BARCELONA, Spain - HP today announced the HP S900 Series Multifunction Printers (MFPs), devices that help reduce costs for organizations with high-volume print, copy and scan needs.

This suite of devices offers faster printing and scanning speeds to help increase customers’ office productivity. And, key HP solutions integrated within the HP S900 Series—including integrated fleet management, security and document workflow—help simplify IT management.

The HP S900 Series will be delivered exclusively as part of HP Managed Print Services (MPS) and HP Partner MPS agreements, providing customers guidance to optimize, manage and improve their printing assets. The new HP S900 series devices allow HP MPS customers to solve their need for higher-volume devices with a unified, single-vendor HP fleet. MPS helps customers save up to 30 percent on printing costs while freeing up IT to focus on other priorities.⁽¹⁾

Customers are increasingly  interested in combining MPS and print-room contracts, with 15 percent of enterprises already doing so and 22 percent investigating or planning to investigate using a single provider for their print room and office environments.⁽²⁾  

“Our enterprise and mid-market customers continually look to HP and its partners  to securely and  efficiently manage their printing and document management processes,” said Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president, HP LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions. “The new HP S900 Series MFPs coupled with HP’s print solutions increase the choice and flexibility offered through our HP Managed Print Services engagements. In turn, customers are able to unify their print environments with one vendor to reduce costs, improve workflow and increase productivity.” 

Devices and solutions combine to increase office productivity 

Imaging and printing devices, software and solutions play a pivotal role in an organization’s IT strategy. The purchase and adoption of business technology has evolved, and many of today’s customers find themselves using multiple vendors to meet their printing and document-management needs.

With the introduction of the HP S900 Series, HP offers organizations a suite of MFPs that, when coupled with HP document and device manageability and security solutions, deliver unmatched value through one trusted technology partner.

The HP S900 Series includes one monochrome MFP— the HP MFP S956dn—and three color MFPs—the HP Color MFP S962dn, HP Color MFP S951dn and HP Color MFP S970dn—that produce commercial-quality color prints at speeds ranging from 51 to 70 pages per minute and offer high-volume input capacities of 1,100 to 8,600 sheets. Additionally, robust finishing solutions—including stapling, saddle stitching, booklet making, hole punching, folding and trimming—help organizations deliver professional-quality printing while keeping IT costs in line.  

The HP S900 Series complements the recently announced HP LaserJet Enterprise M800 Series to offer customers expanded choice for department class and light production printing needs.

Each device in the S900 Series is equipped with HP’s business printing solutions designed to simplify business printing environments. These solutions include HP Web Jetadmin; HP Remote Monitoring; HP Universal Print Driver⁽³⁾  for remote management; HP Access Control ⁽⁴⁾ for security, job accounting, and pull printing; and HP Capture and Route ⁽⁵⁾ for improved workflow and document management. 

Additional information about HP’s expanded MFP portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/HPDiscoverBarcelona. 

1. Overall printing costs are unique to each company and should not be relied on for savings that may be achieved. According to industry analysts, savings of up to 30 percent are typical with managed print services.
2. Quocirca, “The Next Frontier for Managed Print Services,” January 2013.
3. The HP Universal Print Driver is free and can be downloaded at hp.com/go/upd.
4. Available worldwide. Pricing (estimated U.S. street prices; actual prices may vary) is as follows: HP Access Control Express is $199 per license; HP Access Control Professional is $499 per license; HP Access Control Enterprise modules are $99-$330 per module, with each module sold independently and individually priced.
5. Available worldwide. Pricing (estimated U.S. street prices; actual prices may vary) is as follows: $2,500 per server; $2,500 per mobile server; $400-$750 per device license, based on volume; $35 per user for mobile license; variable expense on Fax and Database connectors, based on volume and configuration.

Commentary by Cary Sherburne

As we learned in our recent press/analyst visit to HP Boise, HP is placing significant emphasis on managed print services (MPS) offered directly by HP or through its partners. As has always been the case, managed print services (or what we used to call facilities management) changes the dynamics within the enterprise relative to the way printing is managed and often results in either more work being brought in house or tighter control over a company’s stable of print service providers.  It is for this reason that print service providers should be paying attention to announcements such as the one we are seeing from HP today.

The company’s early launch of its HP LaserJet Enterprise M800 Series expanded customer choice for department class and light production printing needs.  According to a briefing we received from HP, the vast majority of these MFPs are being sold through the MPS channel.  In other words, they are placed as part of a managed print services offering and not as a standalone sale.  The new HP S900 series (OEM’d from Sharp, by the way), will be sold exclusively within the context of a managed print services engagement.

HP indicated to us that initially, there will be little change to the Sharp hardware and software other than badging the device with HP trade dress.  HP has been extensively testing all four devices in its labs, and in fact, the testing was going on while we were there although we were not allowed to see what was “behind the curtain.” This includes performance testing as well as environmental testing as described in my previous article.

According to Brian Schmitz, Director of Future Product Marketing for HP LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, “We wanted a partner who had high quality, robust machines, and Sharp had that. These printers have tested very well.  Sharp’s OSA operating system platform is quite similar to what we do with FutureSmart, and it is a good fit with our portfolio.  Our go-to-market strategies were also complementary.” Schmitz points out that these new devices also add significantly more finishing capability to the HP suite of solutions, including booklet making and saddle stitching, which they do not have with the M800 Series.

“The Sharp printers integrate well into an HP environment of desktop and workgroup machines,” Schmitz adds. “Our customers want one set of tools across the enterprise.  They will be able to use Web Jetadmin, Access Control for security, our Universal Print Driver, HP Capture and Route for an automated scanning workflow, and Flow CM Professional for content management right from the device.”

The entire MPS environment and the HP play within it bear watching.  As on-site printing capabilities gain more functionality and are more easily integrated with enterprise systems, in combination with the continued decline in print volumes and run lengths, print service providers who depend on outsourced enterprise printing will be increasingly challenged. Additionally, as organizations like HP and its partners take over managed print services for these enterprises, relationship dynamics can change as well, often disrupting long-established relationships between various stakeholders and outside vendors.