In an attempt to refresh the public’s memory, Lexmark released a detailed press release about their SmartSolutions Technology and how it can enhance a small or medium businesses’ work flow at a competitive price point.
And while the technology is not new – it was announced last summer along with the new web-connected printers for SMB – it has been enhanced with new partnerships and additional free applications. Since we happen to have one of Lexmark’s three web-connected printers – the Lexmark Prestige – that use SmartSolutions Technology in house, we thought we would go through and test the SmartSolutions applications featured in Tuesday’s press release.
For more information about the Lexmark Prestige, read our hands-on first look or full review.
SmartSolutions Overview
First of all, in case you are wondering what SmartSolutions Technology is/does, SmartSolutions is a collection of easy to use applications providing access to a host of internet services (RSS feeds, Google Calendar, PhotoBucket, Picasa, Stamps.com) as well as creating shortcuts for a bevy of commonly used features.
When businesses or consumers purchase one of the three web-connected printers with SmartSolutions Technology, the printer will actually guide users through a SmartSolutions setup during the installation process (this information can also be found on the SmartSolutions home page, located through the Lexmark web site).
Here, users can customize their myTouch touch screen by creating a Lexmark account (it’s free and rather painless). Depending on your browser, it may ask you to install the Sun Java Plug-in (or other various plug-ins that we may have already had) to get full use out of all available Lexmark SmartSolutions apps. Then it’s time to add your printer (as mentioned before, we have the Lexmark Prestige) which should be a piece of cake if your printer is installed and turned on and your router (supplying the internet connection) is also turned on and working.
These are General FAQS for the Lexmark CS331, CS431, CX331, CX431, C3224, C3326, C3426, MC3224, MC3326 and MC3426 Devices How to Setup the Lexmark MC3224 Printer This how-to video provides steps in setting up the Lexmark MC3224 printer. Lexmark announced to potential SMB clients that they can offer customized solutions at a competitive price point through their SmartSolutions Technology. So we decided to put their highlighted. Note: The application referred to as Rendezvous in Mac OS X version 10.2 is now called Bonjour by Apple Inc. Compatible with any Lexmark printer that supports Lexprint or Bonjour or Rendevous. Other SmartSolutions. For information or help with a particular SmartSolution, please select it.
Once everything is ready, you’ll see a success screen on both the myTouch control panel and the browser. Now it’s time to add apps! We chose to highlight the Scan-to E-mail, Scan-to Folder, the ID Card Copy, Google Calendar and RSS headlines applications. You can add all these applications from the SmartSolutions home page.
Scan-to E-mail
Users will first need to run e-mail setup on the printer before the Scan-to E-mail solution will work. We chose to use a Gmail account since it’s a fairly popular e-mail provider and we were going to test a Google Calendar later. Annie mac presents 2016 download.
It was a simple procedure: we typed in the e-mail address and the password and then the printer completed the wizard. You will get a success screen if it’s set up correctly. From there, just add the Scan-to E-mail app to your Solution Center and hit sync and save.
Then select the app on the printer, load a document or photo on the scanner, add the recipients (which you can save in your address book), add optional subject and message, and hit start. If your internet connection is working, the e-mail sends almost instantly after the scanning is finished and all of our recipients received the e-mail with attached scan within a few minutes. Success!
However, Lexmark does say in their press release that you can scan to e-mail at a push of a button and that’s a bit misleading. Yes, once you’ve used the functionality, it gets simpler but users will still need to save all their contacts or manually add the recipient. Also, you’ll usually want to add a message or subject line and often those will change from e-mail to e-mail. https://storeclever940.weebly.com/creative-destruction-mac-download-free.html. You can save one default subject line and one generic message which I guess would work for a mass e-mail list.
So basically, it can, and probably often will, entail more than “pushing a button” but my overall feeling was that it was fairly simple to use.
Scan-to Folder
This didn’t seem like much of a shortcut since most office style printers with network capability allow users to save to a selected folder or file. But the idea is to allow users to save to the same folder every time by selecting said folder during the setup allowing users to scan items with “a single button touch.”
This was not at all hard to set up seeing as it’s a pretty standard feature on many devices. Maplestory 2 download mac free. However, I did like the general feature found under scanning to your computer; Lexmark allows users to scan to several Microsoft Office programs as well as Paint, Notepad, Photoshop, etc. (if you have them installed on your computer).
ID Card Copy
The ID Card Copy app was one of three apps that were already downloaded to my workspace in the SmartSolutions Solution Center. Simply press the button and place the ID card in question on the scanner glass. Then choose whether you want the back side copied on the same sheet; if yes, flip the ID card on the scanner glass and hit continue and you are done.
This functionality would be useful in a doctor’s office for insurance cards or any business that required copies of identification. And we liked how it automatically recognized that the ID card was color on the front while black & white on the back and proceeded to print both sides in the correct format.
Google Calendar Google Calendar is also a simple app to download; just copy and paste the calendar URL and choose how you want it formatted (date, time, beginning day of the week, etc.). Download as many Google Calendars as you want to your SmartSolutions Solution Center for instant printing, viewing, or e-mailing (if you are like us, you probably have more than one). You may want to change the title of your calendar and icon when adding multiple calendars or it can get a bit confusing. Lexmark Smart Solutions Setup
RSS Headlines
The RSS Headlines app is also easy to set up; again, just copy and paste the RSS Feeds URL found on your favorite site. Like the Google Calendar app, you can download as many RSS Feeds as you want to your SmartSolutions Solution Center but make sure to change the titles for each feed so they don’t get mixed up. We did not change the icons for any of the RSS Feeds apps (it made sense to keep the stanard RSS icon).
Conclusion
Lexmark SmartSolutions can take more than a few hours to get set up with the applications and shortcuts that can truly help streamline business practices. However, once it’s set how you and/or your workgroup desires, it does simplify and enhance functionality. The one negative was the small amount of applications available through the web-connected printer but Lexmark has at least one new application on the horizon and a rep mentioned at CES that they are in talks with other companies for potential new applications. Lexmark Smart Solutions Download
No drivers, no servers, no IT configuration or support issues. The printing support built in to iOS devices from Apple, and Android OS devices from other manufacturers, is free, easy to use and natively supported by most business-class Lexmark printers and Smart MFPs.
iOS AirPrint™ – Discover a Lexmark printer or Smart MFP, select print options and submit the print job simply by choosing “Print” in supported iOS apps—without installing anything else. It’s intuitive, free and ideal for small networks.
Printer Solution Center Lexmark
However, without IT involvement, AirPrint often only finds printers that are on the same local network segment as the mobile device being used. In larger organizations with complex networks, this means that a user with a mobile device may be able to physically see a printer and not be able to print to it. Lexmark Print Management not only addresses this challenge but also adds enterprise-level features like flexible print release, simple email-based or app-driven print job submission and print job tracking. In fact, Lexmark Print Management is the first AirPrint-certified enterprise print management solution.
Also, while it’s designed for use with Lexmark Print Management, the Lexmark Mobile Printing app can be used for quick and simple direct printing of PDFs and most image files from an iOS device.
Android printing – Android OS version 4.4 introduced new printing capabilities, including a native print subsystem. Lexmark has released the Lexmark Print Service Plug-in which enables native printing from your Android device to supported Lexmark products without requiring a third-party app.
Documents and images can easily be printed directly to Lexmark printers on the same network as the Android device using familiar printing controls, such as paper size, color, orientation, and number of copies. Because discovering a printer on an enterprise network can be challenging, features such as QR code scanning are provided to simplify manually adding a printer. For enterprise scalability and security, the Lexmark Print Service Plug-in also supports printing to a Lexmark Print Management Server.
In addition to the Lexmark Print Service Plug-in, Lexmark also offers an extensive selection of devices certified to work with Mopria wireless printing standards, for which an Android plug-in is also available. For more information, please see www.mopria.org.
Lexmark Solution Center
Android device users can also print to Lexmark printers and MFPs via Google Cloud Print. It’s intuitive, and lets you print anywhere there’s internet. Through an eSF app that runs on Lexmark Smart MFPs, users can authenticate to their Google accounts and register the device for Google Cloud Print directly from the touch screen of the MFP. Once registered, the user can selectively release jobs printed via Google Cloud Print right at that device.
The Lexmark Mobile Printing app, though designed for use with Lexmark Print Management, can also be used for quick and simple direct printing of PDFs and most image files from an Android device. With a supported, Wi-Fi-connected Lexmark MFP, and an NFC-equipped mobile device, it’s even possible to send a job to the printer over a peer-to-peer mobile direct connection. The mobile device doesn’t even have to be on the network!
Beyond these simple options for Android printing, additional convenience, security, enterprise-level output management and cost-control features are available through Lexmark Print Management.
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December 2020
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