Canon launches and exports Australian secure printing solution

Organizations can now tie printing to each user's building access card using software that was first developed to run inside Ernst & Young's multifunction devices

Canon Australia announced the general commercial release of Secure Print, an Australian-developed software application that offers organizations secure network printing. The application runs inside a Canon multifunctional device (MFD), and will only permit printing when the MFD recognizes authorized users via their building access cards, verifying their privileges through the organization’s identity management system.

Canon and CISRA (Canon Information Systems Research Australia), one of the largest private research and development facilities in Australia, initially developed the application for Ernst & Young in response to that organization’s specific security needs. Now, Secure Print for MEAP is available to every customer across Australia. Canon has also begun demonstrating it to customers in several sites around the world.

In operation, when a user selects a document to print from their PC, it is sent to an MFD running Secure Print for MEAP, which stores the document on its secure internal hard disk rather than printing it immediately. When this user or an authorized assistant approaches the MFD, a proximity card reader in the MFD detects their building access card and uses an Active Directory lookup to identify them. The application then automatically prints their documents.

Secure Print for MEAP reduces wastage, because if the user doesn't approach the MFD before the document expires, the MFD deletes it rather than printing it. Secure Print for MEAP also saves the user time, as they do not have to riffle through their colleagues' printing to find their own documents. To Canon's knowledge, Secure Print for MEAP is the only solution worldwide that enforces secure printing by connecting MFDs to proximity card readers in this way.

"Moving from personal desktop printers to shared MFDs can help an organization to dramatically control costs, but with Secure Print for MEAP we can virtually eliminate wastage while making it easier than ever to collect one's printing," said Andy Mackay, Product Development Manager, Canon Australia. "Meanwhile, we have exceeded the perceived security of personal desktop printers by ensuring that only authorized users may collect printing from shared MFDs."

Secure Print was developed using MEAP, a solutions platform that allows Canon, customers, system integrators and developers to simplify the way organizations work by creating embedded applications that transform the behaviour of MFDs.

The client or Canon can quickly tailor Secure Print for MEAP so that users see the organization’s own branding and are instructed in the organization’s own language when they walk up to the MFD.

Secure Print for MEAP also provides a secure email function, whereby the user swipes their building access card, places a document on the scan bed, and presses Start. The MFD then automatically scans the document and sends the image to that user's corporate email address.

Secure Print for MEAP is available now though Canon direct and dealer channels. For an average customer with 10 MFDs, the recommended retail price would be $2200 (inc-GST) per MFD, including the software, the card readers and one year of support and maintenance.

Secure Print for MEAP is compatible with Canon MFDs that include MEAP technology. Canon has been extending MEAP across its line-up for more than two years. Today, every monochrome (above 20 pages per minute) and most colour models are MEAP enabled. By early next year, Canon's entire colour MFD line-up will also be MEAP enabled.