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MS Universal Print Now Integrated in MPS Monitor

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On November 19th, MPS Monitor, a provider of the MPS (managed print service) solution for the remote monitoring and management  of printers and MFPs, announced  the integration of Microsoft Universal Print into the MPS Monitor 2.0 SaaS platform. With the integration, office-equipment dealers and MPS providers using MPS Monitor can now help customers move their print infrastructure to the Microsoft 365 cloud and have all of their print fleet managed by a single SaaS platform.

MPS Monitor noted that in July, Microsoft announced the public preview of Universal Print, the Microsoft 365-powered, cloud-based print solution that moves key Windows Server print functionality to the Microsoft 365 cloud. It allows print processes to no longer rely on on-premises print servers and frees up users from installing printer drivers on printers and MFPs. Universal Print also adds functionality such as security groups for printer access, location-based printer discovery, and administration.

With the integration of Universal Print in MPS Monitor, dealers and MPS  providers using the MPS Monitor fleet-management platform can activate directly from MPS Monitor all Universal Print functionality. Customers using Microsoft 365 can also access Universal Print. MPS Monitor can enable automatic registration of monitored devices in Universal Print and activation of print policies, print queues, and pull printing.

MPS Monitor automatically syncs with Microsoft Azure Active Directory to activate the Universal Print service for each selected customer. Once the service is active for a customer, the MPS Monitor DCA is automatically enabled to work as a Universal Print Connector, avoiding the need to install any additional software or hardware components on the customer’s network.

Microsoft Power BI Embedded Analytics tools integrate all print-job information coming from Universal Print into MPS Monitor, joined with existing devices’ data, to provide a comprehensive view of print costs, usage patterns, and predictive analytics.

MPS Monitor noted that, from a security perspective, the integration of MPS Monitor and Universal Print enables printing from zero-trust networks via single sign-on (SSO). Universal Print stores all print queues in Office data storage, where customer’s Microsoft 365 mailboxes and OneDrive files are also stored. All the data in transit to and from Universal Print is encrypted using SSL (https) with TLS 1.2.

With the integration, dealers and MPS providers can provide their Microsoft 365 customers with remote monitoring and management (RMM), user management, job tracking, rules-based printing, and pull printing, all in a  single, secure SaaS service.

Nicola De Blasi, CEO of MPS Monitor, commented: “In the current scenario, companies all over the world are called to ensure their IT services to dispersed users in work from home (WFH) environments, including secure printing for these users wherever they are. This makes moving all print-related processes to the Cloud more compelling for organizations and MPS Providers. We are very proud to join Universal Print Partner Program, and to provide to our customers the opportunity to have a single, easy-to-implement and fully integrated solution that fulfills most of their fleet and user management needs within their MPS engagements.”

Issa Khoury, lead program manager for Universal Print at Microsoft, commented: ”We are collaborating with partners across our ecosystem to build advanced functionality for Universal Print. As a part of this effort, we are very pleased to be working with MPS Monitor to help our mutual customers to monitor the MFP devices they are registering in Universal Print. MPS Monitor also provides our customers with additional flexibility and insight when they apply Microsoft Power BI to their print environment.”

For more information on Universal Print in Microsoft 365, visit the Universal Print Blog on Microsoft Tech Community.

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