Printer Deployment Made Simple

Managing a fleet of printers is neither easy nor fun. In addition to the devices themselves, most organizations have a patchwork of print servers, thousands of printer definitions, and countless print drivers to maintain. While print management software has many benefits to offer, IT managers often worry about the time and effort needed to replace a tangled print infrastructure that was cobbled together over years or decades.

The thought of re-defining all those printers and re-installing all of those drivers on servers and workstations can be intimidating. Luckily, LRS offers a utility called the Printer Definition and Deployment Toolkit (PDDT) that automates the process of migrating existing print queues, definitions, drivers, and other aspects of your print environment. This LRS utility can automatically:

• Locate all Windows printers connected to your network by performing SNMP scans of the physical network, analyzing printer definitions on existing Windows print servers, and/or referencing external printer lists
• Find print drivers installed in your network environment via intelligent scanning of Windows workstations and print servers
• Create an inventory of printer-to-workstation associations for a range of IP addresses, a subset of Active Directory OU groups, or your entire network.
• Automatically build new print queues based on SNMP scans, print server scans, and/or existing databases
• Deploy new print queues and drivers to remote workstations directly via the network or via logon scripts

PDDT uses the proven LRS Print Driver Management (PDM) component to remotely create VPSX printer objects on Windows desktops. It’s a whole lot easier than running around to thousands of user workstations and executing the Windows “Add Printer” function, but the end result is the same. One large healthcare organization with 20,000 desktops said they wished they would have had this tool years ago. Prior to using PDDT, their administrators had to remote-connect to each workstation and manually define each device. PDDT automates this entire process.

Whether your existing desktop printers were managed via Windows Print Servers, Novell iPrint, Direct IP-based solutions — or any combination of these — the PDDT utility helps you migrate to a simpler front-end printing environment. One that offers a central point of control from which to monitor the health of your entire printing environment, automatically manage driver updates, re-route or reprint failed print jobs, and more. And one that’s able to scale as your business continues to grow.

This flexible migration tool makes it much easier to implement any LRS output management solution, from our enterprise-class VPSX software to our new workplace printing products. These products typically pay for themselves in a matter of months, then continue to provide savings for as long as you run them. Real-life LRS customers have seen a five-year ROI of more than 490%. But don’t take our word for it; read for yourself what one of the most respected market intelligence firms found.

Deploying printers? Simple. Managing your print environment? Simple. Saving money? Simple. Replacing your complex legacy print infrastructure with a holistic output management solution? Simplest decision you’ll make all year.