| The customer associated with this case study | | | | |
| is a leading specialized publisher and | | | | Four HP-UX 11i servers |
| services provider located in the state of | | | | |
| Wisconsin in the United States. They offer a | | | | SAP and several in house developed |
| wide spectrum of ready-made and custom safety | | | | applications |
| and regulatory compliance products to | | | | |
| customers throughout North America in | | | | Interoperating with Jetform-electronic forms |
| industries such as transportation, | | | | from Adobe |
| manufacturing, utility, construction, food | | | | |
| processing, and food service. They help | | | | 100 print queues, multiple printer |
| their customers comply with DOT, OSHA, EPA, | | | | manufacturers and models around the campus |
| FDA, and USDA requirements. The company's | | | | |
| diverse product line includes technical | | | | 120 + end users |
| publications; computer software; video-based, | | | | |
| online, and CD-ROM training programs; | | | | See diagram |
| specialized forms; and supplies. | | | | |
| Additionally, they provide safety consulting, | | | | Technical Solution |
| on-site training and a variety of | | | | |
| transportation services, including licensing, | | | | After the customer evaluated several leading |
| permitting, fuel tax reporting and driver log | | | | advanced print spooling solutions, they |
| auditing. | | | | selected Plus Technologies' print spooler |
| | | | solution, OM Plus. At the conclusion of |
| Business Problem - The customer had | | | | their evaluation, the customer provided the |
| implemented a Print Spooler and print | | | | following information about how they found OM |
| management system based on OpenSpool from HP. | | | | Plus to be the best solution for replacing |
| HP has discontinued OpenSpool and has | | | | OpenSpool vs. the other solutions evaluated: |
| announced plans to discontinue support very | | | | |
| soon. This situation created the problem of | | | | It was easier to install and use |
| needing to replace a discontinued Print | | | | |
| Spooler product. Additionally, the customer | | | | It had better forms management |
| had a desire to move more functions related | | | | |
| to print administration from the IT | | | | It had better text and PCL viewing capability |
| department to the end users to reduce the | | | | |
| workload on the IT staff. Doing so would | | | | It had superior tech support |
| streamline operations and administration | | | | |
| within the organization with respect to their | | | | It was easier to set up a printer in OM Plus |
| print operations, improving efficiency and | | | | |
| increasing productivity. HP presented Dazel | | | | It had better security and user privilege |
| as an alternative to OpenSpool for the | | | | management |
| customer to consider. Dazel was not a fit at | | | | |
| this customer due to its high price and the | | | | It had OpenSpool "-o" command line |
| extensive effort to implement it within their | | | | compatibility |
| environment. Their testing also indicated | | | | |
| that Dazel would be difficult for their end | | | | It offered a robust print job Archive |
| users to use due to its complexity and | | | | solution |
| therefore defeat main objective, moving print | | | | |
| administration from the IT department out to | | | | Plus Technologies provided the best value and |
| the end users in their company. | | | | was the most responsive vendor |
| | | | |
| Key Technical Challenge - The solution that | | | | Implementation |
| the customer would choose needed to provide | | | | |
| the same Print Spooler functionality as their | | | | Installing, configuring, testing and training |
| OpenSpool implementation and more. The new | | | | were completed in a matter of just two days. |
| solution needed to support the proprietary | | | | A Plus Technologies engineer was on-site to |
| "-o"* commands that HP had built into | | | | assist the customer with installation of the |
| OpenSpool. The new solution also needed to | | | | OM Plus software and to provide configuration |
| be easy to install to reduce the risk during | | | | assistance. Since OM Plus supports all of |
| the conversion and finally, it needed to be | | | | the unique HP OpenSpool "-o" command line |
| intuitive and easy for the end users to | | | | parameters the customer could implement OM |
| utilize with little or no training. | | | | Plus seamlessly across their enterprise |
| | | | without having to make any changes to the |
| Technical Environment | | | | printing environment. |