In last week’s News Bytes section we featured an item on HP’s introduction of the S900 Series MFPs, four new models that take HP into the higher end segment of the MFP realm.
The HP S900 Series encompasses one monochrome MFP— the HP MFP S956dn—and three color MFPs—the HP Color MFP S962dn, HP Color MFP S951dn and HP Color MFP S970dn—that HP says produce commercial-quality color prints at speeds ranging from 51 to 70 ppm. The new models offer paper capacities of 1,100 to 8,600 sheets. Finishing solutions include stapling, saddle stitching, booklet making, hole punching, folding, and trimming. HP solutions integrated within the HP S900 Series include integrated fleet management, security, and document workflow to enhance and simplify IT management. According to an item in last week’s Wirth Consulting newsletter, these devices are sourced from Sharp.
These new MFPs will be marketed exclusively as part of HP MPS and HP Partner MPS agreements while allowing customers who prefer a single vendor to now have higher volume HP options.
Prior to the announcement I spoke with David Laing, director of innovation, LaserJet & Enterprise Solutions for HP about the new models. If you’re a dealer selling against HP, I think you’ll find his comments worth reading.
“We’re very focused on winning in the MPS space,” stated Laing. “Our [MPS] clients are telling us they prefer to have a single vendor solution from HP because it makes it easier for them to manage those fleets of devices and for the users [who are using the MFPs]. These products help us address that need with faster speeds, lower cost per page and advanced finishing capabilities, which allow people doing statement printing and marketing materials to finish those documents with all the advanced capabilities they’ve traditionally seen from a copier. These are important additions to our partner MPS offerings and will allow partners to expand their offerings to their targeted customer bases.”
Unlike HP’s current Laserjet MFPs, which use an all-in-one user-replaceable toner cartridge, the new models use a multi-part component toner system similar to what you would find in a traditional digital copier. The developer, drum, and toner are three separate consumables.
“At higher monthly page volumes it allows you to get to lower cost per page,” explained Laing. “They’re going to be a great fit for large departments doing high volumes of printing and copying and for customers with copy rooms doing lower or light production printing and copying.”
These new devices are geared to customers producing 13,000-15,000 pages per month in monochrome and 8,000-9,000 per month in color.
Each device in the S900 Series is equipped with HP’s business printing solutions, including HP Web Jetadmin; HP Remote Monitoring; HP Universal Print Driver for remote management; HP Access Control for security, job accounting, and pull printing; and HP Capture and Route for improved workflow and document management.
“IT managers want a set of solutions to manage their fleets of devices, and while these devices don’t have all of the capabilities of our 800 series and below devices, we do have a core set of HP solutions [available for] these devices,” noted Laing. “For small and medium customers who want a cloud-based content management solution, our full CM Professional solution (HP’s cloud document management software) is supported.”
Initially HP is rolling these new models out in mid January in nine countries and will expand that out over time. “We’re starting with nine countries instead of going global initially because we want to make sure we have the infrastructure required to handle the support and parts requirements for this class of device, and everything is ready to go and working smoothly before we expand out,” he added.
Because the MFPs are being marketed solely through HP’s MPS program and its Partner MPS program, they won’t be moving through the traditional copier dealer channel or any channel with the ability to service and support these devices themselves. “The program is not designed to attract or support them in its current form,” said Laing. “We’re really looking to support the IT channel.”
Laing has been meeting with various partners prior to launch and the reaction to the new MFPs has been positive. “They’ve been looking for an HP branded opening in this space for some time now and I believe this will open doors in accounts they haven’t had a chance to go after thus far,” stated Laing.
I asked Laing what he’d be telling me next year this time about how the rollout went. “We delivered on exactly what we hoped to deliver,” he said. “While these are not the majority of devices we sell, they allow us to meet the needs of customers who have those higher volume requirements and by having that in our toolset that will allow us to win more deals overall. We will not sell millions of these devices but it will enable us to sell more of our other devices which is a net net for HP and our partners.”
