Venture Computer, the sole distributor in South Africa for Lexmark International today announced enhancements to its powerful printer management software. MarkVision. This application supports the new Optra Color family of printers recently announced, and is enhanced to make administration of network printers simple and easy.
"Colour business printing is easier than ever with MarkVision`s powerful management features," said Richard Fearon, sales and marketing director at Venture Computer. "Lexmark customers now have more colour printer choices and MarkVision makes it simple and cost-effective to print on a network."
MarkVision allows organisations to easily set up, maintain and manage printers, ultimately reducing help desk costs and increasing productivity for printer and network administrators. The benefits and features of MarkVision include real-time remote printer access, an alert-driven architecture (no constant polling across the network), a common graphical user interface and management reporting features.
Lexmark`s MarkVision printer management software offers the broadest network and workstation support in the industry. Lexmark supports more operating systems and more release versions of those operating systems than its leading competitor, and has advanced printer management features for some environments that can`t be found elsewhere, such as job statistics, inventory management, font and forms management and real-time remote operator panel.
Originally released in 1994, MarkVision was the first network printer management software with an intuitive graphical user interface, and continues to be the only management tool that minimises network traffic by not continually polling the printers for status updates. In 1997, MarkVision for the Intranet was the first browser-based management tool to incorporate the use of Java technology for real time status updates.
Technical Information
Recent MarkVision functional enhancements for OS/2 Warp, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows 3.x include:
- Colour toner and ink gauges for all Optra Color family members, including inkjet cartridge identification for printers with six-colour cartridges installed.
- New Web links for direct supplies ordering, firmware or driver access and technical support.
- Job statistics, that now include reporting of multi-up printing, tallies of fax-receive jobs through a serial port and copy jobs originating with OptraImage. Additionally, managers can assess and monitor colour printer use by individual workstations; managers can see who is utilising money-saving multi-up printing and how often that technology is employed; and managers can calculate how copier and fax volumes are moving to network printers after implementing new Lexmark hardware and software.
- Property tag column for quick identification of a specific printer.
- Photographic renditions of printers to display the precise configuration and condition of the printer.
- Communication configuration for serial ports to utilize the new fax-receive capability of Optra S and Optra Color printers; configuration of the printer or the MarkNet Pro 3 family of external print servers to communicate with the fax/modem, set the fax ID number and set the fax initialisation string.
- Reporting of optional emulators installed in many printers, including Lexmark`s SIMM for IPDS and the new ImageQuick TIFF SIMM, in addition to most third-party SIMM solutions; Network administrators can now determine which optional firmware SIMM, if any, is installed in the printer.
- Flash memory defragmentation can now be done in many Lexmark printers to save network resources.
Recent MarkVision enhancements for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT also include:
- Flash memory downloads can now be broadcast to multiple printers simultaneously across the network, saving set up time and assuring common configurations across all printers.
- Enhanced search capabilities including string searches from any column of the main view screen.
- An operator panel locking feature allowing only the job in progress to be purged by a user.
- Automatic updates of font information in the PCL driver when fonts are downloaded to a printer through MarkVision to maintain system and driver integrity and reduce manual administrator interventions.
Additionally, MarkVision for Windows 95 now integrates into Novell ManageWise for Windows 95.
Editors note
Venture are the sole distributors in South Africa for Lexmark; and Tally; products including consumables, and a distributor for Compaq, with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. They were chosen by CRNSA readers as "Distributor of the Year" in 1996 and in 1997.
Share
Editorial contacts