New enhancements to remote-monitoring technologies help solution providers reduce fears about misused color resources.

Auditing and remote-management capabilities are some of the most important technologies solution providers can rely on when it comes to easing end-users' fears that they will incur high costs for misused or overused color printers and multifunction products (MFPs).

But thanks to a number of updates and introductions over the summer, solution providers now have a wider range of management tools than ever for the auditing and remote-monitoring of printers and MFPs. Here's a sample of some of these introductions:

Business and Education Offerings

Kyocera Mita America recently unveiled two new print-management software solutions based on Equitrac Corp. technology. An embedded version of Equitrac Office and Equitrac Express, for commercial firms and the education market, respectively, will be available on some Kyocera MFPs, including the KM-5050, KM-4050 and the KM-3050. The terminal-based alternative works with most Kyocera MFPs and printers.

As employees print, Equitrac Office monitors print volumes across servers, departments or locations, Kyocera says. Equitrac Express is designed for organizations that charge users as they print pages. The new products are designed to simplify the tracking of prints essential for managing contracts and to reduce printing waste.

Detailed Data Collection

PrintFleet Inc. recently enhanced its Data Collector Agent (DCA), a component in its line of remote-monitoring software. Changes include expanded meter-reading capabilities for Hewlett-Packard hardware. The PrintFleet application now includes scan metering, along with capturing data about total page volumes and breakdowns of print and copier jobs in both color and monochrome.

Similarly, the company now offers metering of 11"x17" single-page and duplex jobs run from HP Edgeline devices, according to whether the print qualities are specified as "professional," "professional-color accent" or "general."

Finally, DCA now detects and displays firmware versions from most HP, Canon, Kyocera and Lexmark hardware to help solution providers remotely view the information and target devices needing upgrades, PrintFleet says.

64-bit support

Print Audit added support for 64-bit applications and operating systems, such as Windows Vista, to its flagship Print Audit 5 print-management solution. This allows users of the software to monitor printing activity originating from 64-bit applications running on Vista and Windows XP x64, as well as 64-bit versions of AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD 2009.

According to Print Audit, the 64-bit upgrade is part of the release of Print Audit 5.1.0R, and current Print Audit 5 customers can receive a free upgrade to version 5.1.0 at www.printaudit.com.