HP today announced a broad expansion of its imaging and printing portfolio for large businesses.

HP officials said that the new offerings include six HP LaserJet printers, an enterprise-class scanner for document capture, three access control printing solutions, four printing services and an accreditation, certification and test program for HP's software solution development partners.

"These enhancements to our portfolio in bringing new products and solutions to market gives our partners the ability to differentiate themselves with a broader offering," said Mark Quiroz, HP's director of sales strategy and channels, global enterprise business, Imaging and Printing.

HP announced a new global framework and program structure for its Office Printing channel program in December 2007, designed to bring the company's multiple programs, including hardware, supplies and services, under a single umbrella.

In December the company also sought to align partner rewards and recognition structures to the new program, Quiroz said, with two tiers, SVIP and SVIP Elite.
These new products now fill out the portfolio for partners who are part of the program.

In addition, Quiroz said, the company has also boosted its assessment services with a formal structure to make them available through the channel. 

"This recent announcement is another indication of how serious we are about this environment," he said. "Our success is through our partners in the future. I think that's what is exciting about this."

HP further said that its new Solutions Business Partner Accreditation, Certification and Test program, ACT, is the industry's first to accredit partners' internal processes, review their designs and certify their solutions.

The program can help reduce implementation time and support costs, according to the vendor.  Ten partners, including Assentis, Capella Technologies, Captaris, Equitrac, Jetmobile, Kofax, MPI, Omtool, Pharos Systems and ReadSoft, are now accredited and have specific solutions in the certification process, HP officials said.

HP also introduced four new assessment services. The HP Industry Benchmark Assessment evaluates the health of an organization's output environment. The HP Optimization Assessment provides advice on how an organization can establish, control and manage its output environment and provides cost recommendations for future state fleet design.

The HP Managed Environment Assessment measures printing impact on a business and provides a snapshot of potential savings and improvements through HP Managed Print Services. HP Workflow Discovery provides a customized workflow analysis to improve businesses processes.

New sets of products sold together include:

• HP Access Control Printing offerings are designed to help mitigate security and compliance risks, prevent fraud, protect data privacy and enhance device fleet management.
• HP Access Control Secure Printing Solution offers enhanced print security through authentication, authorization and auditing to track printer usage by device and user. It includes a breadth of authentication options ranging from network log-in to card-based capabilities.
• HP Access Control Secure Pull Printing Solution helps mitigate security and compliance risks, company officials said in a prepared statement, and reduces paper waste by allowing print jobs to be encrypted and stored until the authorized user is ready to retrieve and print.
• HP Access Control Job Accounting Solution can track detailed print, scan, copy and e-mail usage by device, user, department or cost center. It can help with forecasting, internal billing and cost recovery.

The six new HP LaserJet devices include:

• the HP Color LaserJet CM6040/6030 MFP (multifunction printer) series,  priced starting at $7,999;
• the HP LaserJet P4510 Printer series, priced starting at $1,599;
• the HP Color LaserJet CP6015 Printer series, priced starting at $3,899;
• the HP LaserJet P4015/4014, priced starting at $1,099; and
• the HP LaserJet M9040/9050 MFP, priced starting at $9,999.

In addition, HP expanded its document capture portfolio by introducing the HP Scanjet N9120 Document Flatbed Scanner.

VARs may also want to take HP's new toner formulation to energy-conscious customers. The enhanced low-melt toner formulation reduces energy consumption, yet delivers print quality consistency at faster print speeds, company officials said, and is available with the new HP LaserJet P4015/4014.

As a result, it requires 15 percent less energy to reach fusing temperature—enabling a 10 to 15 percent improvement in printing system energy consumption per page, officials said.