Pharos Blueprint® Enterprise 4 - EMOS Information Systems product... · Rest of the world: +1 ......

Product Specification

Document Version: BPE41-ProductSpec-1.0

Distribution Date: 17th June 2009

Pharos Systems International | 100 WillowBrook Office Park | Fairport, New York 14450 | Phone: 1- 585-249-8999 | US/Canada Toll Free: 888-864-7768 | www.pharos.com

Pharos Blueprint® Enterprise 4.1

2

© 2009 Pharos Systems International, Inc. Pharos Blueprint Enterprise, Secure Release Here, and Policy Print are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pharos Systems International.


3

Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 8

About This Document ............................................................................................................................... 8

Other Documentation ........................................................................................................................... 8

Getting Help .............................................................................................................................................. 8

Pharos Website ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Contact Details ...................................................................................................................................... 8

Enterprise Print Asset Management....................................................................................... 9

Key Benefits of Pharos Blueprint Enterprise ........................................................................................... 10

Introduction to Blueprint Enterprise .................................................................................... 11

Applications............................................................................................................................................. 11

Blueprint Components ............................................................................................................................ 11

Print and Copy Accounting ................................................................................................... 14

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 14

Optimization ........................................................................................................................................... 14

Optimization Considerations .............................................................................................................. 14

Features .................................................................................................................................................. 15

How Does It Work ................................................................................................................................... 15

Employee Experience .............................................................................................................................. 17

Data Sources/Integrations ...................................................................................................................... 17

Departmental Chargeback ................................................................................................... 19

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Features .................................................................................................................................................. 19

How Does It Work ................................................................................................................................... 19


Integrations ............................................................................................................................................. 21

Policy Print™ ....................................................................................................................... 22

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 22

Features .................................................................................................................................................. 22

How Does It Work ................................................................................................................................... 23


Inform ................................................................................................................................................. 24


4

Warn.................................................................................................................................................... 25

Deny .................................................................................................................................................... 26

Policy Details ....................................................................................................................................... 26

Cost Awareness Email ......................................................................................................................... 27

Secure Release Here® .......................................................................................................... 29

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 29

Features .................................................................................................................................................. 29

How Does It Work ................................................................................................................................... 30

Data Flow ............................................................................................................................................ 31


Integrations ............................................................................................................................................. 33

Product Details .................................................................................................................... 34

Print Tracking .......................................................................................................................................... 34

Workstation Tracker versus Server Tracker ........................................................................................ 34

Workstation Tracker ....................................................................................................................... 34

Server Tracker ................................................................................................................................. 34

Page Counting Technology .................................................................................................................. 35

Transaction-based Print Tracking ....................................................................................................... 35

Transaction Batching ........................................................................................................................... 36

Meter Reads ............................................................................................................................................ 36

Device Management Integration ........................................................................................................ 36

Other Sources of Printing ........................................................................................................................ 38

UNIX and Mainframe Printing ............................................................................................................. 38

Novell Printing ..................................................................................................................................... 38

Citrix and Terminal Services Printing .................................................................................................. 38

Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 39

Automatic Normalization .................................................................................................................... 39

Model Matching .................................................................................................................................. 39

Lyra Database ...................................................................................................................................... 39

Costing ................................................................................................................................................ 40

Periods ................................................................................................................................................ 41

Apportionment ............................................................................................................................... 41

Reporting ................................................................................................................................................ 41

Administration Reports ....................................................................................................................... 41

Costing Reports ................................................................................................................................... 42


5

Investigation Reports .......................................................................................................................... 43

Budget Center ................................................................................................................................. 43

Building ........................................................................................................................................... 43

Department Group .......................................................................................................................... 44

Device .............................................................................................................................................. 44

Employee ........................................................................................................................................ 45

Enterprise ........................................................................................................................................ 45

Floor ................................................................................................................................................ 45

Location Group ................................................................................................................................ 46

Machine .......................................................................................................................................... 46

Manufacturer .................................................................................................................................. 46

Measurement Reports ........................................................................................................................ 47

Policy Print Reports ............................................................................................................................. 47

Budget Center ................................................................................................................................. 47

Department Group .......................................................................................................................... 48

Enterprise ........................................................................................................................................ 48

Summary Reports ................................................................................................................................ 49

Scalability and Robustness ...................................................................................................................... 50

Multi-tier Server Architecture ............................................................................................................. 50

Robustness and Availability ................................................................................................................ 50

Centralized Administration ................................................................................................................. 50

System Maintenance .............................................................................................................................. 51

System Health ..................................................................................................................................... 51

Server Health ...................................................................................................................................... 51

Connectivity and Availability ........................................................................................................... 51

System Dependencies ..................................................................................................................... 51

Data Flow ........................................................................................................................................ 52

Tracker Health ..................................................................................................................................... 52

Communications ..................................................................................................................................... 52

Protocols and Ports Used .................................................................................................................... 52

Network Traffic ................................................................................................................................... 53

Authentication ........................................................................................................................................ 53

Live authentication ............................................................................................................................. 53

User ID Translation/Conversion .......................................................................................................... 53

User Interfaces .................................................................................................................................... 54


6

Policy Print™ ........................................................................................................................................... 55

Replication .......................................................................................................................................... 55

Policies and User Groups .................................................................................................................... 55

Integration with Directory Services ................................................................................................ 55

Rules and Conditions........................................................................................................................... 55

Triggers ............................................................................................................................................ 56

Conditions ....................................................................................................................................... 56

Estimated Document Costs ............................................................................................................. 56

Actions ............................................................................................................................................ 57

Prompts ........................................................................................................................................... 57

Applying Policies and Offline Capabilities ........................................................................................... 57

Waste Savings Reporting .................................................................................................................... 58

Secure Release Here® ............................................................................................................................. 58

Offline Capabilities .............................................................................................................................. 58

Printer Communications ..................................................................................................................... 58

Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................. 59

Waste Savings Reporting .................................................................................................................... 59

Standard Data Feeds ............................................................................................................................... 59

HR Feed ............................................................................................................................................... 59

ID Translation Feed ............................................................................................................................. 60

Model Cost Feed ................................................................................................................................. 60

Model Information Feed ..................................................................................................................... 61

Integrations ............................................................................................................................................. 61

Integration Process ............................................................................................................................. 61

Types of Integrations .......................................................................................................................... 61

Billing Export Integration ................................................................................................................ 61

Asset Management Integration ...................................................................................................... 62

Deployment Methods ............................................................................................................................. 62

Tracker ................................................................................................................................................ 62

Servers................................................................................................................................................. 62

Supported Platforms ........................................................................................................... 63

Tracker Components ............................................................................................................................... 63

Workstation Tracker ........................................................................................................................... 63

Server Tracker ..................................................................................................................................... 63

Server Components ................................................................................................................................ 64


7

Collector .............................................................................................................................................. 64

Analyst ................................................................................................................................................. 65

Language Support ................................................................................................................................... 65

Product Specification Introduction

8

Introduction

About This Document This document focuses on the technical aspects of Blueprint Enterprise, its applications, and how those applications work.

Other Documentation

Other documents are available covering different aspects of Blueprint Enterprise. For a complete listing of the available documentation, please refer to the “Blueprint Available Documentation” document.

Getting Help Below is a list of options for obtaining support in the event you have questions or encounter issues during or after your installation of Blueprint Enterprise.

Pharos Website

The Pharos website (www.pharos.com) contains information about Pharos products, including product updates, fixes and firmware releases. It also includes the Pharos Knowledge Base, which provides a comprehensive source of solutions and workarounds to known problems and issues. It also provides you with configuration examples. The Knowledge Base is constantly updated to ensure that it always contains the latest information.

Contact Details

Corporate Headquarters Post-Sales Technical Assistance

Phone: (585) 249-8999

Fax: (585) 249-9229

Address: 100 WillowBrook Office Park Fairport, NY 14450 United States of America

Email: [email protected]

North America:

877 848 0397

Australia/New Zealand:

+64 9 523 0737

Rest of the world:

+1 (585) 249-8999 Ext1

http://www.pharos.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Product Specification Enterprise Print Asset Management

9

Enterprise Print Asset Management

The concept of the paperless office is one of the great business myths of our time. Instead of technology reducing the need for paper, it’s actually made the demand for printed documents grow. Increasing usage of email and the Internet have flooded office workers under a torrent of information. Multifunction devices, color printing, and cheap desktop printers have made it easy for employees to generate quick hard copies on which to jot notes. And finally, many employees are so accustomed to paper’s tangible, easy-to-read, and convenient qualities that printing is simply a common part of their business day.

Annually, enterprises spend nearly as much on printing documents as they do on telecommunications—but with little thought to the impact on the bottom line. Corporations are spending $130B per year and a typical Fortune 3000 business spends 1%-3% of its revenue on print and copy. The average employee prints 650-1000 pages per month, at a cost of over $750 per year. And yet most businesses have no systems in place to track and control print and copy expenses.

So how do you even begin to manage the real costs associated with all this output? The solution lies with Enterprise Print Asset Management, which allows your organization to optimize its environment, standardize its equipment, identify and remove locally attached devices, and track and measure your total enterprise print expenditures with the goal of saving your company money. This is accomplished by reducing volume and lowering the cost per page and by providing better printing services at the same cost.

Enterprise Print Asset Management not only illuminates your printing environment, but it also serves to educate your employees about the cost of printing, and to change their printing behavior. When employees attempt to print a job, they are informed of the cost of their printing activities and encouraged to consider alternatives before continuing with their printing. Once a job is sent to a device, that device will only print it once the employee is present to authenticate himself. With a corporate culture of responsible and secure printing in place, your organization can rein in out-of-control printing costs and reduce waste at the same time.

By illuminating your print and copy environment, slashing costs, educating employees, and eliminating waste, an Enterprise Print Asset Management System from Pharos can help you achieve the following results:

Eliminate 2 out of 3 printers and copiers you own or lease.

Save $1.5M on print and copy costs for every 10,000 office workers.

Understand and control your print and copy costs in less than 30 days.

Experience an ROI of less than six months.

Product Specification Enterprise Print Asset Management

10

Key Benefits of Pharos Blueprint Enterprise Pharos Blueprint Enterprise is the industry-leading Enterprise Print Asset Management software solution from Pharos Systems. It is an easy-to-implement, manageable, and highly customizable way for you to understand exactly what your organization is spending on print and copy, and to then turn that knowledge into significant and measurable savings for your company. Pharos Blueprint Enterprise blends innovation with simplicity and reliability to assess, optimize, account for, and maximize output assets across your enterprise.

Blueprint Enterprise helps you to accomplish the following tasks:

Create a complete print asset inventory by tracking print/copy at the employee level.

Create a baseline profile of the printing environment.

Provide security for printing/copying assets.

Determine if print investments are optimized.

Identify underutilized devices.

Determine total printing costs and the actual cost per page.

Measure optimization results.

Manage print environments.

Transfer print accountability to the employee level.

Combine meter reads with employee-level details

Educate employees and modify employee printing behavior

Secure network devices so that documents are only printed when the employee is present at the device

Provide/identify enterprise-class solutions, including those that are scalable, centrally administered, and include system health checks and automation

Product Specification Introduction to Blueprint Enterprise

11

Introduction to Blueprint Enterprise

Applications Blueprint Enterprise features a comprehensive range of applications:

Print and Copy Accounting – unobtrusively monitors and tracks all network and local printing. It will tell you which employees are printing and copying, what they are printing and copying, where they are sending their jobs, and when employees are using the features of your output assets.

o Optimization – measures existing output device usage and provides the information necessary for you to leverage your existing infrastructure and IT investment. Optimization ensures you have the right number of devices in the right locations.

Departmental Chargeback – based on the Print and Copy Accounting application, Departmental Chargeback can allocate costs to internal departments or budget centers for accounting and budgeting purposes.

Policy Print™ – in addition to reducing costs by optimizing your print fleet, you can also discourage excessive and unnecessary printing habits leading to an increased printing efficiency amongst employees. Policy Print allows you to set up policies and rules to help control unwarranted printing activities. It aims to reduce business printing costs by either informing or controlling the activities of employees on workstations and terminals.

Secure Release Here® – controls the release of print jobs sent from employee workstations to printing devices, allowing for improved security when printing jobs to shared, network devices. In addition, employees experience the convenience of being able to collect their documents from any devices that have been “grouped” together. Secure Release Here™ addresses network device issues, such as lack of security and excessive waste.

Blueprint Components Blueprint Enterprise uses multi-leveled architecture consisting of several cooperating components. The following table gives a brief description of the components that make up the Blueprint Enterprise system.

Server Components Description

Analyst

This server is the repository of all data collected by the Blueprint system, and the single point from which all system-wide configuration settings are set.

The Analyst server can also act as a Collector, in which case Trackers send their data directly to the Analyst.


12

Collector

This component collects the print job data from the Tracker components and forwards the collected data to the Analyst.

This component is also installed on all print servers that are part of the Secure Release Here® application. It detects when print jobs are bound for secured devices, storing these print jobs and handling communications with the network terminals/iMFPs.

This component also determines the policy to apply to an employee based on groups to which the employee belongs. The employee’s groups are retrieved using the Directory Services integration.

Collectors report to the Analyst, and are also able to communicate with one another for redundancy.

Depending on the size of the organization, multiple Collectors can be used.

Client Component Description

Tracker

This is the component installed on all workstations and/or Windows print servers in the system and tracks jobs as they are printed. Tracked print job transaction data is then forwarded on to the server components.

When installed on a workstation, the Tracker also enforces policies for all print jobs sent from that workstation.

Administrative Components

Description

Administrator

This is the application used for configuring, maintaining, and viewing the print tracking and print data collection process.

It is also used to configure Policy Print and Secure Release Here.

Blueprint Administrator is installed on all Blueprint servers (Collector and Analyst). It can also be installed standalone.


13

Other Components Description

Data Feeds

Data Feeds are third-party data sets that are imported into the Analyst tool and consolidated with print transactions from the Tracker and Collector. For example, HR and budget center information is imported into Blueprint Analyst using external data feeds. Blueprint’s extensible data import architecture means that the system can be customized to accept data in whatever form your existing infrastructure uses.

Terminal

A hardware device that provides the necessary user interface at the print device. Employees can use this device to supply authentication credentials (e.g. username/password, proximity card, etc.) and view their print jobs available for release. The authentication is controlled by a Blueprint Authentication Script attached to terminals.

Integrated MFP (iMFP)

A software component that can be installed directly on select print devices, normally without any additional external hardware. It effectively implements the necessary user interface (similar to the terminal) directly on the print device.

Authentication Script

Defines how employee credentials should be validated (e.g. against Active Directory). In addition, an authentication script can translate one identifier to another (e.g. convert an employee’s card ID to their network ID for job retrieval).

Directory Services Integration

Queries the directory service infrastructure to determine the groups that an employee belongs to. The integration performs a real-time query against directory services.

As these components may perform multiple tasks and functions, when and where they are deployed is dependent on the Blueprint Enterprise application(s) being implemented. For more information about how the components interact, please refer to the specific detailed section for the application(s) of interest.

Product Specification Print and Copy Accounting

14

Print and Copy Accounting

Overview In order to have an accurate picture of your organization’s printing and copying, you need to account for and monitor print and copy transactions at the employee level. Blueprint’s print and copy accounting application will give you the facts of your print and copy environment on an ongoing basis so you can make informed decisions.

Blueprint Enterprise monitors and tracks all network, local, and IP direct-connected printing and copying on controlled devices, so your company finally knows what it’s spending on every printed page. It will tell you which employees are printing and copying, what they’re printing and copying, where they’re sending their jobs, and when employees are using the features of your output assets. Blueprint Enterprise then summarizes this information by employee, device, department1, budget center, and location for analysis purposes.

Optimization Optimization measures existing output device usage and provides vendor-neutral recommendations to leverage your existing infrastructure and IT investment. Pharos will help you to make informed decisions to properly size and maintain an optimized printing environment that balances employee productivity with cost and to determine fact-based solutions that balance employee productivity, convenience, and cost-efficiency. In most cases, customers will consolidate, redistribute, and remove equipment, so only the devices that align with actual output requirements remain.

Pharos can help your organization reduce the employee-to-device ratio from 2:1 to 10:1, save $360 per employee per year, and lower overall output costs by approximately 30% without a lapse in employee services or productivity.

Optimization Considerations

Optimizing a print environment is a formidable task – you need to identify which activities and areas will yield the best cost savings for your company. Some optimization activities include:

Removing locally attached devices

Switching from inkjet printers to laser printers

Switching from older equipment to newer, more cost-effective devices

Right-sizing the equipment, i.e. making sure that the device is the best suited for the volume it will handle

Reducing the number of different models

1 Reporting by departments, budget centers and locations requires an employee/HR data integration that supplies

the necessary information by employee.


15

Increasing your devices’ utilization rates

In a large company, you must also determine where to focus your attention. You need to know what buildings have the biggest problem and hence the best potential ROI.

Blueprint Enterprise provides you with the necessary information to plan and implement an optimization in your environment.

Features Some of the key features of the Print and Copy Accounting application are:

Discovers locally attached printers and network printers, both those that employees directly print to from workstations and those that are printed to over the network or via print servers.

Monitors and records detailed information about employees’ print jobs sent to any of these devices.

Monitors and records detailed information about employees’ copy jobs performed on Pharos Integrated Multifunction Printers (iMFPs) and those equipped with Pharos Omega network terminals.

Calculates device volumes based on meter reads (when available) or employee transactions.

Calculates the real cost of output, utilization, and cost of excess capacity for each device.

When meter reads are used, allocates the meter read volume back to the correct employees (and hence their budget center and department) based on their actual usage.

Provide detailed reporting based on enterprise, location, department, budget center, manufacturer, device, and employee.

Enables centralized procurement and management of an output environment.

How Does It Work A standard Print and Copy Accounting deployment uses the following Blueprint Enterprise components:

Analyst

Collector

Tracker

Administrator

Depending on your goals, the deployment can also use one or more of the following components:

Device Management integrations

HR / Employee data imports

Other data imports, e.g. model info

If copy accounting is required: o User stations (i.e. network terminals and/or iMFPs) o Authentication system integration


16

Human Resources info

Batched jobinformation

Device information


Region 1

Data Center

Network based printers

Print Jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs

Print job information


Print servers with Blueprint Server Tracker

Workstations with Blueprint WorkstationTracker

Analyst

Administrator

Collector

Model info

Local printers

Device Management Tool

Region 2




Workstations with Blueprint Workstation Tracker

Collector

Device Management

Integrated MFPs and Network terminalsCopy job information

Authentiation

Security credentials

Authentication

System

The Analyst acts the central hub of the deployment. All collected and imported data is stored in the Analyst database; the Analyst handles the analysis of this data and the generation of reports. In general, configuration of the deployment is also managed at the Analyst.

The Collector is used in large deployments. The Tracker component can send its data directly to the Analyst; however, in a large deployment, there may be too many Trackers for the Analyst to handle directly. Instead, the Trackers send their data to the Collector; the Collector batches the information together and automatically sends the batched data after-hours to the Analyst. Not only can the Collector be used to segment load across multiple servers, it can be used to localize network traffic (i.e. Trackers in a specific region can communicate with a Collector also installed in that region). The configuration settings for the Tracker are managed at the Collector; the settings are automatically downloaded every day by the Trackers.

The Tracker monitors print activity from workstations and/or print servers. It collects detailed information about each print job, including who submitted it, when they submitted it, what they submitted, and to what device they submitted it. This information is batched up and sent to the Tracker’s parent server at least every day. The Tracker also sends a daily heartbeat to its parent server, confirming that it is still operational and able to contact the server.

The Administrator allows you to configure and maintain the Blueprint deployment. It also provides the Blueprint reporting interface. The functions available on the Blueprint Administrator depend on the type of server to which it is connected (i.e. Analyst versus Collector).


17

Other data imports can be imported at the Analyst (e.g. employee information, device management information). These data imports can supply additional information about devices, models, employees, etc. This data is used during the analysis process to build additional views of the data. For example, when employee data that contains each employee’s location is imported, Blueprint Enterprise can create additional reporting views (e.g. what devices are in a specific building, what building has the highest cost, etc.).

To monitor copy activity, you must deploy a user station (i.e. network terminal or iMFP) to the copier/MFD. The user station will prevent access to the device until the employee has authenticated (e.g. using his Active Directory username/password); the authentication request is handled real-time by the user station’s Collector. Once authenticated, the employee can use the copier as normal; the user station will capture his activity and send that data to its Collector.

Employee Experience To achieve a complete picture of your output environment, it is important that you deploy Blueprint Enterprise to all employees. As such, Blueprint Enterprise is designed to be transparent to your employees so no additional training is necessary. Employees continue to perform their printing-related tasks as they normally would – they find and add printers as before and submit documents to printers as before too. Blueprint Enterprise simply monitors their activity and captures the important data without employees ever knowing what’s occurring behind the scenes.

Data Sources/Integrations The Blueprint Enterprise Analyst includes a powerful analysis engine uniquely designed to process multiple data sources and produce the most accurate and complete summary of your print environment.

In addition to the Tracker, other data sources include the following:

Integration Description

Lyra Research’s Models Database

Blueprint Enterprise comes standard with a printer model information database supplied by Lyra Research. This database contains information about 7,300 specific printer models, such as the model’s cost, technology (e.g. laser, inkjet), its page-per-minute rating, and whether or not it is color-capable. When combined with the print activity information from the Tracker, you can easily determine what types of devices you have, their utilization rates, and much more.

Employee (HR) Information Blueprint Enterprise’s Tracker technology tracks who is printing (e.g. by their network ID), but the analysis engine can support much more detail


18

about the employee. By periodically importing your employees’ information (e.g. their budget center, department, and location), Blueprint Enterprise can summarize print activity by budget centers, departments, and locations. This information is typically imported from your Human Resources solution or authentication system

Identity Information

Blueprint Enterprise has the capacity to import employee identity information, for example, employees’ primary IDs, network IDs, and card IDs. Blueprint Enterprise can use this information to ensure that all of an employee’s printing activity is recorded against his/her employee record even if that employee has many network identifiers.

Device Management Information

An output device may be used by a variety of systems; however, tracking printing activity to the employee level from all of these systems may not be cost-effective given the relative return on investment. Blueprint Enterprise can integrate device-level information recorded by the device itself. This device-level information includes details such as meter read counts, make/model information, and serial numbers.

The meter read information is used to determine the total volume produced by the device; the employee level information collected by the Trackers is used to allocate this total volume over employees, budget centers, and departments. This unique system for using both device meter reads and employee-level transactions provides the most accurate picture of your print environment to the employee level. Device-level information is typically imported from device management tools such as Canon’s imageWARE, Hewlett-Packard’s Web JetAdmin, Lexmark’s Markvision Pro, Ricoh’s SmartDeviceMonitor, and Xerox’s CentreWare Web.

Product Specification Departmental Chargeback

19

Departmental Chargeback

Overview The number one way you can ensure IT print cost-containment in your office environment is to enforce accountability. Until now, however, accountability for printing and copying was unattainable, due to a lack of focus on printing and copying as manageable activities.

The Departmental Chargeback application makes it easy to measure printing and copying, and to allocate charges back to employees, budget centers, and departments. By managing billing and accounting down to the employee level and ultimately rolling back these charges to the individual or department responsible for them using internal chargeback, managers closer to the employee are responsible for the expense. And the closer you are to an expense, the easier it is to manage it, achieve accountability for it, and achieve print cost recovery as well.

As the Departmental Chargeback application extends on the Print and Copy Accounting application, it is recommended that you also read the Print and Copy accounting section of this document.

Features Some of the key features of the Departmental Chargeback application are:

Includes the same features as Print and Copy Accounting.

Allocates employee activity to the budget center, department, and location to which an employee belongs.

Tracks employee changes, such as when an employee changes budget center, department, or location.

Automatically exports output volumes and costs based on employee, budget center, and/or department.

How Does It Work Departmental Chargeback is based on the same architecture as Print and Copy Accounting. In addition to the base architecture, you must deploy:


Billing system data export


20

Human Resources info


Asset info

Device information


Region 1

Data Center


Print Jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs





Analyst

Administrator

Collector

Model info

Local printers

Device Management Tool

Region 2





Collector

Device Management

Integrated MFPs and Network terminalsCopy job information

Authentiation

Security credentials

Authentication

System

Billing System

Departmental Chargeback requires an employee data import. The import must include the employee’s financial reporting data (e.g. the employee’s current budget center and department). The Analyst will use this information during the analysis process to create budget center- and department-based views.

The billing system data export will automatically export a summary of the analyzed data in a format that can be imported by your billing system. For example, the export file will contain all active budget centers and for each budget center, its associated volume and cost.

Refer to the “Integrations” section on page 21.

Employee Experience As with Print and Copy Accounting, all information is collected in a manner that is transparent to the employee. Employees continue to print as they normally would.

As the employee activity is collected, employee / HR information is also imported into the Analyst. This HR information provides the budget center / departmental relationship for each employee. Blueprint Enterprise can then use this information to automatically allocate each employee’s activity back to the correct budget center and department.


21

Integrations In addition to integrating multiple data sources from your environment, Blueprint Enterprise can also supply data back to other systems. These exports include:


Billing Information Export

By combining the output information collected by Blueprint Enterprise with employees’ departmental information, Blueprint Enterprise can summarize volumes and costs by budget centers and departments. This information can be exported to your internal billing system to allow these costs to be automatically charged to the correct budgets.

Asset Management Information

A company’s asset management system tracks a wide range of company assets, including output devices. Blueprint Enterprise can accept asset management information, such as asset IDs, asset costs, and asset locations.

To implement an Asset Management integration, a Device Management integration must also be implemented. Often the device’s serial number is the only common identifier provided by the asset management system. The Device Management integration ensures that a device’s serial number is associated with the correct device within Blueprint Enterprise.

Product Specification Policy Print™

22

Policy Print™

Overview Policy Print™ encourages responsible and “green” printing via enterprise-wide printing policies that affect every employee in your organization. The real cost of printing a document is a complete mystery to the average employee. While it is important to ensure that you have a cost-effective output fleet, it is also important that your employees, the ones who ultimately decide if something should be printed or not, really understand the impact of printing, both its cost and its impact on the environment.

An employee’s policy consists of one or more rules with which his print jobs must comply. The rules are a specific set of conditions defining the type of activities you want to educate employees about. You can create multiple policies and tailor each to a specific job function. Policies are not assigned directly to employees. Rather, they are applied to groups based on group membership in your directory system (e.g. Active Directory).

When an employee prints, Policy Print evaluates the attributes of the print job against the rules in the policy applied to the employee. Triggers (an expression defining activities of interest) specify when Policy Print needs to apply a rule. When this occurs, Policy Print will utilize an action (Inform, Warn, or Deny) to create the outcome that occurs when a rule is triggered. Policy Print interacts with the employee and educates him about his print policy and why the print job does or does not adhere to the policy via a message displayed to the user as a pop-up notification. All of this is done at the workstation, which gives the employee the opportunity to change his printing behavior.

Features Some of the key features of the Policy Print application are:

Includes ability to tailor policies by job function (e.g. the marketing team has different printing needs than the HR team).

Triggers can be built using a wide range of conditions, including “Print Job Over 25 pages” and “Print Job is In Color.”

Allows complex triggers (i.e. triggers that use multiple conditions).

Each rule can apply a different action – see Employee Experience.

Policies are applied to employees based on the employee’s group membership.

All text displayed to the employee is customizable.

Policies are applied right at the workstation – a server is not contacted for each print job and policies can be applied even if the server is unavailable.

Cost awareness email identifies the employees who can achieve the most cost savings by changing their behavior and sends them email messages about their printing costs and how they can reduce these costs.


23

How Does It Work Policy Print is based on the same architecture as Print and Copy Accounting. In addition to the base architecture, it utilizes the following additional component:

Directory Services integration

Batched print jobinformation

Batched print jobinformation

Region 1

Data Center


Print Jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs

Print jobs





Analyst

Administrator

Collector

Local printers

Region 2





Collector

Policy requests

Policy information

Policyinformation

Directory Services

Group membership information

Directory Services


Policy Print is deployed in the same manner as Print and Copy Accounting. However, for Policy Print, the Tracker must be installed on all workstations. The Workstation Tracker is responsible for monitoring and applying policies when applicable.

Policy Print utilizes your directory services infrastructure to determine what policy should be applied to an employee. The Directory Services integration (on the Collector) connects on-demand to directory services to retrieve the employee’s group memberships. The Collector then uses the Policy Print configuration data to determine which policy applies to that employee.


24

Employee Experience Policy Print is a transparent application that requires no additional employee training. Employees continue to print documents and find/add printers just as they normally would.

Each time an employee prints a document, Policy Print checks to see whether the employee will violate his policy. If the document triggers one or more rules, Policy Print displays an easy-to-understand message to the employee. This message provides additional information about the document being printed and why it is not consistent with the employee’s print policy.

The exact message that the employee will see depends on his specific policy – the message and action to apply to a specific rule within a policy is completely configurable.

Policy Print supports three different types of actions:

Inform

These messages give employees additional information about the print job; however, the print job prints as it normally would without any user interaction (i.e. the print job will print even if the message is still displayed). For example, you could create a “green tip” message informing employees that printing a two-sided document will reduce waste and save the company money.


25

Warn

These messages notify employees when they’ve printed a job that’s in violation of the corporate printing policy. Employees have the option to cancel the job and resubmit it with parameters that don’t violate the policy, or they can accept the warning if the job is important and continue printing it. The print job will not physically print unless they accept the warning.

If the employee cancels the job, it is recorded as a waste savings. If the employee accepts the warning and prints anyway, the job is marked as a policy violation.


26

Deny

Like a Warn message, these messages provide employees with information as to why their print job has violated the corporate printing policy, but the print job is canceled and will not print. For example, if your company prevents local printing and an employee has attempted to print a job on a local printer, the print job is canceled and an employee would see a message asking her to print her document on a network printer instead.

The canceled job is recorded as waste savings.

Policy Details

In addition, employees can quickly and easily view their specific policy and all rules that apply to them by clicking on the Blueprint Enterprise tray icon in the system tray.

Note – the tray icon is only displayed if an employee has a policy applied to them.


27

Cost Awareness Email

Policy Print reviews employee activity job-by-job. However, you can also educate your employees about their activity over the entire month. The Cost Awareness Mailer allows you to identify the employees who can achieve the most cost savings by changing their behavior and send them email messages informing them of their printing costs and suggesting ways they can reduce these costs.


28

Product Specification Secure Release Here®

29

Secure Release Here®

Overview Keeping your company’s important business and client information private is paramount to your organization’s success. Even with the best security policies, if you must allow that confidential information to print, you still have a very real risk of information getting into the wrong hands. Some companies deal with this issue by deploying personal printers to each employee that handles confidential information. On the surface this may seem like a suitable solution, but it is not a cost-effective solution.

With the Secure Release Here confidential printing application, once an employee sends a job to a network device, the job is not physically printed until the employee authenticates at the device and requests her job to be printed. Now confidential documents can be sent to shared, cost-effective, production-quality network devices without the risk of the document being collected by the wrong person.

In addition, Secure Release Here gives employees additional convenience. They can collect their jobs from any devices that are grouped together, even if the devices are located in different areas, floors, buildings, or even parts of the country. The employee also does not need to worry about what print server to use. Jobs held by any print server that is part of the Secure Release Here deployment are available to the employee at any device regardless of which print server manages that device.

Employees authenticate themselves by entering their credentials or swiping their employee badge (e.g. proximity card). This information is collected using software embedded on the device (with an external card reader) or a stand-alone terminal. Once collected, the credentials are then validated real-time with your existing security infrastructure. Once authenticated, the employee will see only her own print jobs. Employees can print documents or delete documents that they no longer need.

Secure Release Here also helps address another common waste issue – documents that are printed, but never physically collected. Secure Release Here monitors for old jobs and automatically deletes them if they are not collected in a defined period of time. Since the documents are not physically printed, an employee forgetting to collect her documents is no longer an issue.

Features Some of the key features of the Secure Release Here application are:

Create groups of devices and queues. An employee can submit his job to a group’s queue and collect his print job at any device in that same group.

A group can include devices on any secured print server. An employee can submit a job to a specific print server and still collect that job on a device managed by a different print server.

Integrate real-time with your authentication system to validate employee credentials (e.g. when the employee walks up to the secured device and wants to collect his print jobs).


30

Automatically deletes any print jobs that have not been collected within a defined period of time.

Records detailed information about all jobs that are securely released. Records detailed information about jobs that were submitted to a secure queue, but never collected.

Supports a wide range of options for employee authentication and job release. These include external network terminals as well as software solutions running directly on the print device.

How Does It Work A standard Secure Release Here deployment uses the following Blueprint Enterprise components:

Analyst

Collector

User stations (i.e. network terminals and/or iMFPs)

Authentication system integration

Administrator

Depending on your goals, the deployment can also use one or more of the following components:


Employee identifier “translation” data imports


31

The Analyst acts as the central hub of a Secure Release Here deployment. All configuration is performed at the Analyst; the necessary configuration data is automatically replicated to other components that require that data. The Analyst also stores and analyzes all historical data about printing activity, waste savings, costs, etc.

Each print server that will share secure queues will need the Blueprint Enterprise Collector installed. In addition to monitoring all printing activity through that print server (even unsecured printing), the Collector will manage the secure queues and the print jobs that are submitted to those queues. The Collectors collect their settings from the Analyst. In addition, a Collector can communicate with other Collectors to gather information about print jobs waiting for a particular employee. This is handled transparently to employees; they do not need to know which print server is securing their print jobs.

Each device that is secured requires a user station, which is responsible for collecting employee credentials and interacting with the employee when he wants to release his print jobs. A number of options are available, including external terminals and software solutions embedded directly on the output device. Each user station acts primarily as a user interface; it will communicate with its parent Collector to handle authentication and job management.

When employee credentials are passed to the Collector for authentication, the Collector uses an authentication script to validate employee information. In addition, the authentication script can convert or translate one type of identifier to another (e.g. convert an employee’s proximity card ID to his network ID). This allows an employee to use different IDs to submit and collect print jobs. The authentication script can be configured to communicate with an existing authentication system or use the Analyst database for employee validation and translation.

Data Flow

Secure Release Here is designed to keep the amount of network traffic to a minimum. When a print job is sent to a particular print server, that print job will not leave that print server until it is actually requested to be printed. In other words, if an employee sends a print job to server X, but releases his documents at a device managed by server Y, the print job on server X will not leave server X unless the employee actually requests for it to be physically printed.

The following example illustrates the flow of data in the system:

1. Employee X sends print job to the Print Server (R1) in Region 1 2. Collector on Print Server R1 detects that print job has been sent to secure device 3. Collector R1 stores print job in file system 4. Collector R1 notifies the Analyst that it has a print job for employee X 5. Employee X authenticates herself at the user station attached to a device in Region 2 6. MFP sends the employee’s credentials to the Collector on Print Server (R2) in Region 2 7. Collector R2 authenticates employee X 8. Collector R2 queries the Analyst for list of other print servers with jobs for employee X 9. Collector R2 contacts the other print servers to obtain job details. In this case, Collector R2

contacts Collector R1. 10. Collector R1 returns the information about the print job waiting for employee X 11. Collector R2 sends the information back to the user station 12. Employee X selects and releases the print job being held on Collector R1 via the user station


32

13. Collector R2 sends a release request to Collector R1 14. Collector R1 sends print job to device on which the employee is authenticated

User X

Secured PrintDevice 2

Secure Release Here Print Group 1

Step 1

Step 3 Step 4

Step 2

1. User X sends a print job to a secured device - Secured Print Device 1. This device is managed by Print Server 1.2. Blueprint detects that the target printer is a secured device and captures the print job. 3. Print Server 1 notifies the central Blueprint server of the print activity

1. User X walks to a different location before he realizes that he did not collect his print job.2. User X finds another secured device – Secured Print Device 2. He knows that this device is in the same Secure Release Here print group as Secured Print Device 1.

1. User X swipes his staff card to authenticate at Secured Print Device 2.2. Print Server 2 contacts the central Blueprint server to determine if other servers are holding print jobs for this user.3. User X is shown the details of his secured print job even though it is on a different print server.

Print job captured

1. User X requests his secured print job to be printed.2. The request is managed by the print servers and the print job is submitted to Secured Print Device 2 where User X is waiting.

User XPrint Server 1

Print Job


User X


Secured PrintDevice 2Analyst

Print activity notification

Print Server 1Print Server 2

Analyst

Print activity information

User X


Print Server 1Print Server 2

Print Job

Print Job

Print Job

Employee Experience During installation and deployment, the IT team can either create dedicated secure queues or turn existing queues into secured queues.

An employee can then add a secure queue to their workstation just as they would any other queue. Once the queue is added, the employee can print documents just as they normally would. The only difference is that they will select the secured queue instead of the standard direct queue. The print job is sent to the secured queue and automatically captured by the server and registered against the employee who submitted it.


33

When the employee arrives at the device, no documents will have been printed yet. The employee will swipe her badge (e.g. proximity card) or enter her network credentials (e.g. username / password); the credentials are collected by software embedded on the printer itself (e.g. integrated MFP) or an external terminal. These credentials are authenticated by the server and if valid, the list of jobs waiting for that employee, and only that employee, are displayed. The employee can then select particular jobs for release. Once released, the jobs are sent to the printer on which the employee is authenticated. The employee can also opt to delete jobs that are no longer required.

For more information about integrated MFPs (iMFPs) and external terminals, such as the Omega family, please contact Pharos Systems for an up-to-date list of available options.

Integrations


Authentication

Blueprint Enterprise includes an architecture that will allow external devices to use Blueprint to authenticate employees (for example, by username/password or card ID). Blueprint Enterprise supports a wide range of authentication models, including username/password (for example, LDAP, Active Directory), and card-based systems as well. This system supports complex environments where the same employee may have multiple cards or multiple network IDs.

The architecture is flexible enough to handle complex customer requirements, while at the same time simple enough (including out-of-the-box setups) for typical installations.

Identity Information

With the Identity Importer, Blueprint Enterprise can import employee identity information (for example, an employee’s primary ID, network IDs, and card IDs). Blueprint Enterprise uses this information to “translate” between an employee’s different IDs. For example, when an employee authenticates using his/her proximity card, Blueprint will translate that card ID into the employee’s network IDs to retrieve his/her print jobs.

Product Specification Product Details

34

Product Details

Print Tracking

Workstation Tracker versus Server Tracker

The Blueprint Enterprise Tracker component has two operational models; one designed for workstations and the other designed for print servers. If Trackers are installed on both workstations and print servers, Blueprint Enterprise will prevent double counting of print jobs.

Both of these operational models share common features. These features include:

The Tracker collects information about the machine on which it is installed (e.g. operating system version).

The Tracker sends regular heartbeats to indicate that it is running and monitoring printing on the machine on which it is installed.

The Tracker will batch print job information to send after-hours to limit the impact on the network.

The Tracker does not replace any operating system components to ensure that its functionality is available without requiring changes to your print environment. This also allows the Tracker to support proprietary print drivers that replace components of the operating system’s print process to achieve advanced functionality.

Workstation Tracker

The Workstation Tracker captures printing sent to locally attached printers (e.g. USB, LPT, etc.) and network printers, including printers accessed directly on the network (e.g. direct IP) and printers accessed through a print server.

In addition to capturing print activity, the Workstation Tracker can interact with the employee; interactions can range from providing additional information about the print job to preventing the print job from printing.

The Workstation Tracker operates seamlessly behind-the-scenes, so that employees can continue to access printers and print from their applications as normal.

Server Tracker

The Server Tracker is designed to handle the throughput that is typically encountered on an enterprise print server. It runs as a low-priority application to ensure that the server can focus resources on its core tasks – delivery of employee printing to the correct target printer.

The Server Tracker cannot apply policies or track printing sent to a locally attached printer.


35

Page Counting Technology

The Tracker records information about each print job from two independent sources: the Windows operating system2 and the Pharos proprietary page-counting engine. Pharos’ patent-pending heuristic technology selects individual data fields from these sources to increase accuracy. Continually enhanced and improved upon for over 15 years, these Pharos technologies are considered the most accurate in the industry.

The Pharos proprietary page-counting engine supports the following PDLs (Page Description Languages):

Postscript Levels 1, 2, and 3

PCL 3, PCL 4, PCL 5, PCL 5e, and PCL XL (PCL 6)

HP-GL/2 and HP RTL

EMF

ESC/P2

PDF 1.3

Canon UFR-II

And others

Transaction-based Print Tracking

The Tracker is deployed to workstations and/or print servers. Once deployed, it silently monitors printing activity without impacting the employee.

The Tracker collects the following information about each print job:

Network ID of employee who submitted the job

Date/Time

Document Title (Name)

Job Size (KB)

Pages – Total

Pages – Color

Sheets

Copies

Originals (the number of pages in the original document when a job consists of multiple copies of that document)

Finishing Options o Including Duplex/Simplex, Stapling, Tray, etc.

Paper Size

Printer Description Language (PDL): Postscript, PCL, etc.

Print Path o Printer Name o Port Name

2 Windows page counts are not available when printing to a Novell queue.


36

o Share Name o Server Share Name o Printer TCP/IP Address and/or Printer Hostname

The Tracker also records the following information about the machine on which it’s installed. This information is not sent with each print job, but is communicated to the server once per day as part of the heartbeat signal.

Machine Name

Network Domain

MAC Address

IP Address

Serial Number

Hostname

Operating System and Service Pack Level

Tracker Version Installed

As the print environment is constantly changing, it is vital that the detection of changes in the environment is handled automatically. The Tracker automatically detects when an employee connects his/her workstations to a new output device.

Transaction Batching

The Tracker can send recorded print job transactions in batches after-hours to avoid loading servers and the network during peak times. Transaction batches are sent to the server according to two configurable criteria:

Automatically once a maximum batch size is met

According to a scheduled daily time interval

Meter Reads Blueprint Enterprise includes advanced capabilities that allow it to automatically consolidate device volume information from transactions and meter reads into a single view. Meter reads provide you with a 100% accurate accounting for device volume. Transactions break down device volume by employee use and provide individual print transaction details. The combination of these two data points provides you with accurate output detail.

Device Management Integration

Blueprint Enterprise integrates with device management tools to obtain device information and meter reads.

Wherever possible, meter reads are used as absolute page counts for billing purposes. In these cases, user-level transactions “split” the meter read by employee.


37

Common device management tools include:

Canon imageWARE Enterprise Management Console

Hewlett Packard Web JetAdmin

Lexmark MarkVision Pro

Ricoh @Remote

Xerox Centreware Web

You can import information from a device management system, and you can use the Blueprint Administrator interface to enter other device information. The following fields are stored for each device:

Device Name

Manufacturer and Model

Print Driver, Port Monitor, Provider, Processor, and DLL Versions

Device Access (Network, Local, Standalone)

Device Location

Device Budget Center

Device Department Group

Device Functions – Print, Copy, Fax, Scan

Flag to include this device in reports

Flag indicating if the device was imported from a third-party device management tool

IP Address

MAC Address

Serial Number

Asset Number

Network (Hostname) Name

Employee workstation name for local devices

Device Description

Notes – (any added information about a device)

Five Custom Fields

These fields are strings you can use to store any additional location information that is customer-specific to include in custom reports.

Blueprint can also store the following meter read information for each device:

Meter Read Date

Device Volume

Total

Black/White

Color

Print Volume

Total

Black/White

Color

Copy Volume

Total


38

Black/White

Color

Scan Volume

Fax Volume

Total

Incoming

Outbound Network

Outbound Manual

Contact your Pharos representative to discuss the device management tool that you use and the type of integration that can be achieved with your tool.

Other Sources of Printing

UNIX and Mainframe Printing

Although the Tracker only supports Windows operating systems, jobs from workstations or print servers running other operating systems, such as UNIX and mainframes, can still be tracked:

Jobs printed from non-Windows workstations can be tracked if they are routed to a Windows print server that has the Tracker installed.

Jobs printed from Windows workstations to a non-Windows print server will be tracked, provided the Tracker is installed on the workstations.

Jobs sent to non-Windows servers (from Windows or non-Windows workstations) can be also tracked if they are first sent through a Windows print server that has the Tracker installed.

Contact Pharos Systems to discuss your print environment and determine if other options are available (e.g. an integration with your mainframe printing solution).

Novell Printing

Blueprint Enterprise can also track printing in a Novell environment. However, some features may be affected. Novell Distributed Print Services (NDPS) and iPrint clients send print jobs to a “queue”; the Tracker will detect what queue a print job is being sent to, but it cannot determine the physical device that queue uses. This will affect automatic normalization; duplicate devices may be created (e.g. if employees print to the same device via a Novell queue and also direct IP).

A NDPS data importer is available to map the Novell queues to physical device connections. Please contact Pharos Systems for more information.

Citrix and Terminal Services Printing

Blueprint Enterprise can also track printing in a Citrix or Terminal Services environment. Depending on the how printing is managed, some features may not be available (e.g. job tagging). In addition, automatic normalization may be affected as the device information supplied is not sufficient for automated processing.


39

Please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide” for more information.

Analysis

Automatic Normalization

To truly understand the print environment, it is critical to understand the actual number of devices in the environment and the volume that they produce. Blueprint Enterprise automatically analyzes the data collected by the Trackers to determine what devices exist and their associated volume. This process is called normalization.

For example, three workstations may be connected to the same network printer. As each workstation has the Tracker installed, each Tracker will report the same network printer. The normalization process analyzes the information to determine that each workstation is actually pointing to the same device. Not only is the correct number of devices reflected, but also all volume from the three workstations will be associated with the same device.

Typically the normalization process will automatically process 95% of these connections. The 5% exception percentage is manually normalized through the Administrator user interface. In well-structured Windows and TCP/IP printing environments, the success rate is even higher.

The normalization process uniquely identifies an output device through a combination of serial number, MAC address, hostname, IP address, and server queue name so that you can obtain a complete and accurate accounting of pages printed by users from applications in your environment. If any of these individual items change, the change is analyzed to determine if the physical device was moved or replaced, ensuring that Blueprint Enterprise accurately reflects actual output devices in your enterprise.

The Blueprint Administrator interface allows you to review and manually adjust the results of the normalization process.

Any devices that cannot be normalized automatically are highlighted and can be dealt with manually. Subsequent normalizations will follow the corrections made using the Administrator interface.

Model Matching

To provide you with the most accurate information about your physical printing devices, Blueprint Enterprise matches the devices found through the normalization process with a database of over 7,300 models from Lyra Research, Inc. to determine the exact manufacturer, page-per-minute rating, and color capability for every model in your enterprise. This information is used to calculate a device’s utilization. Blueprint Enterprise allows you to set a target utilization and compare your actual versus target utilization.

Lyra Database

A database of over 7,300 makes and models of manufacturers’ output devices from Lyra Research, Inc., a leading industry analyst, is included with Blueprint Enterprise to standardize device identification and


40

information. Devices found in your environment are automatically matched against this models database and the corresponding model information is used in reporting and costing.

Blueprint Enterprise creates detailed reports on device usage and utilization by combining the collected data with the information from the models database.

The supplied Lyra models database also includes industry hardware, supplies, and maintenance costs, allowing for the generation of detailed cost reports right out of the box. For any device that is matched to a model included in the Lyra database, the standard market costs will be assigned to the device. With this powerful feature, once the first set of data has been collected, you can get an accurate cost of your devices based on market costs without entering any data.

Information provided for each manufacturer and model combination includes the following:

Manufacturer

Model

Device Type (Printer, Copier, MFD, etc.)

Device Technology (Dot Matrix, Inkjet, Laser, etc.)

Device Color Capable

Introduction Date

Pages Per Minute Rating – Black/White

Pages Per Minute Rating – Color

Costing Information

Monthly Equipment Cost – Based on original list price

Monthly Maintenance Cost – Based on equipment cost

Supplies Cost Per Page (Black/White) – Based on current market price of consumables

Supplies Cost Per Page (Color) – Based on current market price of consumables

Disclaimer: Data contained in the models database is based on reliable information, however, the accuracy and completeness of the data is not guaranteed. Pharos and its data suppliers are not liable for any errors or omissions.

Costing

You may override costing information for each model to provide site-specific costs in order to ensure an accurate reporting of printing costs. Blueprint Enterprise allows you to enter monthly device and maintenance costs as well as supply costs. These costs are then applied to the total volume associated with that specific device model, and are used in all reports to provide you with printing costs. These costs can be set on each model (which applies the costs to all devices of that model type) and can also be set individually on each device.

The key costing settings are:

Monthly Equipment Cost – all fixed, monthly equipment costs that are incurred to have the device in the print environment, regardless of the monthly volume it produces

Monthly Maintenance Cost – all fixed, monthly maintenance costs that are incurred to have the device in the print environment, regardless of the monthly volume it produces


41

Supplies Cost Per Page (Black/White) – cost of producing a B&W page on the device

Supplies Cost Per Page (Color) – cost of producing a color page on the device

Periods

To support large volumes of data, Blueprint Enterprise uses periods and period closes to ensure that data is accurate and quickly available. A period represents a month timeframe, and is set to automatically close at a set time after the end of the month. When configuring billing periods to close automatically, you can define the start day of each period, as well as the number of days into a new period to close the previous one. This allows Blueprint Enterprise to include late meter reads and/or transactions for specified periods.

You can also close periods manually from within the Administrator interface.

A period close uses all data to calculate monthly totals, including total volume, total costs, utilization, apportionments, and cost-per-page.

Blueprint Enterprise allows you to re-close periods in order to include new data that was not available at the initial time of closing.

Apportionment

When a period is closed, costs are assigned to individual employees and their associated budget centers and department groups based on the employees’ actual usage. When meter reads are available, the meter read will be used for the device’s total volume and costs; the transactions will be used to apportion the total volume and costs to the budget centers and departments that generated the volume.

Reporting To provide you with extensive summaries of all printing data gathered, Blueprint Enterprise provides you with over 50 standard reports, which provide you with details based on employees, transactions, devices, budget centers, departments, and locations.

Blueprint Enterprise uses Business Objects Crystal Reports, a standard industry package, to generate reports. Pharos can also easily develop custom reports to add to the reporting interface, including custom report parameter forms. You can export generated reports to various formats, including PDF, RTF, Excel, and Word.

The standard types of reports and the data represented in them are as follows:

Administration Reports

Administration reports display information that relates to the operation of the Blueprint site. The following Administration reports are available:


42

Report Summary

Enterprise - Device Meter Read Status

A summary report listing all network devices whose meter reads are older than the specified number of days.

Enterprise - Devices Not Imported by Device Management Import

A summary report listing all devices that were active in the specified period, but which had not been synchronized with a device import feed when the period was closed..

Enterprise - Tracker Health A summary report listing all Tracker PCs (workstations or print servers) that have not contacted the Collector for a specified number of days.

Enterprise - Uninstalled Workstations

A summary report listing all Tracker workstations that have been uninstalled since a specified date.

Enterprise - Workstation Health A summary report listing all Tracker workstations that have not contacted the Collector for a specified number of days.

Enterprise - Workstation Install Base

A summary report showing the number of Tracker workstations installed over a specified date range.

Costing Reports

Costing reports break down printing costs by various factors. The following Costing reports are available:

Report Summary

Building - Split Cost A summary report showing the costs associated with all devices in the specified building, with the costs split between Color and B&W printing.

Building - Total Cost A summary report showing the total costs associated with all devices in the specified building.

Device - Cost

A summary report showing a detailed breakdown of all costs associated with the specified device. The report also shows the device's recorded details (including location), and utilization information.

Floor - Split Cost A summary report showing the costs associated with all devices on the specified floor, with the costs split between Color and B&W output.

Floor - Total Cost A summary report showing the total costs associated with all devices on the specified floor.


43

Location Group - Total Cost A summary report showing the costs associated with all devices in the specified location group.

Investigation Reports

Investigation reports give detailed information about devices, employees and other entities in the Blueprint system. The following Investigation reports are available:

Budget Center

Report Summary

Budget Center - Device List A summary report listing details of all devices associated with the specified budget center, including location.

Budget Center - Employee Volume

A list showing volume for employees belonging to the specified budget center, split between Color and B&W output.

Budget Center - Total Cost Per Employee - Color/Mono

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the selected budget center. Total costs are split between B&W and color volume.

Budget Center - Total Cost Per Employee - Local/Network

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the selected budget center. Total costs are split between local and network devices.

Building

Report Summary

Building - Blueprint Score This report calculates the Blueprint Score, which measures how efficient your printing environment is, across the specified building.

Building - Device List A list showing details of all devices located in the specified building, including location and budget center.

Building - Device Usage - Split A summary report showing print volumes recorded for devices in the specified building, split between Color and B&W output. Device utilization and costs are also displayed.

Building - Device Usage - Total A summary report showing total print volumes recorded for devices in the specified building.

Building - Employee Volume A list showing volume for employees in the specified building, split


44

between Color and B&W output.

Building - Summary

A summary report that displays:

Details of the building's location.

Total devices, employees, budget centers, department groups and print volume for the building.

The building's Blueprint Score.

Summary device statistics for the building.

A list of all department groups in the building, showing budget centers, employees, total volume and total costs for each.

Department Group

Report Summary

Department Group - Summary by Budget Center

A summary report showing the print volumes and costs for all budget centers associated with the selected department group.

Department Group - Summary by Building

A summary report showing the print volumes and costs for all buildings associated with the selected department group.

Department Group - Total Cost Per Employee - Color/Mono

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the selected department group. Total costs are split between B&W and color volume.

Department Group - Total Cost Per Employee - Local/Network

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the selected department group. Total costs are split between local and network devices.

Device

Report Summary

Device - Detail A detailed report on the specified device, showing all of the device's details, as well as a summary of the device's recorded output volumes and cost for the period.

Device - Transactions A report showing details of all transactions recorded for the selected device, including page count and cost for each transaction.


45

Employee

Report Summary

Employee - Device List A list showing details of all devices used by the specified employee, including location and budget center.

Employee - Transactions A report showing details of all transactions recorded for the selected employee, including page count and cost for each transaction.

Enterprise

Report Summary

Enterprise - Inactive Devices A list showing details of all devices that have no volume recorded for this period.

Floor

Report Summary

Floor - Blueprint Score This report calculates the Blueprint Score, which measures how efficient your printing environment is, across the specified floor.

Floor - Device List A list showing details of all devices located on the specified floor, including office and budget center.

Floor - Device Usage - Split A summary report showing print volumes recorded for devices on the specified floor, split between Color and B&W output. Device utilization and costs are also displayed.

Floor - Device Usage - Total A summary report showing total print volumes recorded for devices on the specified floor.

Floor - Employee Volume A list showing volume for employees on the specified floor, split between Color and B&W output.

Floor - Summary


Details of the floor's location.

Total devices, employees, budget centers, department groups and print volume for the floor.

The floor's Blueprint Score.

Summary device statistics for the floor.


46

A list of all department groups on the floor, showing budget centers, employees, total volume and total costs for each.

Location Group

Report Summary

Location Group - Device List A list showing details of all devices associated with the specified location group, including location and budget center.

Location Group - Summary


Total devices, employees, budget centers, department groups and print volume for the location.

The location group's Blueprint Score.

Summary device statistics for the location group.

A list of all department groups in the location group, showing budget centers, employees, total volume and total costs for each.

Machine

Report Summary

Machine - Transactions A report showing details of all print transactions recorded for the selected Tracker machine, including page count and cost for each transaction.

Manufacturer

Report Summary

Manufacturer - Device List A list showing details of all devices made by the specified manufacturer in use across the entire site, including location and budget center.

Manufacturer - Device Usage - Total

A summary report showing total print volumes recorded for all devices made by the selected manufacturer.


47

Measurement Reports

Measurement reports compare statistics across multiple periods. The following Measurement reports are available:

Report Summary

Building - Blueprint Score - Comparison

Compares the Blueprint Score across the specified periods for a single building.

Floor - Blueprint Score - Comparison

Compares the Blueprint Score across the specified periods for a single floor.

Enterprise - Blueprint Score - Comparison

Compares the Blueprint Score across the specified periods for the entire organization.

Policy Print Reports

Policy Print reports give detailed information about the effectiveness of policies, policy violations and waste-savings. The following Policy Print reports are available:

Budget Center

Report Summary

Budget Center - Cost of Policy Violations

A summary report showing the total volume and cost of policy violations associated with the specified budget center.

Budget Center - Policy Violations - Top X Employees

A summary report listing the employees associated with the specified budget center responsible for the most policy violations, either by volume or by cost,. Policy violations are reported for each type of activity, with volume split between Color and B&W.

Budget Center - Policy Waste Savings

A summary report showing the waste savings recorded against each policy and associated with the specified budget center.

Budget Center - Supply Cost Per Employee - Policy/No Policy

A summary report comparing the supply costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the specified budget center. Supply costs are split between employees that were subject to a policy and those that were not.


48

Department Group

Report Summary

Department Group - Cost of Policy Violations

A summary report showing the total volume and cost of policy violations associated with the specified department group.

Department Group - Policy Violations - Top X Employees

A summary report listing the employees associated with the specified department group responsible for the most policy violations, either by volume or by cost. Policy violations are reported for each type of activity, with volume split between Color and B&W.

Department Group - Policy Waste Savings

A summary report showing the waste savings recorded against each policy and associated with the specified department group.

Department Group - Supply Cost Per Employee - Policy/No Policy

A summary report comparing the supply costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the specified department group. Supply costs are split between employees that were subject to a policy and those that were not.

Enterprise

Report Summary

Enterprise - Cost of Policy Violations

A summary report showing the total volume and cost of policy violations across the whole enterprise.

Enterprise - Policy Violations - Top X Employees

A summary report listing the employees across the entire enterprise responsible for the most policy violations, either by volume or by cost. Policy violations are reported for each type of activity, with volume split between Color and B&W.

Enterprise - Policy Waste Savings

A summary report showing the waste savings recorded against each policy across the whole enterprise.

Enterprise - Supply Cost Per Employee - Policy/No Policy

A summary report comparing the supply costs per employee over a range of reporting periods for the entire enterprise. Supply costs are split between employees that were subject to a policy and those that were not.

Policy Summary A summary report listing all active Policy Print policies and their associated rules and groups.


49

Summary Reports

Summary reports give a site-wide overview of the printing system. The following Summary reports are available:

Report Summary

Enterprise - Blueprint Score This report calculates the Blueprint Score, which measures how efficient your printing environment is, across the entire organization.

Enterprise - Budget Center - Volume/Cost

A summary report showing the output volume and costs associated with each budget center across the entire organization. Volumes are split between Color and B&W output.

Enterprise - Building - Volume/Cost

A summary report showing the output volume and costs associated with each building across the entire organization. Volumes are split between Color and B&W output.

Enterprise - Department Group - Volume/Cost

A summary report showing the output volume and costs associated with each department group across the entire organization. Volumes are split between Color and B&W output.

Enterprise - Large Print Jobs A detailed report showing details of all print jobs greater than the specified number of pages that were printed across the entire organization, including page count and cost for each print job.

Enterprise - Local Printing

A report summarizing all local printing done across the organization. Pie charts show the proportion of print volume and printing costs recorded against local devices, and a series of tables show the top ten local devices by volume, cost and cost per page.

Enterprise - Location Group - Volume/Cost

A summary report showing the output volume and costs associated with each location group across the entire organization. Volumes are split between Color and B&W output.

Enterprise - Summary A summary report showing key values and figures for the entire organization.

Enterprise - Top X Network Devices by Volume

A summary report listing the networked devices responsible for the most volume in the specified period.

Enterprise - Total Cost Per Employee - Color/Mono

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods across the entire organization. Total costs are split between B&W and color volume.

Enterprise - Total Cost Per Employee - Local/Network

A summary report comparing the total costs per employee over a range of reporting periods across the entire organization. Total costs are split between local and network devices.


50

Enterprise - Utilization A summary report containing a series of pie charts that show the percentage utilization of all devices in total, and broken down by category.

Scalability and Robustness

Multi-tier Server Architecture

Blueprint Enterprise’s three-tier architecture is designed to scale from one-server implementations for small businesses, to multiple-server implementations servicing a large number of users and workstations for enterprise implementations. One of the largest deployments of Blueprint Enterprise includes over 250,000 workstations using over 50,000 devices.

Robustness and Availability

Robustness and availability are key concerns for any enterprise solution. By designing Blueprint Enterprise to eliminate a single point of failure, the various components of Blueprint Enterprise can function even when a server may not be available. This ensures that Blueprint Enterprise can monitor and control the print environment without impacting employee productivity.

Some examples of the robust design of Blueprint Enterprise include:

Tracker transaction-batching – Trackers monitor the printing activity in the environment and will periodically send this information to the servers. However, should the servers be unavailable (e.g. a WAN network outage), the Trackers will continue to monitor printing activity and store the activity information until the server is available again.

Server data replication – for particular Blueprint Enterprise solutions, it is necessary to verify employee information in real-time. However, if the central Analyst server is unavailable, the other server components will continue to function using data cached and replicated from the Analyst server.

Centralized Administration

Blueprint Enterprise is designed to ensure easy administration, even if your enterprise has hundreds of servers. All your configurable system settings are stored on the server components, where you can conveniently change them at the central Analyst. Collectors cache various configuration information and data from the Analyst based on the replication settings.


51

System Maintenance

System Health

Blueprint Enterprise provides several ways to monitor the way the overall system is functioning and to monitor dependencies. The System Health functionality serves as a problem-prevention feature. Blueprint Enterprise is so fault-tolerant that it identifies potential issues that would otherwise go undetected. Any problems that may occur are highlighted to the administrator.

Example problem areas that are monitored include:

Server(s) with status “Faulty”

Server(s) have not responded in time

Server(s) have not uploaded a batch file recently

A significant percentage of Trackers have not sent up print data recently

One or more integrations have not been updated in the designated timeframe

You can supply an email address to receive automatic notifications of any alerts that are raised. In addition, you may view alerts in the Blueprint Administrator interface or in Windows Event Viewer. You also can set up automatic monitoring of Windows events using the server management console.

Server Health

Blueprint Enterprise’s Server Health monitors the connectivity and availability of servers, system dependencies, and data flow to ensure the system is frequently obtaining data.

Connectivity and Availability

Server Health monitors a server heartbeat to ensure that the servers are online and available.

System Dependencies

Checks that external system dependencies required for Blueprint Enterprise servers are available and functioning. Dependencies that are checked include:

Database

Service Connectivity (WCF)

Tracker Web Service (IIS)

EDI Web Service (IIS)

Message Queueing (MSMQ)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

License Validity


52

Data Flow

In addition to verifying that a server is available, Server Health monitors that the components are actually sending data as expected.

Tracker Health

Tracker Health monitors workstations and print servers that have the Tracker component for potential issues. In addition to monitoring the Tracker heartbeat to ensure the Tracker is online and available, the system monitors that the Trackers are sending data as expected.

Trackers send a “heartbeat” signal to the server each day to inform the server of the Tracker’s current state. Heartbeats are sent during a configured time interval and send their signals at a random time during the specified interval to avoid excessive load on the server and network.

The Tracker records the following information about the workstation on which it’s installed. This information is communicated to the server once per day as part of the heartbeat signal:

Machine Name

Network Domain

MAC Address

IP Address

Serial Number

Hostname

Operating System and Service Pack Level

Tracker Version Installed

If a workstation with a Tracker installed is powered off during the heartbeat period, it will send its heartbeat upon startup. The Tracker heartbeat and Tracker’s transfer of print transaction records are two independent functions. The Tracker will still send a heartbeat even if there is no print activity.

You can view all workstations whose heartbeats have not been received for a specified amount of time with the Blueprint Administrator interface.

Communications For more information about the impact on your network, please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide”.

Protocols and Ports Used

The majority of Blueprint Enterprise communications use HTTP/SOAP-based protocols. This design simplifies the implementation of Blueprint Enterprise in your environment; the default installation uses port 80, which allows Blueprint Enterprise components to communicate through firewalls without reconfiguration.

Blueprint Enterprise utilizes the following protocols and ports:


53

Client Data Communications

SOAP/HTTP transported on TCP/IP

Uses IIS port (default 80)

Communications to be secured using a SSL certificate

File Communications

FTP transported on TCP/IP

Server Communications

Microsoft Windows Communications Foundation TCP/IP protocol – default 808

Microsoft .NET remoting protocol – default 8081

Network Traffic

Blueprint Enterprise is designed to reduce its impact on your critical network systems.

One technique that Blueprint Enterprise utilizes to reduce network traffic is batching print job information on client machines (e.g. print job information is grouped into batches of 100 print jobs by default). Batches are sent to the server when the configured maximum batch size is reached, or once per day within a configurable time period (e.g. 8pm – 3am), whichever occurs first. Batches are randomly sent within the specified time period on client machines to reduce the peak load on the LAN and the server.

Authentication

Live authentication

Blueprint Enterprise incorporates a flexible authentication engine designed to verify your employees’ identities using a range of credentials. When an employee attempts to use a secured resource, he or she will need to enter or supply valid credentials, which might include his or her employee card or username/password. This information is then sent to the Collector, which validates the user’s identity using the authentication system.

For example:

User walks up to a multi-function printer (MFP) to use the copy feature

The device the user selects has been secured using the Pharos integrated MFP (iMFP)

User holds up proximity card or enters logon credentials at the device

iMFP or printer sends credentials to Collector

Collector uses the authentication system to verify user’s identity in real-time

Authentication system verifies that the logon credentials are valid

User ID Translation/Conversion

Every transaction is recorded with an identifier that specifies the employee responsible for the job. For print jobs tracked or secured by Blueprint, the identifier is the username associated with the print job.


54

However, when an employee attempts to release their print job, they may use different credentials (e.g. their proximity card). Blueprint can convert or translate one employee identifier to others, e.g. Blueprint can convert the employee’s card ID to their network ID so that the employee can see the jobs that they submitted.

In addition, the possibility of a single employee having multiple identifiers means that identifiers must be managed within the Blueprint system to ensure that employees are properly represented in reports. It is possible for users to use multiple identifiers when printing jobs. For example, they may print jobs directly from their workstations using their network ID, and also release jobs from a terminal using a card swipe, or they may have multiple network IDs for use in different systems. Each different identifier is recorded as a separate employee. But when Blueprint is provided with information mapping (or "translating") the different identifiers to the correct employee, all output activity performed by the employee is associated with him or her regardless of what identifier he or she used.

Identifiers are classified into three types:

Employee - a unique identifier that corresponds with a single employee, for example, an employee number in HR data

Network - the network username associated with a print job tracked by Blueprint

Card - any other kind of identifier, most commonly a card ID

The types are arranged in a hierarchy, ordered as above. An identifier can only be mapped to another identifier that is higher up the hierarchy than it. Employee identifiers can be mapped either manually or imported in bulk.

For more information, refer to the “Blueprint Configuration Guide”.

User Interfaces

When an employee attempts to use a secured device, the employee will interact with a user interface connected or integrated with that device.

Blueprint Enterprise supports a wide range of user interface options. In addition to Pharos’ Omega PS60 and Omega PS150 network terminals, Blueprint Enterprise also supports a range of device integrations. These integrations are installed directly on the device without requiring external hardware and the employee interacts directly with the device’s interface. Blueprint Enterprise currently supports three integrated MFP solutions (iMFP) – these include Canon, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, and Ricoh. Please contact Pharos Systems for more information about these options and other options that may be available since the release of Blueprint Enterprise 4.1.


55

Policy Print™

Replication

Policy Print policies are defined centrally at the Analyst. Policy definitions and other related settings are replicated daily to all Collectors. The administrator can also manually force an update of the policy definitions and settings on the Collectors.

Each Workstation Tracker checks once daily if any of the policies previously downloaded have been updated. If so, these updated policies are downloaded from its parent Collector.

Analyst

Administrator

Define policiesWorkstations with Blueprint Workstation Tracker

Collectors

Directory Services



Replicate policiesRequest policy

Replicate policies

Policy details

Policies and User Groups

Blueprint Enterprise uses each employee’s group membership to determine the policy to apply. A policy consists of one or more rules that should be applied to printing activity. Multiple policies can be created to handle the different types of printing needs in your environment (e.g. the marketing team will have different printing needs than the human resources team). Policies are not assigned directly to employees, but rather to Active Directory (or other directory systems) groups.

A directory system group can only be associated with one policy. However, employees may belong to multiple groups, and can therefore have associations with more than one policy. When this occurs, the policy with the highest priority is assigned to the employee.

Integration with Directory Services

Policy Print works with Microsoft Active Directory and can also support other directory systems.

If you have directory systems other than Active Directory (e.g. LDAP or eDirectory), contact Pharos Systems to discuss your requirements.

Rules and Conditions

A rule specifies a set of conditions that apply to a policy. Each policy can have one or more rules assigned to it. Each rule consists of a trigger condition, an action to take, and a prompt to display.


56

Example rules include: “Deny color printing”; “Inform users of the cost of their printing job”; and “Warn users against printing a web page in color”.

Triggers

A trigger specifies when a rule should be applied. It consists of a set of functions (print/copy/fax/scan) to which the trigger applies, an expression that defines what conditions will cause the rule to be applied, and a name which identifies the trigger. Blueprint Enterprise includes built-in triggers and conditions, such as the trigger name “Print Job Over 50 Pages” with the condition “Document Total Pages Is Greater Than 50”. You can modify or delete the triggers as needed. The trigger expressions you build can contain one or more conditions.

Conditions

A condition represents a specific attribute about the print job or print path. Conditions are used to build a trigger (see above). The available conditions include:

How is the device connected?

Does the document contain color?

How many color pages does the document contain?

What is the estimated cost of the document?

What is the document (print job) name?

Is the document duplexed?

When is the document being printed?

How many pages (total) does the document contain?

What function is being used (i.e. print, copy, fax, or scan)?

What is the name, location, comment, and/or print driver on the device being used?

For more information about the rules, triggers, and conditions, please refer to the “Blueprint Configuration Guide”.

Estimated Document Costs

When a policy is downloaded to a workstation, the costs of printing are downloaded to the workstation too. As these costs can be presented to employees, a separate set of costing variables are used. This not only creates a costing model that is easier to communicate to your employees, but also ensures that they do not see raw, actual costs.

These costs are calculated using the following values:

Cost Per Page for Local Printing (Black & White and Color) Local printing is defined as any print job sent to a printer connected directly to the workstation (e.g. via USB, parallel port, serial port, etc.)

Cost Per Page for Network Printing (Black & White and Color)


57

Network printing is defined as any print job sent to a printer connected on the network (e.g. direct IP printing, print serve- based printing). These values should be representative costs of each type of printing.

Actions

An action is the outcome you want to occur when a rule is triggered. The available actions are Deny, Warn, and Inform.

A Deny action prevents print jobs from occurring. Users are presented with an intrusive pop-up box informing them that their action is against company policy and that their job has been cancelled. The cancellation is recorded as a ‘policy savings’ for reporting purposes.

A Warn action allows print jobs to proceed after confirmation from the user. If a Warn rule triggers, the user is presented with an intrusive pop-up box showing that the activity is against company policy. The user can either choose to cancel the job or to continue printing.

An Inform action notifies the user and allows the action to continue without interruption. If an Inform rule triggers, the user is presented with a non-intrusive pop-up box that displays information about the printing job. The user can choose to dismiss the pop-up box or it will auto-dismiss within a defined period of time.

If multiple rules with different actions are triggered, the rules with the most restrictive action are applied. For example, if a print job trigger two deny rules and one warn rule, the deny action is applied.

Prompts

A rule prompt is the message that is displayed to the users in the policy notification pop-up box that appears when a rule is triggered. Blueprint Enterprise comes with default policy prompts, which you can customizable to suit your needs.

For example, when a user sees a Deny pop-up box that forbids him from printing his job to a local printer, the prompt can inform the user to print the job to a network printer instead.

Applying Policies and Offline Capabilities

When Policy Print is first deployed, the first time an employee prints a document from his workstation, no policy is applied and the document prints. However, the Tracker then communicates with its backend server (i.e. a Collector or Analyst) to determine if a policy should be applied to this employee. Once the Tracker has been sent the necessary policy definitions, it can enforce that employee’s policy without requiring any further communications with the server (i.e. policies can be enforced even if the server is unavailable). The Tracker will automatically fetch updated policy definitions and employee policy assignments from its parent server on a daily basis. It will only fetch the data applicable to the employees that print from that workstation.

Each time an employee attempts to print a job, the Tracker checks to see whether the print job triggers any rules that apply to the employee. If one or more rules are triggered, the Tracker displays a


58

straightforward and customizable message. This message provides additional information about his print job and why it does not adhere to corporate printing policy.

Waste Savings Reporting

When Policy Print prevents a job from being physically printed, the details of that job are recorded as a waste savings. This allows your organization to see exactly how much it’s saving by having Policy Print in place. Policy Print has four reports, which can be filtered by Budget Center, Department Group, or Enterprise:

Policy Waste Savings This shows the direct cost savings due to cancellation of jobs violating policy and deleted secure print jobs. This report replaced the Enterprise - Waste Savings report from Blueprint 3.5.

Cost of Policy Violations This reports on the cost of activity performed in violation of policy. The number of jobs, volume and supply cost incurred are reported for each policy.

Policy Violations – Top X Employees This shows the employees who have the largest contribution to the cost of policy violations. The results can be sorted by cost or volume.

Supply Costs Per Employee – Policy/No Policy This shows period trends of supply cost per 1000 employees per month for all employees, employees with a policy and employees without a policy.

Policy Summary This shows the list of configured policies and their associated rules and groups.

In addition to using reports to quantify waste savings, you can also use Blueprint policy reports to review your organization’s policies (e.g. to determine if the existing policies need to be changed or if a new policy is needed for particular groups of employees).

Secure Release Here®

Offline Capabilities

Secure Release Here allows you to create print groups, or groupings of devices with compatible PDLs. This means that a job submitted to one device or queue in a print group can be released to any other device in the group, which allows for greater flexibility in case a device fails or is offline.

Users choose to use Secure Release Here by printing their jobs to a secure print queue. Secure print queues are queues that exist on a Blueprint Collector server, which have been designated as secure in Blueprint Administrator. Collectors send information on user printing activity to the central Analyst server, which can then be retrieved by other Collectors. Information caching and Collectors' ability to communicate with each other to request job information means that print jobs can still be released if the Analyst is offline or not contactable.

Printer Communications

With Secure Release Here, Collectors request information from each other to allow users to submit a print job to a queue on one Collector and release it to a device on another. Collectors also request


59

configuration settings and other data from the Analyst. This data is cached to reduce load on the Analyst and allow for extra redundancy.

Please refer to the diagrams in the “How Does It Work” section on page 30.

Troubleshooting

If employees are unable to submit jobs, authenticate themselves at terminals, or see their jobs listed at a terminal, then the Secure Release Here > Print Troubleshooting screen in the Blueprint Administrator can help. An administrator can manually manage the Secure Release Here system and look for the causes of any problems that may occur with print release. In response to a problem reported by an employee, the administrator can bring up a list of:

All unreleased jobs submitted by a specified employee

All jobs available for release at a specified terminal

A combination of the two - all unreleased jobs submitted by a specified employee that can be released at a specified terminal

This information can be used to identify the cause of problems. Alternatively, the system health displays can indicate server-level problems that may cause issues for employees.

Waste Savings Reporting

One of the main cost-savings features of Secure Release Here is that a job is not printed from an iMFP or a printer until the employee is physically present to authenticate himself at the device. When the employee authenticates at the devices using the iMFP interface or the Pharos Omega terminal, he can simply select the print jobs he really needs printed. He can either delete the other print jobs, or they will be deleted automatically after a defined period of time.

Blueprint Enterprise tracks print jobs that are submitted, but not actually printed and provides a summary report of these print jobs. The summary shows the number of jobs deleted as well as the total number of pages and the cost of the supplies saved.

Standard Data Feeds The Blueprint Enterprise Analyst processes multiple sources of data to provide a consolidated, summarized view of this information. Some of these data sources are imported using data feeds.

For more information about data imports, please refer to the “Blueprint Configuration Guide”.

HR Feed

By periodically importing your employees’ information (e.g. their budget center, department, and location), Blueprint Enterprise can summarize output activity by budget centers, departments, and locations. This information is typically imported from your Human Resources solution or authentication system.


60

The following is a list of the data imported from the HR Feed:

Contact information

Physical location

Budget Center/Department

ID Translation Feed

In many companies, a single employee may have multiple network and security identifiers. These identifiers may include network IDs and card IDs. However, when reporting on an employee’s output activity, it is important that all of the employee’s activity is included regardless of the identifier that is used.

Blueprint Enterprise can be supplied with information mapping (or “translating”) the multiple identifiers to the correct employee. These identifiers can be mapped manually for an employee or imported using an identity translation data feed, consisting of a series of "translations" mapping one identifier to another.

The ID Translation Feed takes the following types of identifiers and can map one type to another:

Employee - a unique identifier that corresponds with a single employee, for example, an employee number in HR data

Network - the network username associated with a print job tracked by Blueprint

Card - any other kind of identifier, most commonly a card ID

Model Cost Feed

To provide you with the most accurate information about your physical printing devices, Blueprint Enterprise attempts to matches every device used with a database of over 7,300 models from Lyra Research, Inc. If a match is found, this database provides the Analyst with the exact manufacturer and model name, page-per-minute rating, and color capability. It also supplies the Analyst with standard market costs for the device and its associated supplies.

With this powerful feature, once the first set of data has been collected, you can get an accurate utilization and cost information for all of your devices without entering any data.

You may override costing information for each model to provide site-specific costs.

The following is a list of the data imported from the Model Cost Feed:

Manufacturer

Model

Monthly Equipment Cost

Monthly Maintenance Cost

Supplies Cost Per Page (Black/White)

Supplies Cost Per Page (Color)


61

Model Information Feed

For any models that may not be included in the Lyra Models database, it is possible to add these models manually or by using a Model Information Data Feed.

The following is a list of the data imported from the Model Information Feed:

Manufacturer

Model

Device Type (Printer, Copier, MFP)

Device Technology (Dot Matrix, Inkjet, Laser, etc.)

Device Color Capable

Introduction Date

Pages Per Minute Rating – Black/White

Pages Per Minute Rating – Color

Monthly Equipment Cost

Monthly Maintenance Cost

Supplies Cost Per Page (Black/White)

Supplies Cost Per Page (Color)

Integrations Blueprint Enterprise is designed to analyze data from multiple sources and export that data for processing by other systems. Blueprint Enterprise integrates with these systems using integration modules designed for your particular system and your particular environment.

Integration Process

To create a new integration module, Pharos Professional Services will discuss your needs and gather necessary information, including sample data feeds. This information is compiled into a statement of work; this process helps to ensure that we have correctly understood your needs. Once the statement of work is signed off, Pharos will schedule the delivery of your specific integration module.

Types of Integrations

Billing Export Integration

By combining the output information collected by Blueprint Enterprise with employees’ departmental information, Blueprint Enterprise can summarize volumes and costs by budget centers and departments. This information can be exported to your internal billing system to allow these costs to be automatically charged to the correct budgets.


62

Asset Management Integration

Blueprint Enterprise can integrate with your asset management system to pull out additional information about output devices, including asset tag, location, and current state. This information is then synchronized with the device serial number, which was obtained from the device management tool.

Deployment Methods You can deploy Blueprint Enterprise in a variety of different configurations to suit the scale and specific requirements of your organization.

Tracker

You can distribute and manage the Tracker component with a simple deployment package, which are created to handle installing, upgrading, and uninstalling procedures. These packages support a silent install mode to allow you to deploy the Tracker to workstations without the employees being aware of the activity. These packages are typically deployed to the workstation using your environment’s software deployment system (e.g. SMS, Tivoli, etc). In addition, packages can be installed on workstation using logon scripts or by running the package manually.

Servers

The server components (e.g. Collector and Analyst) are installed using interactive installer modules. In addition, for implementations where a large number of Collectors must be installed, it is possible to install one Collector, then create an image of it, and install all subsequent Collectors from this image.

For more information about how to plan a deployment and install Blueprint Enterprise, please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide”. If you have any questions, please contact your Pharos representative to discuss a deployment plan based on your environment and specific requirements.

Product Specification Supported Platforms

63

Supported Platforms

The following section lists the platforms supported by Blueprint Enterprise. For more information about the supported platforms, recommended hardware specifications, and other pre-requisites, please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide”.

Tracker Components You can install the Tracker on employee workstations and/or print servers.

Workstation Tracker

The Blueprint Workstation Tracker supports the following operating systems:

Microsoft® Windows 2000 (SP4 or later)

Microsoft® Windows XP (SP2 or later)

Microsoft® Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise or Ultimate)

Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later) (Terminal Server)

Server Tracker

The Blueprint Server Tracker supports the following operating systems:

Microsoft® Windows Server 2000 (SP4 or later)

Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later)

Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later) x64

Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later) Cluster (active/passive configuration)

Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later) x64 Cluster (active/passive configuration)

Microsoft® Windows Server 2008

Microsoft® Windows Server 2008 x64

Note: Do not use the Server Tracker on a server running Terminal Server.


64

Server Components

Collector

The following specifications are the minimum requirements. Please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide” for more information.

Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 service pack 1 or later

OR

Microsoft Windows 2008

CPU/ Memory Single processor, Pentium IV or greater

At least 1 GB RAM, and at least a 40 GB hard disk

Network Connectivity Static IP address or DNS name

Database3

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

OR

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP 1+

OR

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP 4

3 Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition is available free of charge from Microsoft.


65

Analyst

Configuration of the Blueprint Analyst is heavily dependent on the size of the installation. The following specifications are minimum requirements. Please refer to the “Blueprint Installation Guide” for more information.

Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 service pack 1 or later

OR

Microsoft Windows 2008

CPU/ Memory Single processor, Pentium IV or greater

At least 2 GB RAM, at least a 40 GB hard disk

Network Connectivity Static IP address or DNS name

Database

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

OR

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP 1+

OR

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP 4

Language Support Blueprint Enterprise supports French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese for Windows operating systems and SQL Server.

Pharos Blueprint® Enterprise 4 - EMOS Information Systems product... · Rest of the world: +1 ......

Documents

Transcript of Pharos Blueprint® Enterprise 4 - EMOS Information Systems product... · Rest of the world: +1 ......