HP details enterprise printing strategy

HP wants to streamline its approach to the managed services market

HP has set up a dedicated global business unit within its Imaging and Printing Group in a bid to boost direct sales of its managed print services to enterprises.

The new Managed Enterprise Solutions unit will be headed by senior vice president Bruce Dahlgren, and will focus on vertical markets such as the public sector, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing.

"HP is helping customers strategically evaluate the role that imaging and printing plays in the IT conversation, signalling a new approach to managing printable content," said Vymoesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group.

The aim is to focus and streamline the vendor's approach to the managed services market, and provide customers with a single point of call for purchasing services, software and systems, which include products supplied by Canon.

HP has expanded its 25-year relationship with the vendor by agreeing to jointly market and resell a new range of Canon multi-function device processing and imaging systems alongside its own printing and imaging offerings, management and workflow software.

The company has likewise introduced a Printing Payback Guarantee programme for managed print service customers in EMEA for the first time, after launching in the domestic US market earlier in the year.

Under the scheme, the vendor assesses a customer's existing printing and imaging environment and calculates possible future cost savings if its services are deployed. A year later, a second assessment is undertaken and, if projected cost savings have not been obtained, HP promises to make up the shortfall.

At the same time, the supplier has launched what it claims to be its largest ever range of workflow software designed to improve efficiency. This includes a Court Case Processing Accelerator, an Automotive Credit Application Accelerator and a Manufacturing Time Sheet Collection Accelerator.