01732 759725
22
Q&A
people per device. That’s a lot of people.
That infrastructure has to work and it
has to work all the time and within the
security parameters of the organisation. If
it doesn’t, it’s going to have ramifications
for patient care and costs.
Another thing we focus on is making
everything easy for the channel partner
or the customer. One of the reasons most
of our channel partners work with us is
because there is not much they need to
do on the post-sales side. After FollowMe
has been installed, it pretty much works.
The channel partner doesn’t have to send
people out to fix problems or adjust things
to make it work, and customers are happy
because the product just works.
A third advantage, as I’ve already
mentioned, is integration of mobile as
a standard part of our product. We’re
the highest rated ISV solution by Buyers
Lab that includes both mobile and office
printing in one complete solution. Other
solutions on the market require add-on
products that are usually from another
vendor. That adds a lot more complexity for
the channel partner both in selling to the
customer and in understanding where the
problem lies if something goes wrong.
PITR:
What are some of the stand-
out features of the new version of
FollowMe?
EC
:
One thing we’ve added recently is
the ability to integrate branch offices
without the need for additional server
architecture for follow me printing. We’ve
had a lot of requests from retail and
healthcare organisations to keep a lot of IT
infrastructure, like servers, out of the initial
cost and to reduce the amount of data
going across the network by keeping it all
in the branch. Information is being pushed
out to more and more remote workers and
there’s always the chance of a security
breach. Having this solution in place all
the way out to branch offices is critical for
being able to manage data across a whole
organisation.
Another thing we’ve introduced is data
loss prevention (DLP). In the Quocirca MPS
report that has just come out, it states
that 61% of enterprises with over 1,000
employees have had a paper security
breach. It is very easy for someone to print
a load of documents, e.g. information
on the company’s clients, put them in
a briefcase and take them to their new
employer. It’s very difficult to detect this
kind of data breach. Over the last five years
we’ve been creating bespoke solutions to
help customers tackle this issue, but we’re
now opening this up so that our channel
partners are able to offer a paper and
DLP solution and track activity across not
just one vendor’s products but across all
OEM brands. Now, when employees print
from their tablet or PC, we can monitor
what they are doing and discover if they
are printing information that shouldn’t
be printed, such as credit card numbers,
health numbers or national ID numbers.
Then we can either prevent it from being
printed or alert an administrator and have
it audited. Most DLP solutions for printing
are vendor-specific, but ours is multi-
vendor.
PITR:
How do you think print
management software will evolve in
the future?
EC
:
When you look at the Gartner hype
cycle around print, there are not many
new things that stand out. One that does
is print server consolidation. This has been
on Gartner’s hype cycle for a number of
years and, over time, what is meant by
it has evolved. The most recent meaning
is similar to what we’ve introduced with
FollowMe version of 6.2 i.e. removing
print servers from locations where they are
not needed and creating direct printing
support, with print tracking, follow me
printing and security for branch offices.
Then, from a technology perspective, we
have looked at how we can make this as
flexible as possible because mid-market
and enterprise customers have very
different ideas about how to deploy an IT
infrastructure. What we have tried to do is
come up with not just one way to provide
branch office printing but 6 or 7 depending
on the customer’s requirements.
PITR:
You obviously sell through
VARs. What other routes to market
do you have?
EC
:
We do some direct sales, but it is
limited to specific accounts that have
requested us to go direct. We probably do
less than 15% of our business direct. We
also have relationships with OEMs who
resell our solution as part of their portfolio.
They have their own solutions as well, so
they are partners and competitors at the
same time. We have strategic relationships
with 13 of them and have just introduced
an embedded product for Brother, which is
actually a very good solution for a branch
office.
PITR:
How many channel partners do
you have in the UK and do you plan
to increase that number?
EC
:
We have over 25 channel partners in
the UK. We’re targeting partners looking to
grow their businesses with managed print
services for mid-market and enterprise
accounts. We are prioritising quality over
quantity, looking at partner organisations
that have a professional services capability
to serve the demanding requirements of
our customer target market.
To find out more about FollowMe Q-Server
version 6.2, please call Ringdale on
0800 214503; visit
.
ringdale.com
; or introduce yourself to the
Ringdale team on Stand 53 at CompTIA’s
2016 EMEA Member and Partner
Conference taking place on October 11-12
at 155 Bishopsgate, London.
We can
discover if
employees
are printing
information
that
shouldn’t be
printed, such
as credit card
numbers,
health
numbers or
national ID
numbers
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