The future of corporate documents management is Cloud-based and Microsoft Universal Print is definitely a game changer, it eliminates print servers and makes driverless printing a reality.
Universal Print by Microsoft disrupts the print management business by offering deep integration into Windows 10/11, driverless printing for a much simplified print process and a significant print cost reduction. Microsoft Universal Print also boasts a “Universality” that means a lot to clients who want a brand-agnostic Print Management solution, and be able to use any printer, whatever brand, without having to install proprietary drivers and software. It therefore threatens a significant number of print solutions that have bet on the idea that paperless office may simply never happen. Such solutions often capitalized on their heavy yet high-quality, features-rich Windows/Linux server-based software meant to process all documents printed and/or scanned.
For all those reasons Microsoft Universal Print will refresh that market and expand the scope from printing on Intranet to printing over public Cloud. Our estimate is that within 10 years the print usage will change from 80% paper, 20% digital documents to 20% printed documents and 80% electronic documents as Cloud-First is a serious and long-lasting catalyzer for that transformation. During the pandemic many companies have been able to operate without printing much and most will try to continue that way. What has decreased is the number of printed pages, what has increased is the number of documents shared between employees. The multi-function printer is then rapidly changing from being an output device to being an input device, like a kiosk, to inject scanned documents into the information chain and that also require a high level of security. Personal devices such as smartphones, tablets are becoming part of the documents exchange chain and are connected to the public Internet. At a time IT security is under pressure with so many attacks, it is a priority to be able to not spend time managing printing, scanning, print and scan security. Outsourcing to a high security and slick Cloud SaaS, that’s also universal in term of printer brands and with a proven cyber security, is their path to a better productivity.
Microsoft Two possible strategies for print management software publishers
- One strategy is to fight evolution and continue with a full-blown print management software, on-premise or fake a Cloud solution by moving the code to in a VM in the cloud, with a mere plug-in to recover print jobs from Universal Print and claim interoperability. That’s the easiest solution and we see it from most publishers, for cost reasons and we think it is a short-sight decision. Some will move to client-dedicated (for data-separation purpose) VMs in AWS, Azure or Google Cloud and it will be interesting to see what happens when 1000 VMs have to be updated with OS updates, vulnerability fixes and new features, without disrupting production. On the security side, a print management VM in the Cloud is probably the least secure solution and potentially exposes every single print jobs to hackers, with risks of data alteration or hijacking. The solution developer technical support has a administration access into the VMs and can see/access every single print job and metadata. If such access gets compromised a hacker or rogue engineer can for example add code to receive a copy of interesting print jobs. So if you are proposed a Cloud SaaS solution, it is strongly recommended to if it is running out of VMs in the Cloud.
- The other strategy is to embrace the Microsoft Universal Print architecture and focus on developing and proposing key added-value modules documents that run on top of the Microsoft Universal Print system, not in parallel and not in competition. Such add-on modules can be about printer fleet management, document security and management, mobile print, card reader support, scan to OneDrive, print rules, Cyber-Secure print path, home printers etc. Few solutions will go that way as redeveloping heavy software into a Universal Print plugin is a daunting, long and very costly task. Celiveo has opted for that more complex but clear clean way to Print Cloud, with Celiveo 365 for Microsoft Universal Print. We have no ego issue and our only pride is to have so many satisfied customers. They want a comprehensive Cloud solution, 100% integrated and managed through Microsoft Entra ID, InTune and Azure Print queues. Celiveo 365 is an add-on to Microsoft Universal Print and it is in Azure PaaS, no VM, no OS, full security, and we are ISO27001:2022 certified.
Going against what the market wants or using marketing creativity to repaint the shop and sell the same old technology is never working well. Market wants to get rid of printer drivers and print servers, IT needs to secure information, corporate clients want just to print easily and forget about anything else, all that without any infrastructure other than Internet and printers, and just pay a monthly bill. The winning solution will feature all that.
Printing and telephony, a parallel evolution
If we look back into history, another industry was disrupted that same way, although not by an IT giant but initially by small players: corporate phone systems. In the 1990s, clients dreamed about scrapping their costly PBX, lower their cost and get more features than just calls and voice mail, in example follow-me calls that can be compared to pull printing. In the 2000s suppliers proposed IPBX that are just local servers running software. The cost, management and complexity were still too high and the market progressively shifted to full VoIP proposed by Cloud VoIP providers for a monthly subscription. Today no PC/server is required on-premise except terminals (phones) on a VLAN. That’s exactly what we expect to happen with printers, they will represent terminals connected to a VLAN on the corporate network and communicate with a Print Management solution in the public Cloud.
The IPBX can be compared to a Print Management solution VM that’s on-premise or in private Cloud. It is an evolution from basic printing, it adds features such as pull printing, quotas, tracking, workflow, but it is costly to maintain and requires local expertise.
The VoIP can be compared to Microsoft Universal Print, a true Public cloud and fully Office-integrated solution to manage printing, with access to the Azure Applications ecosystem for any added-value modules that may be needed such as pull printing, tracking and reporting, usage quota, bill-back etc.
Welcome to Microsoft Universal Print, it offers the evolution all clients are looking for in term of print management, with full security, ease of use and a great ecosystem for innovative solutions.
Jean-Francois d’Estalenx
Celiveo
