Venture Computer, the sole distributors in Southern African for Lexmark International, today announced a broad range of solutions to simplify printing in SAP R/2 and R/3 environments, in recognition that corporate customers today install SAP`s ERP applications to improve their effectiveness and reduce costs.
Lexmark`s SAP printing solutions support the full range of award- winning Lexmark Optra laser printers, including the recently announced Optra Ts, the Optra M410 and Optra W810, as well as the Optra Color 1200, Optra SC 1275 and Lexmark dot matrix printers.
In addition to these SAP-tested and approved printers, Lexmark offers a variety of solutions that improve productivity and reduce costs in SAP printing applications, such as customised device types, tools for bar codes, MICR printing, OCR and Optra Forms. Lexmark also provides MarkVision and MarkTrack - tools for centralised remote printer set-up and cost/asset management, respectively. Several of these solutions are used today by many of Lexmark`s customers world-wide who are implementing SAP and want to reduce the time to print, as well as toner use, network traffic, implementation and maintenance costs.
"According to SAP Labs, Inc., 22% of the SAP implementation time is spent on output and reports,`` noted Richard Fearon, Business Development Director at Venture Computer. "Because these reports and other printed output such as forms, labels, invoices, and other documents are necessary for business operations, Lexmark have developed printing solutions to create them quickly and easily,`` Fearon added.
"We were looking for the optimum printing solution under SAP R/3, as most of our business transactions are carried out through the SAP R/3 network,`` noted Rober Mayer, head of the Siemens IT Centre in Augsburg, Germany. "With Lexmark printers we finally managed to control the total cost of printing - that is installation, support of drivers, maintenance and so on,`` he added.
Lexmark customised SAP PCL device types Lexmark provides customised PCL device types (similar to print drivers) for SAP that allow end users to have full access to value-added features in Lexmark printers, such as multi-up, duplex printing, stapling, hole punching, toner management, print resolution selection and paper handling options such as input trays, output bins and mailbox options. These features reduce paper and toner costs and improve work processes, by pre-sorting multiple output copies to output trays designated to certain users or departments.
Bar codes are often required on documents generated from SAP. Lexmark provides the Optra Bar Code SIMM for the Optra family of printers to address these needs. Bar codes are created in the printer and can be integrated in any kind of document and on virtually any kind of media. Lexmark printers can produce them closer to end-users and at significantly reduced cost of ownership compared to dedicated bar code printers.
Using Lexmark`s Optra Forms is a good way to reduce time spent for traditional print application development with SAPScript and to minimise network traffic generated by SAP output. For example, a warehouse management report, pick-list, bar coded labels and an invoice, all based on the same information from SAP, can be created by sending the required information to the printer just once.
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Venture Computer
Venture Computer is the sole distributor in South Africa for Lexmark; and Tally; products including consumables, with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. They were chosen by CRNSA readers as "Distributor of the Year" in 1996, 1997 and in 1998.