MegaTrack

Brochure

Take control of your printing resources with MegaTrack. This Windows-based software solution lets you track detailed printer and consumable usage information by printer, user, project, department or cost center. Automated reports, in-depth cost information and customized data help you target waste, forecast future printing needs, and allocate printing costs to the appropriate parties. MegaTrack's Quota Module helps control costs by allowing Administrators to set print page limits per user.  The MIPA (MegaTrack In Printer Agent) and DTM (Direct Tracking Module) module enables data tracking at the printer level. Pair MegaTrack with a Capella Technologies VeriUser Authentication solutions to track MFP copy, fax and scanning functions.

Optimize Your Printing Resources

As its name implies, MegaTrack can be used to track numerous aspects of your company’s printer usage. MegaTrack monitors printer activity on local and remote print-servers to provide you with comprehensive, real-time data. This printer usage data can be sorted by department, cost-center, project – even by individual employees or individual printers. And that’s just the beginning. MegaTrack offers advanced page cost management tools to track media expenses, printer depreciation, and more. This data can then be used to target waste, allocate printer usage and optimize your company’s printer investment.

Print Management Made Easy

With MegaTrack, taking control of your printing resources has never been easier. In fact, MegaTrack gives you the flexibility to track printer activity at a server, client and printer level.

Simply install the MegaTrack Print-Server (MPS) software on any or all of your local and remote Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 print-servers. The MPS software then monitors the print jobs and queries the attached printers to compile detailed information on printer usage.

But what if some of your printers are directly attached to client systems? These non-networked local printers can be monitored using the MegaTrack Print Client (MPC) software. For greater flexibility and enhanced ease-of-use, the Direct Tracking Module (DTM) can also track MIB (Management Information Base) data at the individual printers.

A central MegaTrack Database Server consolidates the information collected by the MPS and MPC software and the DTM. The MegaTrack Web-Server component then prepares comprehensive, customized reports that use text and graphics to illustrate current print usage and printing costs. These reports can be administered and accessed from anywhere in your organization, using any standard web-browser.

Flexible Reporting Functions

After collecting and storing the data from the various sources, MegaTrack helps you get a handle on your printer usage with a full array of reporting options. MegaTrack offers the ability to produce comprehensive, customized reports that use text and graphics to illustrate not just how much your organization is spending on printing but exactly where and when this money is being spent. 

Administrators can create up to 215 individual queries/summary reports providing highly targeted information on print usage. “Out of the box ” MegaTrack also offers a one-button option to easily create and schedule comprehensive summary reports. Designed to help you identify the most prolific printer users and forecast future consumable requirements, these summary reports combine broad environmental data – such as the number of us ers and the number of printers online – with detailed “highlights” of the printer usage data. Some of the highlights include a list of the top users by volume, and a list of the top ten color printer and duplex mode users. Detailed “per user” information is also available. These one-button reports also offer easy-to-read, intuitive graphs further illustrating key aspects of printer usage, including analysis of monthly usage and drilldowns by media and document type.

But perhaps the most impressive reporting feature of the MegaTrack solution is its ability to automatically generate and deliver regularly scheduled reports. You can, for instance, schedule a monthly summary report, and MegaTrack will automatically deliver that report to your E-mail address on the first day of the following month, with no need for user intervention. Daily custom and summary reports can be administered in a similar manner, so that administrators will be constantly kept abreast of changing trends in printer usage. This capability is particularly useful when multiple parties – such as IT, accounting and procurement personnel – need to be kept up-to-date on the same information. Thanks to the MegaTrack Web Server, authorized users can also access these reports from anywhere on the network or within the company intranet using their web browser.

Meaningful Data Queries

As mentioned earlier, MegaTrack provides you with a number of ways to query and analyze the print server data compiled by the MegaTrack Database Server. Using the intuitive interface of the MegaTrack web client, you can query this data to create tables or graphs of printer usage, costs and more. In addition to tracking printer usage, you can use this data to forecast device replacement and supply purchases or plan for future printer installations. Data from queries can be exported into Excel spreadsheets, and these Excel files can then be easily imported into word processing documents or even databases. Like the summary reports, these queries can be accessed through the company network or intranet using a standard web browser.

Detailed Cost Information

MegaTrack’s Page Cost Management tools let you track all printer related costs, so you can finally get a realistic view of your printer expenditures and accurately predict future printing costs. With MegaTrack, you can track the actual cost of media, as it’s being used. MegaTrack can also be used to keep track of hardware depreciation, toner specifications and more.

MegaTrack also offers a fixed cost mode. Administrators can assign a pre-determined cost to each type of print job based on printer and media. This mode is particularly useful when companies wish to assign printer expenses to departmental cost centers, or when outsourcing firms need to expense printer costs to specific customers or projects.

Increase Accountability with the Allocation Feature

Whether your company budgets by cost centers, or you’re an outsourcing firm dealing with multiple customers, the optional allocation feature can help you charge printing expenses back to the appropriate department, customer or project. Simply install the allocation feature on your client systems, and a special popup screen will appear whenever they print to a MegaTrack enabled print server. Depending upon your setup, this popup can query the end user for up to five fields of additional information. These fields can be populated with cost centers, project names, customer names – whatever information you need to increase budget accountability. These five fields are then added to the data stream, so that they can be included in MegaTrack queries and reports. Each printer can have its own profile, allowing you to collect different types of information for different types of hardware.

Automate Printer Level Tracking with the Direct Tracking Module

To enable data tracking at the printer level and dynamically adjust to changing network environments, MegaTrack offers a Direct Tracking Module (DTM). DTM automatically locates HP devices on the network. Whenever documents are printed on these devices, DTM uses SNMP to query the printer’s MIB (Management Information Base), providing up to the minute data on the documents being printed.

Take Control with the Quota Feature

It’s one thing to set up printing budgets and restrictions enforcing these cost controls, however, is a completely different challenge. With the optional MegaTrack Quota Feature, this type of control is not only possible, it’s incredibly easy. 

The Quota Features gives administrators the ability to set a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly limit to the number of pages individual users are allowed to print. Each time the user prints, a customizable warning flag appears notifying the user how many pages they have left in their quota. This process discourages waste, helps to prevent employees from using company printers for personal use, and helps to enforce budget accountability.

For maximum flexibility, printers can be flagged to participate or not participate in the set quotas. Low cost black and white network printers, for instance, could be quota-free, while more expensive color printouts could be subject to daily limitations.

Specifications and Requirements:

OS Support

• Works with any operating system that uses TCP/IP to print via an NT print-server (Windows, UNIX, AS/400, OS/2, …)

Report Options

• Administrators can create up to 215 individual queries/summary reports

Report Access

• Automated reports delivered via e-mail
• Access reports and custom queries via any web browser

MegaTrack Print-Server Minimum Requirements (MPS)

• Pentium II 400MHz, 128MB RAM, 512MB free hard disk space
• Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP4

MegaTrack Database-Server and MegaTrack Web-Server Minimum Requirements (MDS+MDWS)

• Pentium 500MHz, 256MB RAM, 2GB free hard disk space
• Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP4
• MSDE or SQL7, Office97, Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2, IIS 4.0