Issue #0535/1 - Not a new product, Web JetAdmin is released in Version 8.0 with a number of enhancements and new features and is a professional solution for any size of organisation with an IT professional managing IT systems.
Web JetAdmin is certainly the biggest and most widely used professional printer management tool on the market today. With Version 8.0 comes the ability to manage more than just hard copy devices – network digital projector management is now also included when combined with the Jetdirect pn1050 network projector manager.
As a free tool (available for download from the Hewlett-Packard web site), Web JetAdmin will provide management functions for any SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) compliant printer. This should include any new network laser printer and will include the majority of models released over the last few years. Other printers may be compatible with Web JetAdmin – for instance, Hewlett-Packard’s networked Business Inkjet printers and OfficeJet products.
Full-power functionality is, of course, only achieved with Hewlett-Packard printers and MFPs although some other printer manufacturers are now building Web JetAdmin compliance into their devices to provide full Web JetAdmin functionality.
As a basic description, Web JetAdmin provides sophisticated management for a fleet of printers and MFPs, allowing IT staff to monitor the status and settings of devices remotely and to check on remaining consumables.
However, it is far more sophisticated than that! The descriptions of the key updates and new functions available in version 8.0 should give some idea of the true level of sophistication.
Key updates in Version 8.0
Web JetAdmin has been updated in six major areas that offer extended functionality in the following focus areas.Firstly, whereas the majority of discovery applications search for network connected devices, not many are capable of discovering non-networked printers. Web JetAdmin now has the ability to interrogate the network down to PC level to discover direct connect printers, which are linked to the PC via a parallel or USB cable, via the Web JetAdmin PC Printer Discovery Plug-in 2.0.
This will allow large organisations, where large numbers of personal printers have been unofficially smuggled in through the back door, to locate and identify those printers. Because the costs of running personal printers can be significant, and un-trackable, with the potential to cost organisations large amounts of money, this ability is very important in the goal to control costs and to maximise cost-efficiency.
In some instances though, personal devices may be officially sanctioned and supported. Previously, a call for support relied entirely on initiation by the user, meaning that proactive support could only be provided at a very low level. Now, Web JetAdmin allows the IT department to monitor that printer as if it were network connected – applicable to selected Hewlett-Packard devices.
Secondly, colour control can be managed on selected colour LaserJet printers. This allows the IT department to set colour controls by user, application and schedule so that colour printing can be restricted to only those printing needs that require colour. Unauthorised printing of personal materials can be reduced by locking out the colour facility on the machine during specified hours (for instance evenings and overnight).
Thirdly, reporting capabilities are greatly enhanced by the addition of Report Generation Plug-in 3.0, which increases the depth of reporting drill-down by user and application. The main focus of this feature is for analysis of asset utilisation so that the fleet’s effectiveness and efficiency can be assessed with a view to modifying the balance of devices deployed.
One of the difficulties of managing a large number of hard copy devices is that each and every device needs supplies replenishment at different times. This makes the process of ordering supplies, and managing the delivery and distribution of those supplies around the organisation, very difficult and costly.
So, fourthly, Web JetAdmin can now produce predictive and consolidated reporting of supplies status across the organisation. This means that the purchasing department can prepare a single order from one single status report provided by the IT department, cutting the time taken to compile a periodic central order or to place multiple orders. This in turn cuts administrative costs and allows the organisation to take advantage of volume pricing from their suppliers.
Also provided is a link to HP SureSupply which provides assisted ordering of supplies from specified vendors, or indeed directly from Hewlett-Packard.
Fifthly, networked digital projectors can be configured and monitored by the central IT staff, allowing projectors to be managed for increased security and reduced costs. For instance, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) protocol support provides a high level of network security and built-in security measures help organisations to protect their devices against theft.
In addition, power-down times can be scheduled by IT staff to reduce lamp usage and power consumption and firmware for all connected machines can be updated centrally.
Finally, Web JetAdmin provides a simplified user interface allowing common tasks to be pre-defined simply and quickly. The interface also includes context-specific links to Hewlett-Packard’s online Instant Support service.
New capabilities
Web JetAdmin has also been expanded with several new capabilities that offer even higher levels of functionality and sophistication with a specific view towards controlling and reducing management and usage costs for the provision of hard copy in the organisation as a whole.A) Colour copy lockout functionality allows even the copy function, not just the print function, of new MFPs (starting with the recently launched Colour LaserJet 4730mfp) to be locked for colour usage outside of specified parameters. As MFPs become more pervasive in the enterprise, to be able to set lockout parameters is every bit as important on the copy function as on the print function for controlling usage and costs.
B) User/Application setup allows up to 50 users and 10 applications to be enabled and configured on new small workgroup colour printers – Colour LaserJet 3000 and 3800 – permitting printer lockout parameters at both driver level and device level to be managed centrally.
C) Reporting features have been added to in several areas, enabling much higher levels of sophistication to be achieved in the management and control of devices and thus, control of costs:
- Scheduling allows automatic production of reports to a predetermined schedule, saving time and effort by not having to run reports manually
- Drill-down to user, workgroup or application level to see where the hotspots are and to allocate costs by cost centre
- Sorting by usage, allowing managers easily and quickly to identify levels of usage by user and to see who are the heavy users, thereby allowing them to set usage limits with email alerts for users exceeding those limits
- Direct PC-connected printers can be interrogated and reported, as well as network connected printers, giving data on page count, status and supplies life
- Predictive usage reporting allows IT staff to anticipate service, maintenance or day-to-day supplies management requirements on a proactive basis, thus reducing or eliminating downtime and ensuring maximum utilisation of the devices
- Assessment reports allow managers to identify devices that are over or under-utilised, meaning that the fleet can be optimised for efficiency in a balanced deployment as plans are drawn up for future hardware requirements.
Furthermore, Hewlett-Packard’s Web JetAdmin 8.0 can integrate with a number of key enterprise management and help desk software tools. This further reduces uncertainty and vulnerability in the management of an organisations’ hard copy fleet, decreases technician response times and reduces potential for device downtime.
In practice, this functionality means that the system proactively prepares repair job sheets that are accurate and timely (with no manual data entry), allowing engineers or technicians to attend the device with the correct materials or parts and knowing exactly what actions have to be performed. Responses will be faster, repairs accomplished with the correct materials first time and users’ time will not be swallowed up, and workflow interrupted, by having to place service calls to help desk or IT services.
Systems capable of interfacing with Web JetAdmin currently include: HP OpenView Operations; HP OpenView Service Desk; CA Unicenter; IBM Tivoli; BMC Remedy; Peregrine Service Center; as well as others.
Ultimately, the purpose of a sophisticated system of this nature is to improve the efficiency of the IT department in an enterprise and to improve the ROI on hard copy assets.
Hewlett-Packard certainly claims that these are the primary benefits of Web JetAdmin 8.0. From the customers’ point of view, one of the best features of the system is that it is free!! Certainly there will be an incentive for users of Web JetAdmin to buy Hewlett-Packard hardware but then, that is part of the marketing game – Hewlett-Packard wants to set the standards in the industry.
On a more practical level, to finish off where we began, an organisation cannot afford to ignore an asset that costs on average 4% of revenue or expect that it will look after itself. Web JetAdmin is one tool that can be applied to manage the fleet better.
Web JetAdmin 8.0 is available now as a download from hp.com.
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