With more and more professionals neglecting their notebook PCs in favour of smartphone and/or tablet devices for their day-to-day productivity needs, this has caused a significant shift to occur in the way work is done in the office and on the move. PATRICK BUDMAR reports.
As professionals turn to their smart phones and tablets to put together and print their reports, presentations and documents, IT administrators have been presented with new opportunities and issues that need to be addressed. To meet the ever growing needs of their workforce for printing of content via their smart device, IT professionals have had to look beyond traditional technology solutions and turn to manufacturers to fi nd the latest solutions.
CONNECTING WITH EPSON CONNECT
Printing documents is the staple of any offi ce, big or small. While printing was limited for a long time to the vicinity of where the PC was situated, as the printer had to be connected to the PC via a USB or Ethernet cable, the growing popularity and adoption of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth has meant that such functionality has also been incorporated into printers. Since portable devices such as smart phones and tablets allow users to browse the Internet, use email and word process, the expectation to be able to print this data is also there.
Epson is one printer manufacturer that has recognised the rapid adoption of smart devices by enterprise and commercial customers, and is now incorporating wireless printing functionality in its offerings. Epson has been rolling out its Epson Connect initiative, which supports Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print functionality across a range of printers. The two main pillars of Epson Connect are email print and Epson iPrint, which are designed to deliver the means to connect customers and contents from anywhere to any device.
“With email print, customers can print emails and attached files by assigning an email address to the printer and sending them to the printer’s email address,” Epson Australia director of marketing communications, Mike Pleasants, said. “This enables printing from anywhere an email service is available.”
Epson iPrint, a printing and scanning application for iOS and Android devices, also forms a large part of Epson Connect and enables users to connect with printers and scanners on a local network. The application is currently available for around 20 Epson printers and the range of support is expected to grow in the future.
“At the same time, new Epson printers will be made Apple AirPrint ready to allow Apple devices to print on local network printers and Google Cloud Print ready to enable customers to print from their web apps such as Google Docs and Gmail by using any device with a web browser,” Pleasants added.
