American Reprographics Company (ARC) has announced the general availability of MetaPrint Abacus, the Company's print cost recovery and print tracking software, for licensing to third parties. MetaPrint Abacus has been in use since 2007, with more than 10,000 users and in hundreds of locations, but this is the first time the Company has made the software application available directly to end-users or to third-party suppliers.
When a computer user sends a file to a printer on their own network, or to a printer hosted elsewhere, MetaPrint Abacus queries the user via a simple pop-up window to assign a billing or job code to the print job. The codes are stored and used to enhance cost recovery when billing jobs, and can also be used to determine the quantity and type of jobs being printed, the frequency of use and type of printers utilized by a workforce, gauge material consumption, and help manage inventory for print supplies.
"Tracking every detail on a print job can be a great management tool, but if you can't capture those details quickly and with minimal interruptions, employees will see it as a pain in the neck. As a result, users will find a way to ignore it or work around it," said Jon Styrlund, product manager for MetaPrint Abacus. "For years our customers have been asking for a tool that was fast, unobtrusive, and that would work in a practical, common sense way within their document management process. Given how widely adopted it's become within our own customer base, I think we gave them what they were looking for."
The application is currently being used by several national engineering firms and many smaller regional construction-oriented companies all over the country. The Company sees its adoption growing among similar types of companies now that it's been added to the existing portfolio of digital document management solutions available for licensing from ARC.
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