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By Chris Angelini |
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you know Where to look when a business wants a multi-function printer. You know where to look when they want color laser. But where do you turn when one of your customers is setting up for a conference and wants to print out nametags as attendees cycle through the registration line? What if they're printing out magnetic tickets instead? If you stick to conventional lasers or MFPs, you'll miss out on the real value specialty printers can provide. Sometimes the right specialty printer is hard to find. Many SMBs don't know that such devices are even available. But introduce them to plastic ID cards and the ability to tag inventory with custom RFID labels, for example, and you'll soon see that the market is rife with opportunity. The Buzz Behind RFID There's lots of data supporting the efficiency benefits of bar coding, and we've spent plenty of time talking about the technology's appeal in an SMB environment. If you take one step beyond conventional bar code equipment, you'll find smart labels, which combine readable tags with RFID (radio frequency identification). According to Zebra Technologies, smart labels are similar to the bar coding your customers might already use to organize inventory, except they add embedded RFID. Those tags make it possible to read encoded information from range, without line-of-sight, in environments with lots of dirt and moisture where a scanner might not work. The life cycle of a smart label is characterized by automation—hence the name—suggesting that your customers will be doing less work as they collect more data and add more functionality to their asset tracking capabilities. If you're pitching passive RFID tags without batteries, an RFID reader will broadcast enough energy to wake the tag and solicit a response from it. Active tags employ small batteries to boost range and enable extra features like temperature sensing. Both technologies facilitate real-time, wireless data transmission without the need for someone to scan bar codes manually. The utility of such a powerful labeling system naturally varies from one business to the next. Overall, though, automation, accuracy, and asset tracking are the top reasons to get involved in selling an RFID infrastructure. A handful of components are needed to deploy a smart label system, including tags, a printer, readers, sensors, and software. Customers already accustomed to the business process changes needed to make bar code technology work should have little trouble adapting to the pieces of an RFID infrastructure. You might need to make some network changes, since the bi-directional nature of RFID means more data flow. But the real enabler here is the printer. A well-chosen printer means the difference between an efficient RFID implementation and a setup that bogs your customer down.
The right printer is going to vary according to the job. Zebra Technology's R170Xi, for example, supports wide 6" labels that work well for labeling cartons and pallets. It's compliant with a number of different protocols, works with XML, and includes ThingMagic's Mercury4e UHF reader/encoder module for programming tags. There's nothing particularly intimidating about using the printer—it connects through USB or a parallel port and supports an optional wireless hookup. It uses either thermal transfer or direct printing. And it comes with a CompactFlash slot for upgraded font storage. The R170Xi is a high-performance workhorse able to pump out the volume needed in shipping/receiving, distribution, or an inventory management application. Zebra's R2844-Z offers a slightly different take on RFID printing. Wedged into a compact form factor and equipped with several different interface options, the R2844-Z is suited to point-of-use printing. Healthcare facilities, amusement parks, libraries, and delivery services all benefit from the printer's RFID capabilities. The shipping label-sized chassis churns out 4"-wide media up to 39" long and is able to print text, barcodes, and graphics. Its sturdy ABS construction protects against the bumps and bruises of road trips too. Though it isn't billed as a volume solution, Zebra adds plenty of compatibility to the desktop unit, supporting 19 different linear bar code formats. As with most other printers, RFID consumables play a large part in the VAR's ability to earn continual revenue on a component that doesn't get upgraded very often. Zebra's printers support a large variety of tags and the company manufactures an array of different smart labels, from standard performance tags to omni-directional labels used to identify containers with metals and liquids inside. Of course, the value there lies in sourcing hardware, labels, ribbons, and tags from one company to simplify procurement. Secure ID Card Printing You might think of ID cards as simple credit card-sized pieces of plastic with a name and a magnetic stripe used to identify an employee or conference attendee. But according to Charlie Ross, vice president of U.S. sales for Fargo Electronics, Inc., those cards have evolved from simply being personalized to incorporating a lot of embedded technology.
"The nice thing about where things are going today is that we're tying into more high-technology cards," says Ross. "Those cards work with multiple systems, with access control, time and attendance, and point-of-sale systems all leveraging the same card. Business customers can personalize those cards with our printers and encode those cards as they run through." So the printers let VARs get involved in the card business and the card business facilitates access to any one of those platforms. The ability to print and encode ID cards offers a foot in the door to places they might not have been able to go before. Kathryn Lodato, director of Americas marketing at Zebra Technologies agrees that VARs not involved in card printing are missing out on a tremendous opportunity to add value to the PCs they're already selling. Both Zebra and Fargo offer different ways to go to market with card printing. Fargo, for example, sells two lines: a Professional series and a Persona family. Professional series printers are protected, meaning you have to be one of Fargo's channel partners in order to sell it. The reasoning there is simple. Higher-end printers incorporate a lot of encoding options, dual-sided printing, and lamination. Especially when it comes to encoding—writing information to a card so that it operates with other solutions—you're looking at some heavy-duty integration work. Also bear in mind that, in order to get resellers motivated and effective, Fargo helps train channel partners to get the best results from those professional printers. Fargo's Charlie Ross offers an example of a business with an existing access control system in place. Employees might be walking around with blank proximity cards in their wallets. The obvious security concern there is knowing whether each person's card is actually theirs or not. The first thing you can bring to the table with one of Fargo's Professional printers is an ability to personalize those cards. You also have the tools to encode data onto the cards. "A lot of access control systems out there are sold with blank badges. A lot of VARs try to figure out what their foot in the door is going to be, and in a lot of cases you're able to walk into a business with access control already in place, find out that they have blank badges, and sell the printer as a way to put a face onto those badges, adding physical security to the technology." Once you dip out of Fargo's Professional line and into the Persona series, availability shifts to open distribution. The Persona printers are still very powerful, but they're smaller and easier to use. The flagship C30 is about the size of a toaster, making it portable enough to tote around for on-demand badge printing. It supports full-color, dye sublimation technology able to print on both sides of an ID card, and each color cartridge comes with its own integrated cleaning roller that gets replaced when the ink is swapped out. The cool thing about Fargo's entry-level offerings like the C30 is that they're backed by a complete support infrastructure. You can get the printers, the ink cartridges, and blank cards all from Fargo. Additionally, customers have access to badge holders, photo ID software, and an optional magnetic stripe encoder. Getting started with the C30 is a no-brainer—the printer connects to a standard PC through USB, and Fargo's software solution runs on any Windows platform through XP.
While you can certainly go parts shopping and pick the pieces for a successful card printing system individually, Fargo just started selling complete packages that help you maximize value. The mainstream C30 kit features the single-sided printer, Fargo's photo ID software, a 1.3 megapixel USB camera, a full-color ink cartridge good for 250 prints, 100 PVC cards, three cleaning rollers, and a USB cable. Beyond that, the systems get much more advanced. For example, the DTC550 package, protected under the Professional family's partner-only policy, includes a DTC550 printer, Fargo's SecureVault inventory software, holographic overlaminates, and holographic foil cards. The whole solution is designed around the management and protection of issuance, so SecureVault tracks the movement and use of consumables while the software also determines hardware access. Holographic laminates and foils help deter counterfeiting in the most sensitive environments. Packages like these are particularly appealing to new resellers who may not have the experience and history needed to hand-pick the perfect parts from a long list. Moreover, you know the vendor has done the heavy lifting with compatibility testing. Printing on the Road Your customer is at a trade show. They've brought demo units of their latest innovation and wouldn't mind making a sale or two. Unfortunately, they aren't set up for PoS transactions. If they have a handheld or smart phone on-site, however, a mobile receipt printer could save the day. In addition to its RFID and ID card printing products, Zebra also sells several mobile printers designed to handle everything from labels to mobile routes and receipts. They're all remarkably small, built to handle the environmental stresses of mobile hardware, and uniquely specialized. The Cameo 4, for instance, weighs a scant 1.4 pounds yet is rated to withstand falls from up to six feet. The Cameo connects through a serial port, but optional upsells give the printer Bluetooth, infrared, or 802.11b wireless capability. Battery power enables use in places your customer couldn't take any other type of printer. Zebra's RW 420 is slightly more advanced. It works in conjunction with a long list of optional extras, including magnetic stripe readers and smart card readers, a vehicle cradle, a fast lithium ion charger, and an 802.11g adapter. Driven by long-lasting batteries, sold with any number of mounting options, and built in such a way as to resist the elements, a customer buys the RW 420 because he's doing business somewhere a desktop inkjet or laser simply won't go. Keep that in mind as you sell the mobile printer concept. They're not as fast as desktops, generally managing 3" of print space per second, and they're not as wide (Zebra's RW 420 maxes out at 4"). However, they're battery-powered and can communicate over any number of interfaces. Unconventional Opportunities Color laser printers and MFPs are all the rage right now, but they aren't replaced very often. Even if you're selling consumables, there's still a lot of room to make money elsewhere in printing. RFID is particularly promising because it adds wireless technology to asset management and inventory tracking, taking a step beyond bar codes. ID cards touch on the sensitive issue of security—always a point of sensitivity when it comes to making a new sale. And mobile printers address a market untouchable by office equipment. Introduce your customers to all three printing opportunities since most SMBs won't know to go looking for them. |
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