Archive

Avoid awkward privacy and security vulnerability questions with a secure print set-up.

Network-connected printers can be a route into your company for cyber criminals. For example, if default passwords are still in use or your Wi-Fi network is unsecure, your printing is vulnerable. By failing to tackle these potential weak spots, your business is in danger of GDPR’s heavy-weight penalties.

Just 22% of all businesses surveyed were completely assured their print infrastructure was secure.1

Companies operating a standardised printer fleet are 26% less likely to suffer data loss.1

Make sure printer security doesn’t put your business in peril—download the report by entering your details below

1 Quocirca Managed Print Services Landscape, 2017. European survey results of 180 midmarket (500-999 employees) and large (1000+ employees) organisations in UK, France and Germany using a managed print service.

With GCSE results out today and expected to have been the toughest yet with the new grading system, it got us thinking. How essential is technology to the way our students learn? 

When I think back to my school days, which actually weren’t too long ago (no, really!), the overhead projector was the latest mod-con to hit the assembly hall and the chalkboard was still the smartest way to share real-time lesson content.

Well, technology has come a long way since those days, yet we still managed back then. Students were still learning, achieving and prospering from their education. So if we were able to nurture success before the technology boom, why is it so important in today’s classroom?

Here are 4 reasons why we believe technology now plays a critical role in learning:

1. Students demand it

Teens spend nearly 9 hours every day consuming media and have grown up immersed in technology, so keeping up with this demand is essential. The innovative adoption of technology can also play a key role in the recruitment of the next student body but IT departments should ensure that core infrastructures and applications have the flexibility to support these changes.

2. Learn at their own pace

Traditional learning could often be fast paced, risking a drop off of concentration and understanding. With the integration of technology in the classroom and learning concepts such as flipped learning, students can learn at their own speed, pause, and recap whenever they need, meaning that the more advanced student can go ahead, freeing up the teacher to provide support 1:1 to those who need it.

3. Enhance Engagement

Feedback from our customers over the years suggests that students learn best being more interactive. This is particularly apparent in STEAM subjects where content is often more complex. Technologies such as 3D print and robotics are leading the way in STEAM by breaking down the learning barriers and offering more practical methods of learning, whilst future-proofing students as they enter the workplace.

4. Enable Collaboration

Technology permits a connected world and in this case, a connected learning environment. With intelligent applications such as Office 365 and G Suite, students and teachers can communicate, collaborate, chat and use the familiar productivity applications in a secure environment.

As experts in education technology, we are close to the market and its trends. Here are a few technologies that are already making a real impact in the classroom:

Chromebooks

Chromebooks are taking over the classroom and the reasons are simple. They are cost effective and affordable, feature an all-day battery life and instant on functionality; and with Chromecast, students and teachers can instantly share their screen.

If you are interested in Chromebook, you should check out our latest offer! You can get a HP Chromebook for as little as £65.00!

3D print

For reasons we’ve previously discussed, 3D printing can play a valuable part in STEAM subjects, transforming the classroom into an interactive learning environment.

iPad

iPad is the ideal computing companion both inside and outside of the classroom. Its portable format, instant load up time and touch screen makes life easy for teachers and students alike. Perfect for internet research, making videos and music, taking lesson notes and sharing and managing content.  What’s more, iPad is now much more cost effective and has full integration with cloud platforms such as Google and Microsoft.

So it’s clear, we have come a long way since school days were guided by a text book and piece of chalk. The dawn of the internet revolutionised the way we gained information and technology evolved around us – so much so, that teens today are technology native and would probably rather swap their right kidney than sacrifice their mobile phone.

That said, technology has enabled personalised, engaging and even mobile learning. Its enhanced collaboration and takes traditional subjects such as science, engineering and technology to the next level. Without it, the classroom struggles to thrive which is why building a technology environment that supports these trends is essential.

Is your tech up to the task?

Not sure how to enable cloud managed mobility, whether your network can support the load or how flipped learning can really make a difference? Our specialists have the answers and can help determine whether your existing IT is up to the job.

Ben Brown
Head of Schools

Simplifying All-flash with HPE Nimble

The path to an all-flash data centre and cloud may be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be disruptive. Like many other organisations, you may be planning to move to all flash as your primary storage technology because of the many advantages over traditional storage.

But there are many obstacles related to application performance, availability, manageability, scalability, investment protection, and disaster recovery that need to be considered first. With a few simple recommendations, your organisation can avoid the most common missteps and make the transition painless.

Download this FREE check list and find out how to overcome the obstacles related to the all flash data centre.

Establishing a technology benefits scheme is an effective way to engage and excite your people. Through salary contributions, you can enable access to the latest technology, at unbeatable prices.

Here’s 4 reasons why you should talk to us about establishing a technology benefits scheme at your organisation.

1. Purpose built XMA Benefit Store

Our exclusive secure online store, provides access to preferential pricing to employees of public and private sector customers, as well as parents and students in education. Simply register for an account using your organisation email address to access a huge range of promotions and discounted prices on leading high street technology brands.

2. The choice really is yours

With over 6,000 products to choose from, you’ll be spoilt for choice. We have an extensive range of computing products including laptops, desktops and tablets from all the biggest brands, printers and printing supplies, iPhone and Apple Watch, along with all the accessories you’ll ever need.

3. Hassle free

We provide a simple, easy to deploy programme with minimal effort and no cost to your organisation.

4. Quick and easy

It was always our intention to keep this process simple – and we won’t keep you waiting around. Simply let us know that you want to be a part of XMA Benefits Store we’ll do the rest. And for products in stock, we’ll even deliver them next day, for free, to your home or workplace.

We can give you the best advice, ordering experience, pricing and product selection, so why not visit the XMA Benefit Store and see for yourself.

Everyone seems to be looking for ways to be more “green” these days ­– hybrid cars, reusable grocery bags, etc. And those in IT are no exception. Traditional IT environments consume an incredible amount of energy resources, such as power and cooling. The key for organisations focused on moving towards a greener data centre is to emphasise efficiency in energy consumption and efficiency in IT processes and systems. In other words, green IT needs to align to efficient IT.

The road to a greener data centre is paved both by small, incremental changes as well as monumental technology shifts. Advancements in software often naturally lead to more energy efficient data centres. For example, hard drives are now built to consume less power than in the past, new server features help reduce superfluous cooling costs, and data optimization techniques, such as inline and at inception deduplication and compression, lead to efficiencies in processing, storage, and backup.

Hyperconvergence represents a major technology development capable of transforming the data centre into a lean, green, efficiency machine. By converging all IT below the hypervisor, hyperconverged infrastructure immediately makes the data centre more efficient and environmentally sound. The data centre goes from as many as 12 disparate IT components to a single solution, so there is no longer a need to utilise storage space, power resources, or cooling functions on these IT components.

In fact, an IDC whitepaper found 75% of respondents realised an average of a 65% improvement in utilisation of storage resources as a result of hyperconverged infrastructure. In addition, nearly half of surveyed customers realised a 47% reduction in cost of data centre power and cooling expenses.

Though revolutionary, hyperconverged infrastructure is not a rip-and-replace technology as it can be introduced into existing environments as part of normal refresh cycles. For example, a hyperconverged solution can first be deployed in place of traditional data storage as a first step to modernising a data centre, and can later replace additional IT components over time as needs arise. This approach offers an opportunity to simplify the existing infrastructure and the complicated process of updating that infrastructure. Once standardised on a hyperconverged solution like HPE SimpliVity powered by Intel®, IT teams would only have a single product to refresh instead of a variety of separate IT components – which helps explain why 26% of customers in that same IDC study cited the need for fewer tech refresh cycles.

Hyperconvergence has always been focused on simplifying and consolidating the data centre. It’s no surprise that organisations looking to reduce their environmental footprint have discovered significant “green” opportunity in hyperconvergence. The benefits in space utilisation and operational efficiency make it more than worthwhile to implement a hyperconverged solution and transform your data centre into a lean, green efficiency machine.

When you have existing printers you’ve already bought and paid for, it’s tempting to think that maintaining your existing fleet will cost less than purchasing new printers or signing up managed print services (MPS). Why replace them if it’s not absolutely necessary?

The costs of an ageing fleet stack up, and in the long term, managed print services are able to save you more than just money. Here are five benefits MPS could bring to your organisation. Many businesses allow outdated, legacy printing devices to negatively impact productivity. Learn about the positive impact Managed Print Services can have on your business in this report from IT Pro.

1 – Cost savings

The consequences of sticking with an old printer are sometimes hidden, and can work at various levels, from running out of toner when you want to print an essential document, to the device breaking and your IT department being too busy to fix it. These consequences cost money, and the benefit of using managed print services is that you have the maximum availability of print when you need it most.

An MPS provider will look for ways to rationalise and consolidate your printers, replacing many old, large laser printers with a smaller number of newer, better distributed, faster devices or multi-function printers with all the necessary functions built in. Costs are visible and predictable, and you never have to worry about the expense of replacing ink and toners at different times across the business.

Maintaining your old printers might seem to help you keep costs low in the short term, but in the long term you’ll miss out on cost-saving opportunities, while facing expenses and uncertainties that MPS providers are there to alleviate.

2 – Efficiency

Old printers waste valuable time, which always has an impact on the bottom line. Not only does the time spent waiting for a slower printer really add up over a business year, but every paper jam and malfunction means more wasted time that could be used more productively.

An MPS provider will come in and analyse your business, printers and requirements in terms of printing, scanning and copying. This doesn’t mean pushing expensive hardware into every corner of the business, but instead they will look at where teams need specific capabilities, then will find the printer/s that will match those needs.

A really good provider will go further and look at ways that the business overall can print more efficiently, and save money by reducing the everyday print costs.

3 – Minimised downtime

In many organisations, employees can end up spending excessive amounts of time dealing with printers – not just waiting for old, slow devices to print, but dealing with malfunctions, changing cartridges, adding paper or waiting for someone from IT to fix a problem.

A good MPS provider will help reduce support costs and minimise downtime. Because it’s their job to maintain your printers and keep them running with a steady stream of supplies, your own IT team frees up its time to work on other projects.

4 – Up-to-date security

Newer printers have better tools for maintenance, management and most importantly, security. This has never been more important, with every old and outdated device now a potential security risk. Options like pull-printing, cloud printing and printing from mobile devices have gone from being expensive extras to standard features, while NFC and ID card-based authentication are no longer the preserve of larger businesses.

MPS providers are there to sort out things like security updates or rapid changes to firmware. With more threats out there and greater penalties for data breaches, that’s good news for businesses of every size.

5 – Environmental benefits

Do your existing printers have effective, high-performance duplex printing enabled? If not, you could be missing out on features that could save you up to 40% of your paper costs, according to some studies.

MPS providers look for ways to reduce waste, helping businesses make more effective use of more advanced printers and functions. Such printers have management features that prevent or discourage wastage, can restrict the use of colour, make duplex printing the default, or switch on pull printing, so that print jobs only print when actively requested from the printer. This can see drastic reductions in the number of printed pages left abandoned in the output tray.

Meanwhile, more modern, high-quality draft and eco-printing settings could use up to 50% less ink than standard modes, while producing output that’s easily good enough for both internal and external usage.

Source: HP

In a recent Education survey* Lexmark identified three key points based on the research project findings, in which Lexmark can help enable the Educations sector save time, money and the environment through its productive, secure and sustainable solutions.

Approximately 12% of respondents spend up to four hours scanning hard copy documents per week and 41% can’t qualify the amount of time they are spending scanning hard copy documents.

Enabling productivity

Lexmark’s smart multifunction printers are leading the way in delivering productivity enhancing features, using innovative touchscreen technology that can help manage costs more effectively and work smarter.

99% of respondents believe device security is a high or medium priority, but only 57% are confident that they have a security solution in place.

Enabling security

Lexmark makes security an integral part of all products to help create a safer and more productive environment for your school, college or university.

81% of people place at least a medium priority on the environment in their decision-making process when purchasing new printers.

Enabling sustainability

Lexmark is a recognised industry leader for sustainability initiatives and supports a number of environmental features which allow users to reduce the environmental impact of their printing and imaging activities.

Read More

When access to your data lags, your business lags. Understand how to apply machine learning in your data center to predict and prevent the problems that cause downtime.

This research by Nimble Storage, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, outlines the top five causes of application delays. The report analyses more than 12,000 anonymised cases of downtime and slow performance. Read this report and find out:

• Top 5 causes of downtime and poor performance across the infrastructure stack
• How machine learning and predictive analytics can prevent issues
• Steps you can take to boost performance and availability

Download the free report by completing the fields below

Beating customer SLA’s

HPE InfoSight took infrastructure management out of the equation for Rent-a-Center, and freed up staff time to execute instead of managing storage. Hear from their Director of Technical Operations on how they transformed.

Watch video

Utilising key staff across XMA and our partners businesses, we run employability workshops within the University that will support the embedding of employability skills in areas such as:

• ­ Team working and collaboration
•  Business and customer awareness
•  Application of IT­
• Self-management
•  Interview and presentation skills
•  CV workshops
•  Problem solving­
• Communication and digital literacy

XMA already support the CBI’s employability initiative and Guy Bates from XMA recently coached a group of PhD students as part of the Digital Economy YES Programme’s (Young Entrepreneurs Scheme) in business planning, supporting each group’s business concept and preparing them for their Dragons’ Den style interviews for funding.

As a STEAM ambassador, Guy has also recently supported a joint project with the University of Nottingham to promote careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

It can seem to take forever to scan through the endless amount of HP print cartridges available online. As a job that is always left until the last minute, a rush to order means that some buyers may not pay as much detail as they need to the purchase.

Despite many reputable e-commerce websites to buy from, there are still third-party traders selling thousands of counterfeit goods – and HP print cartridges are no exception.

The cost of counterfeit

In fact, counterfeit goods are so much of an issue, that The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that the annual value of international trade in all counterfeit goods at $200 billion (£158 billion).

Easy to be tricked

In the printing world, counterfeiting consists of the manufacturing/remanufacturing or refilling of a print cartridge, with the intention to promote it in a way which suggests it is an original brand name product.

This usually involves an unofficial print cartridge being put into a box that closely resembles genuine HP packaging – deceiving the customers into paying a higher price as they believe the product is legitimate.

The disadvantages

As well as being deceived on price, the potential risk of using counterfeit print cartridges could play havoc with your printer. Problems you may incur, include:

• Poor quality print-outs
• Reduced page yield
• Damage to printer
• Premature fail or do not work
• Interruption of print infrastructure
• Invalidation of hardware warranty

Protecting yourself against counterfeit

Just like all counterfeit products you’ve probably witnessed, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To avoid falling victim to questionable offers, you should look to buy from authorised resellers only. For HP, this includes us here at XMA.

For existing cartridges that you may have that you are dubious about, you can action this three-step plan.

1. Check the security label – Tilt box front to back to see “OK” and “√” move in opposite directions. Then tilt box right to left to see “OK” and “√” move in the same direction. If it doesn’t, this is not a HP print cartridge.
2. Scan the code – Use the HP SureSupply app or a generic QR code reader to scan the QR code on the cartridge’s security label. Or go to www.hp.com/go/ok to validate online.
3. Report counterfeit – Keep the cartridge, packaging and any documents relating to the product, such as invoices, etc, and report it on the HP website.

Beating counterfeit cartridges

Unofficial traders have become smart in how they package and sell counterfeit cartridges online. Whilst HP and other companies are combatting the global issue, with this information, you can ensure that you are buying the right cartridges for your printers – delivering the quality, performance and value that you expect from a HP printer cartridge.

For more information on buying official HP printer cartridges from XMA, an approved HP reseller, speak to your Account Manager today.