Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) today announced the introduction of Preo Printelligence,^TM a managed print services (MPS) solution that helps businesses seamlessly manage end-user print behavior, cutting costs and reducing environmental impacts without affecting employee productivity. Dealers selling MPS can use this software solution as an optional component to the Toshiba Encompass^TM Assessment, which assists companies seeking to optimize their document imaging fleet. Once installed, it will unobtrusively monitor usage on a granular, end-user level. Based on the data culled, rules can be customized to control or advise users on how and where to print, whereas other MPS solutions focus on device management, Preo Printelligence helps educate and modify end-user behavior.

"As a leader in MPS, we're always looking for ways to improve and expand our offerings to both dealers and customers," said Bill Melo, vice president, Marketing, Services and Solutions, TABS. "We chose Printelligence because it is a very flexible, rules-based, end-user-focused solution that will provide much more detail than we've been able to offer in the past. It truly helps employees understand the impact and cost of printing, and that in turn changes behavior quickly, and in a meaningful and lasting way."

How Preo Printelligence Works

Once Preo Printelligence is installed, data regarding company-wide print behavior is collected. Using information gleaned from that data, administrators choose which rules to implement. For example, one cost control rule is to inform a user that printing to a local device is more expensive than printing to a networked device. The next time a user tries to print to a local device, a message will appear on the user's screen with the cost of their last print job and the money they could have saved by printing to a networked device. One of the "green" rules is to reduce the number of simplex jobs. Once implemented, users trying to print more than two pages simplex will see a message letting them know that corporate policy recommends anything over two pages be printed duplex and asking the user to "think green" next time.

Administrators don't always have to choose these friendly reminder messages. Preo Printelligence enables tighter control of end user print behavior as well. Rather than the passive "recommendation," the message can say that corporate policy "mandates" this behavior.

Earlier this year, Toshiba announced they were partnering with Preo Software Inc., a market leader in Print Knowledge Management Systems. Toshiba will market Preo's Printelligence MPS solution throughout the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

About Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc.

Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) is an independent operating company of Toshiba Corporation, the seventh largest electronics/electrical equipment company in the world. TABS is a leading provider of managed print and professional services (MPS and PS), and manages product planning, marketing, sales, service, support and distribution of copiers, facsimiles, multifunction printing products, network controllers, and toner products throughout the United States, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. MPS and PS are strategic focus areas for the company, which first developed and began marketing the Encompass^TM MPS program in 2003. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TABS has five divisions:  the Electronic Imaging Division; the Toner Products Division; the Document Solutions Engineering Division; the International Division; and Toshiba Business Solutions (TBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of TABS, that operates a network of wholly-owned office equipment dealers throughout the United States.

Honored with the Channel's Choice top award for "Superior Performance" eleven times by the Business Technology Association (BTA), Toshiba's entire product line, customer support and marketing distribution policies are markers for the industry. For more information on Toshiba products, programs, solutions and services, please visit www.copiers.toshiba.com.