Collobos Software

Printing technology has never ‘just worked’. It’s a truism that everyone in IT relates to. This fact is most painfully known by IT administrators. In the continual race to support and integrate evolving device technologies into their existing infrastructure, printing is often an afterthought. The result is an attempt to marry current technologies to a 30-year-old legacy print infrastructure technology stack.

The Windows printing infrastructure, in use by the vast majority of organizations, was designed and architected for a wired PC world long before the Internet, Wi-Fi, 802.1x, Chromebooks, G Suite, MacBooks, iOS devices, and many of the other technologies in use every day were even conceived.

Modern managed print services solutions that are marketed to address technical challenges tend to be built around a specific manufacturer. This only increases the difficulty in achieving a uniform approach, and often increases both hard and soft costs when needing to switch print providers. Today’s environment is technologically diverse and as a result there are often five or more products each with their own technical silos glued together to support print. This increases both direct support costs and increases the complexity for IT administrators supporting print.

Nowhere is this a more vivid reality than in Education

Although this sector is generally considered an early adopter of technology, it typically involves a hybrid landscape with both legacy and modern systems being widely deployed. Today’s educational institution has massive adoption of G Suite and Chomebooks, and often supports iPads and MacBooks. All of this new tech must continue to work with the existing Microsoft Windows environment.

Cloud printing creates another technical silo for the IT administrator to manage in support of one device type. Although widely adopted, cloud printing can be unstable by nature.

With Presto, administrators can roll out the print infrastructure for ChromeBooks in less than five minutes for 50 to 50,000 users

The connection to the cloud travels through a wide array of network switches and routers, all of which can contribute to connectivity issues that can be nearly impossible to diagnose. This often manifests itself in ways that are all too familiar: printers are not found and print jobs do not complete.

Collobos has the solution with Presto

Building on their first-to-market mobile printing technology, they have created a highly efficient and technology-agnostic print platform that delivers world-class printing services to users and simplified infrastructure management for administrators. At the heart of this solution is Presto, a print platform that creates a Windows print path for all existing infrastructure, eliminating the technology silos that impede seamless printing. The platform is architected for compatibility with future technological upgrades, significantly reducing associated deployment and support costs.

An element of the platform well worth highlighting is the pull printing feature, which turns any printer into a secure release printer, which contribute massively to the reduction of user error and waste. Highly intuitive and mobile-friendly, Presto secure release printing stations can be authenticated by logging in through mobile devices. Furthermore, the encryption methodology utilized by Presto creates a very secure infrastructure, particularly important for remote deployments, which are extremely common in educational institutions.

Deploying Presto is Extremely Simple

“With Presto, administrators can roll out the print infrastructure for ChromeBooks in less than five minutes for 50 to 50,000 users,” says Lanny Berg, Collobos’ CMO. Although specifically oriented towards making the Windows infrastructure available to Chrome and G Suite, Collobos supports most client platforms. Additionally, there is virtually no user on-boarding required. Once deployed, administrators can expect to experience a dramatic drop in time spent resolving printing issues, relegating the four most hated words in IT, “I can’t print...again” to the past, where they belong.