Equitrac announces latest version of Equitrac Professional print management, cost recovery solution

Equitrac Corporation announced today the latest version of its Equitrac Professional print management and cost recovery solution for professional services organisations. The new release includes enhancements to increase productivity, speed scanning processes and expands support for major vendor partners. Equitrac Professional expands revenue, lowers network print operation costs and reduces print supply waste at professional services organisations by automatically capturing, easily importing and accurately billing for every client-related printing expense, matching equipment to specific business requirements and simplifying IT support of print operations.

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3 is the next version of Equitrac's market-leading enterprise print management and cost recovery solution for law firms, architecture and engineering companies, consultants and other professional services providers. In addition to expediting and increasing recovery of client billable expenses, the highly scalable software allows businesses to capture, allocate and accurately bill for any client expense generated anywhere in a professional service firm.

Accessible through the Equitrac TouchPoint Console or Equitrac Embedded software for leading multifunction devices, Equitrac Professional supports the networked printers and copiers from every major equipment manufacturer - as well as leading document management systems and professional time and billing software.

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3 builds upon the success of Equitrac Professional 5 by adding several key features to enhance print management, scan and document capture, workflow and integration with partners. Updates include:

Increased productivity

* WAN optimisation - For multi-office, distributed deployments of Equitrac Professional, this feature improves print workflows by allowing IT to configure caching options and the use of locally configured servers.

* Pop-up tracking of print processes - A new status tool will help administrators evaluate the status of print requests direct from the desktop. The pop-up gives a complete view of all steps and decision points in the print job progression.

* Microsoft Active Directory Synchronisation - New attributes are available for synchronisation with MS Active Directory, such as phone extensions, locations and user class association.

Enterprise-class document scanning and output

* A default network addressable “Home” folder - This folder has been added to this latest version of Equitrac Professional to support efficient and quick scanning. Home folder association can be controlled via the system Management Console, file import and Microsoft Active Directory synchronisation.

* Scanned document output type conversion - Equitrac Document Capture can now be configured to offer document output type conversion to end-users. Whether an MFP scans as PDF or TIFF files, this latest version of Equitrac Professional can convert the final output to PDF, Multi-Page TIFF, Single-Page TIFFs, JPEG, or PNG file formats.

* Improved scan workflows - Site administrators can now predefine scan workflows as scan aliases for efficient selection at TouchPoint Consoles. These aliases can be customised to specific business requirements and are also customisable to individual user classes.

Expanded partner support

* Canon

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3 adds extended copy attribute support for older version Canon printers. This support will allow customers to implement print and cost recovery management solutions across a printer network that includes both older Canon MFPs that do not currently support extended copy attributes through the copy cable, and newer model Canon MFPs. This new feature enhances productivity and more effective cost management by enabling tracking that discerns black/white vs colour print jobs and includes device log readings and synchronisation of the data with TouchPoint sessions.

* Equitrac Embedded for eCopy

eCopy Scan Station client support has been enhanced to include full authentication and roaming user profiles, favourites and history. In addition, Equitrac Professional version 5.2.3 adds support for the recently released eCopy Cost Recovery Protocol version 3 that features Single Sign On (SSO). This feature is available for Equitrac Embedded for eCopy and TouchPoint Consoles.

* EFI SendMe and IKON DocSend

This embedded option allows for EFI SendMe and IKON DocSend users to log-in, allocate billing information and conduct a scan right at the EFI or IKON device.

“Equitrac solutions are secure enterprise level management tools that are increasing productivity and reducing print waste in support of dual initiatives to maintain the bottom-line and be environmentally friendly,” said Michael Rich, CEO of Equitrac Corporation.

“In a challenging economy, these initiatives rise in importance. Equitrac remains committed to working with its partners and customers to leverage our experience and technology innovation to deliver solutions that streamline and centralise print and cost management throughout the networked print environment.”