At an unveiling in Barcelona, Canon announced its imageRunner Advance technologies that emphasise ease of use, personalisation and interoperability. With three new print devices announced, Tony Aoki, European marketing director, said that the announcement imageRunner Advance “completes Canon’s colour portfolio”, and that the company now had the “widest range of colour devices on the market”.
At the heart of imageRunner Advance is a greater level of control, interoperability and personalisation of the print process, made possible through a tighter integration of software systems and devices. The new technology boats a five times faster interface, faster image processing and up to 84% faster warm up times claims Canon, compared to the previous generation of technology. However, ease of integration with existing technologies and infrastructure is also a key feature of imageRunner Advance, as Canon said that it was responding to user feedback on this requirement.
Aoki outlined five key customer benefits in the new technology, such as streamlining of business processes, through the likes of personalised workflows and “one touch” processes”, reduced environmental impact through the use of bio-based plastics and a 30-50% carbon reduction in operation, increased document security and lower management costs.
The entry level device in the imageRunner Advance range is the C5000 series, which Canon has aimed at the small to medium enterprise. The C5000 boasts 51ppm print speeds in colour and mono, with up to 1,200dpi quality, 5,000 sheet capacity and booklet finishing capabilities.
The midrange offering is the C7000 series and is designed for corporate networks, handling up to 50 users. It offers faster print speeds of up to 65ppm, while supporting heavier media up to 300gsm. Paper handling is also significantly increased, up to 6,900 sheets.
The upper range is represented by the C9000 for corporate reproduction departments with trained specialists. Its advanced finishing capabilities can produce repro house grade booklets up to 25 pages long.
The new imageRunner Advance technologies have greater levels of interoperability than previously offered by Canon, including direct integration with Microsoft’s Sharepoint and greater document security with Adobe. However, a new deal with HP was a significant part of Canon’s print and imaging strategy.
The deal will see HP selling Canon multi-function devices, including the new imageRunner Advance range, but with Canon retaining support. Paul Rowntree, European Marketing manager, Canon, said that the new deal would not have been possible a year ago and sees the two companies with an opportunity to “learn from each other”. As the recession has generated the phenomenon of “co-opetition” where companies come together to co-operate in certain areas while still competing in others, HP gets access to new technologies and devices, Canon gets a new sales channel and the customer benefits from the global reach of both companies.
“In growing our relationship with Canon to offer customers value-added and more holistic IT solutions, we are confident organisations will enhance productivity with their imaging and printing and overall business workflow needs,” said David Murphy, senior vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.
For more information and analysis on this announcement, see the October issue of ComputerScope, available on 7 October.
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