This Month's Spectrum Summary:

(The following is an excerpt from the September 2008 issue of Spectrum, a proprietary monthly briefing published exclusively for the clients of I.T. Strategies, Inc. © 2008)

The Power—and Value—of Software
Equipment vendors look beyond the box

Impressive as they may be, the big digital print engines of today are only the most visible components of highly complex systems. All are driven by powerful software that ultimately adds much of the value to the documents they produce. For the equipment vendors, this means basing a significant portion of their business strategies-and potential success-on software.

The skills required to do this are much different than those required to develop a print engine. While all the print engine vendors employ software engineers and programmers to create the programs, keeping all the code up to date so it will work with a host of application software from other companies demands substantial resources.

Consider HP, which buys its multi-function devices from Canon. HP has to write the code that will ensure different configurations of the machine will provide all the functions required in any network. The cost for this is largely hidden and to some extent is passed along to the purchaser, but it is also becoming larger as the MFDs reaching the market become more sophisticated and capable.

All print systems must be compatible with a host of external systems and at levels well beyond the basic File>Print function. Vendors such as Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, and Xerox are all vying for some degree of control of print output in an enterprise. To do this, they have to be compatible with software from a host of third-party vendors that spans such diverse areas as accounting, CAD/CAM, CRM, content management, graphic design, and sales management, as well as basic products such as Microsoft Office.

This issue becomes more complex for high speed production-class digital presses which must work with a very wide range of often complex documents and for which sophisticated and automated workflows are essential to efficient operations.

In the enterprise, providing comprehensive software integration is essential for HP, which is much more an IT provider than it is a printing vendor. It ultimately comes down to value because the software which supports printing ultimately matters more to the enterprise than the printing itself, because it has offers more value to an enterprise.

HP's Print 2.0 strategy is based on the premise that the focus of information origination and distribution has become the Web and that there is more value to print that can be leveraged than is being leveraged. Their vision is use the Web as the common node of access to print, based on the assumption that people would print more via the Web if it was easier to do, with the objective being to print using HP technology.

Being one of the largest IT vendors and having responsibility for the IT infrastructure of huge corporations theoretically puts HP in the unique position to do this. Whether or not it is possible remains to be seen, but the upside potential is great and HP gets high marks for having this vision.

Software and hardware are intimately entwined in an ever-evolving tango that increases in complexity with every new print engine and the programs that empower it. Neither will ever be more important than the other, and nor can one exist without the other. The challenge for hardware and software vendors alike is to continue providing equal measures of capability and value for all types of printing, regardless of where or how it is done or the type of device used.