductions for e-invoice implementations.

That said, there is certainly no shortage of paper documents in use in transactions today. Factors such as inertia, resistance to change and the cost of converting from paper to electronic processes have ensured that billions of pieces of paper are still used in transactions annually. For example, according to Paystream Advisors, paper is the most common way for organizations to send invoices – in 2009, U.S. businesses produced more than 25 billion paper invoice documents.

In addition, according to the U.S. Healthcare Efficiency Index, there are more than seven billion paper-driven healthcare transactions that take place annually in the U.S. And the U.S. Federal government alone, not counting local and state branches, receives 49 million paper 1040 forms.

Sure, in an ideal world, these organizations could snap their fingers and make their paper transactions magically convert to electronic ones – removing considerable cost and inefficiencies from their business processes. And, albeit slowly in some cases, we are definitely trending toward more electronic transactions. But, one look at the mortgage industry, for example, where the average file size has grown to more than 200 pages, and where electronic closings are still rare, will show that we are a long way from a paperless world.

Tags: 
Abbyy
Whitepaper

Pages