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Rob Wellman, CEO of Printelligent, released PrintAlert, a proprietary software application enhancing Printelligent’s Managed Print Solution by remotely monitoring clients’ networked printers, resulting in flexible and proactive service programs.
“PrintAlert was developed in-house because our clients wanted extreme flexibility in Printelligent’s service response resulting from data collected from their printers,” said Wellman. “We tried using third-party remote monitoring software applications, but none of them provided the flexibility needed.”
Printelligent customers receive multiple benefits from remote monitoring of their printers, ranging from simple page count readings to proactive consumables service. Printelligent is able to tailor service response programs for each client, with varying levels of service for specific printers. With PrintAlert installed, initiation of on-site client service no longer depends on an employee calling Printelligent to request service. The service visit is often completed before clients are even aware of a service need. Reporting becomes extremely accurate and eliminates the need for the physical gathering of printer page counts. PrintAlert is a free application to all Printelligent clients receiving Managed Print Solution services.
PrintAlert scans for devices in standard network environments that have IEEE management information bases (MIBs), ensuring only print device data is captured. Data is collected using SNMP – a standard monitoring protocol. Collected information includes the printer’s lifecount (pages printed to-date) and status messages such as a low toner alert. Data is collected periodically, pushed through the client’s firewall and sent over the Internet to Printelligent’s internal database using secure data transfer protocols. The resulting network traffic is negligible, similar to a user surfing the Internet. Data encryption keeps information secure, and the only firewall ports used in data transfer are those typically already in use for web traffic. No ports are “left open” but rather PrintAlert pushes data back to Printelligent, opening a port as needed in much the same way a web browser functions.
PrintAlert is already monitoring over 1,200 client print devices for Printelligent. Curt Schaefermeyer, LAN administrator at Mountain America Credit Union, said, "We have been using PrintAlert with great success. Installation was very straight forward and took all of 15 minutes. It's been quietly residing on our network gathering printer data and passing it to Printelligent for several months now. Printelligent is more aware of our printer fleet activity as a result."
