A new era of print and capture with Universal Print and Kofax ControlSuite

Much like Universal Print by Microsoft, Kofax ControlSuite ushers in a new era of print and capture management possibilities. Together, ControlSuite and Universal Print empower cloud-ready organizations to take control of their print and capture needs in ways never before possible. The initial Universal Print launch utilizes the Universal Print connector as a proxy between the Universal Print services in the cloud and an organization’s existing on-premises print servers and devices. Kofax is excited to announce that our print-focused ControlSuite products, Equitrac and Output Manager, can work with Universal Print in this scenario to continue delivering the value upon which companies have come to depend.   

In its initial release, Universal Print will utilize the Universal Print connector to enable the Universal Print platform to connect to existing print devices which do not natively support the full Universal Print solution. The Universal Print connector allows the Universal Print service to route users’ documents through existing print servers where ControlSuite takes over to speed productivity, ease administrative work, minimize security breaches and reduce compliance costs. The general flow of documents in this architecture is diagrammed below: 

Organizations with hybrid cloud/on-premises environments also typically run an on-prem Active Directory.  It is important to note that ControlSuite utilizes these on-prem AD systems for authentication. Therefore, customers implementing the Universal Print connector to print to legacy devices will also need to configure Azure AD Connect to synchronize between the Azure AD and on-premises AD systems. This will ensure documents are identified with the appropriate user. After synchronization between AD systems has been configured, ControlSuite installation and configuration is exactly the same as for organizations who have not yet migrated to Universal Print. 

After the initial launch of  Universal Print, device manufacturers will begin releasing new devices that natively support the Universal Print platform without needing the proxy connector and may even offer firmware updates for existing devices. The shift to native Universal Print functionality will also allow third party vendors like Kofax to enable their products to manage devices through Microsoft Graph API connectivity, thereby reducing or even eliminating the need for on-premises print servers—realizing an even more tightly integrated and seamless user and administrator experience. Kofax looks forward to continuing the journey with Microsoft as the market continues the adoption of Universal Print. Learn more about ControlSuite at Kofax.com/controlsuite.