OpenSpool™ From HP Can Be Replaced by OM Plus
The customer associated with this Case Study is a leading specialized publisher and services provider located in the state of Wisconsin in the United States. They offer a wide spectrum of ready-made and custom safety and regulatory compliance products to customers throughout North America in industries such as transportation, manufacturing, utility, construction, food processing, and food service. They help their customers comply with DOT, OSHA, EPA, FDA, and USDA requirements. The company’s diverse product line includes technical publications; computer software; video-based, online, and CD-ROM training programs; specialized forms; and supplies. Additionally, they provide safety consulting, on-site training and a variety of transportation services, including licensing, permitting, fuel tax reporting and driver log auditing. They have implemented OM Plus, Advanced Print Job and Output Management software.
Business Problem - The customer had implemented a print server management system based on OpenSpool from HP. HP has discontinued OpenSpool and has announced plans to discontinue support very soon. This situation created the problem of needing to replace a discontinued product. Additionally, the customer had a desire to move more functions related to print administration from the IT department to the end users to reduce the workload on the IT staff. Doing so would streamline operations and administration within the organization with respect to their print operations, improving efficiency and increasing productivity. HP presented Dazel as an alternative to OpenSpool for the customer to consider. Dazel was not a fit at this customer due to its high price and the extensive effort to implement it within their environment. Their testing also indicated that Dazel would be difficult for their end users to use due to its complexity and therefore defeat main objective, moving print administration from the IT department out to the end users in their company.
HP, Hewlett Packard, HP-UX, Dazel and OpenSpool are trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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