HP Intros New Managed Print Services, Z1 All-in-one Workstation

Hewlett-Packard is planning to expand its managed print services solutions to partners with new offerings slated for later this year.

The company also updated its workstation line with the introduction of the HP Z1 Workstation, an all-in-one model that fits in a 27-inch LCD panel but that allows easy replacement and upgrading of the internal components.

The new offerings were presented to partners in back-to-back keynote sessions at the HP Global Partner Conference, held this week in Las Vegas.

Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group, told partners that the amount of digital data being created, both in corporate offices and in the cloud, is growing very quickly, and that 50 percent of an average worker's time is spent on managing data.

About 6 percent of the average enterprise's budget is spent on imaging and printing, and of that amount, about 10 percent goes to hardware and supplies, 15 percent to services and 75 percent to solutions, Joshi said.

As a result, HP is introducing new technology to help push solution providers up the stack of value-added business, he said.

"If you are only in hardware, we want you to move to supplies," he said. "If you are only in hardware and supplies, we want you to move to services. If you are in hardware, supplies and services, we want you to move to solutions."

HP already has some managed print solutions that solution providers can use to improve their business, Joshi said. For instance, he cited ePrint, a relatively new mobile print solution from HP that allows anyone with an Internet-enabled device to send print jobs from their iOS or Android devices to a cloud-enabled print center for later pickup or delivery.

"We want to make sure whatever device you have, you can have access to printing," he said.

Joshi also introduced the HP Smart Marketing Suite, a new solution that optimizes and automates enterprise marketing content workflows. HP Smart Marketing Suite, which is expected to be available to partners sometime next year, includes consulting services to assess client marketing process inefficiencies and implement new modular marketing software applications based on HP's cloud-based storage and computing platform.

Joshi also unveiled the HP Smart Production Suite, a new managed offering that automatically looks at print job requirements and available managed printing services to configure the content and make it ready to be printed in the most optimized way. HP Smart Production Suite is slated to be released this fall.

Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, also addressed partners.

Bradley opened his presentation by thanking solution providers who stood by HP during the uncertainty that surrounded that company's decision last year to explore spinning off its Personal Systems Group before committing to keep it as part of HP.

"It's fair to say you've stuck with us, and grown with us, in what has been a very challenging year," Bradley said.

Despite the challenges, HP still remains the world's largest PC maker, and is focused heavily on both new technology and advanced industrial design in its mobile PCs, Bradley said.

"Just wait 'til you see what we do with Windows 7 and with ARM," he said.

Bradley yielded the stage for a good part of his keynote to Jim Zafarana, vice president and general manager of HP's Commercial Solutions Business Unit, who used the time to introduce the HP Z1 workstation.

Next: HP's New Z1 Workstation

The HP Z1 is a workstation targeting customers who need the power of a workstation but who have space limitations, Zafarana said.

The entire workstation is built inside a 27-inch white LED display that supports 30-bit color and a pallet of over 1 billion colors. The display also features a 178-degree viewing angle and an in-plane switching panel.

The panel can be quickly flipped open like the hood of a car to provide access to all the components inside, including a 400-watt power supply, a carrier with space for two hard drives or SSDs, and others that the user or partner can easily snap out and replace.

Also inside are low-noise fans as well as eight thermal sensors that moderate fan power to keep noise to a minimum, Zafarana said.

Processing power comes from two Intel Xeon processors and two Nvidia Quadro graphics accelerators.

"This is a professional level of workstation through and through," Zafarana said.

The HP Z1 is the latest follow-on to HP's Z family of workstations first introduced in 2009.