Collobos Software
Comprehensive Enterprise Mobile Print Infrastructure

When smartphones and tablets began providing mobile content and photos–mobile printing became a crucial need for users. With the mobile-friendly work movement of “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) in full swing, companies are adopting mobile-friendly guidelines to take advantage of the productivity gains of these new tools. Printing from mobile introduces significant friction because mobile devices can not leverage a typical enterprise print infrastructure. Collobos Software has resolved the challenge with “Presto”–the software solution designed to bring reliability, quality and frictionless ease of use to the emerging mobile enterprise printing market. “Designed to support BYOD printing in enterprise and campus environments, and being both mobile and printer-agnostic, Presto proves to be the answer to the technical issues plaguing BYOD printing at an affordable price point,” states Scott Herscher, CEO, Collobos Software.

According to Herscher, in the mobile printing marketplace, three primary platforms have emerged–AirPrint for iOS, Android Print Services and Chrome OS Print Providers. “AirPrint established the gold standard for mobile printing. Despite its relative maturity, administering mobile printing solutions is still a mix of software and hardware choices that are not optimized for evolving client-side technology and do not function cohesively,” he says. “Challenges continue to plague enterprise mobile printing in terms of security, integration, and reliability.”

Collobos’ “Presto” on the other hand functions like middleware–providing a “device agnostic” software solution that operates on premises and integrates with enterprise infrastructure. Also, by keeping all printing jobs in the network, “We allay the security concerns associated with cloud-based printing,” affirms Herscher.

Presto is installed server side on a customer’s network. The software advertises printers on the network making them discoverable by mobile devices within the enterprise or campus. Presto proxies the print request to the correct print queue on the network. Presto’s design is modular and can integrate with the customer’s wireless directory credentials permitting single sign on and seamless use. Permissions and single sign on credentials are managed through Presto’s modular server components.

Collobos’ solutions offer a 10X - 100X savings in speed of deployment over alternate secure release solutions. “Secure release functionality is useful when the owner is delayed in picking up a print job or the content is highly confidential and needs to be picked up by the right owner,” says Herscher.

The ‘secure release’ functionality is useful when the owner is delayed in picking up a print job or the content is highly confidential and needs to be picked up by the right owner

Collobos’ secure release solution Presto Station is a major win for IT professionals. By decoupling embedded firmware from printing hardware, IT Administrators enjoy control and unprecedented flexibility when it comes to making the best strategic decisions and deciding when to make new capital investments.

An example of Presto versatility is their work with East Haven Public Schools supporting their use of Google Chromebooks and Google Cloud Print. East Haven has thousands of Chromebooks in use by teachers and students using Google Cloud Print for their printing requirements. But they were plagued by issues of reliability, and through research, East Haven’s senior technology specialist discovered Collobos. “Within a day of implementing Presto, he had everyone up and running,” says Herscher.

Collobos solutions are currently only available on premises, but customers have expressed their desire for supporting virtualized cloud deployments. “We will soon have a cloud based option,” adds Herscher. As always, Collobos strives to make it very simple for customers and eliminate friction wherever possible. They will not need to install the server components locally, Presto will handle the maintenance, and they can avail themselves of all the benefits of cloud software service. It’s Collobos’ own golden standard. Per Herscher, “We are constantly communicating with our customers to find out their requirements and incorporate all those features and functionalities into our product.”