Read on for a short interview with Eric McCann, Manager, Software Product Marketing at Lexmark, discussing the value of Mopria Alliance.
Why is it important for your company to be a member of the Mopria Alliance?
As an executive member of the Mopria Alliance, Lexmark is uniquely positioned to deliver devices that are certified to meet the standards as defined by the organization. By working together with other companies in the industry, Lexmark is delivering a consistent experience for end-users. Together, we can build a universal platform for mobile printing, ideal in an environment with multiple printer brands.
What benefits does your participation in the Mopria Alliance bring to your company?
The main benefit of participating in the Mopria Alliance is gaining insight and alignment into the current and future direction of print with our industry partners. Additionally, with both software and hardware alliances in mind, Lexmark is able to meet the common goal of enabling customers to print seamlessly.
What do you want users to know about Mopria?
It’s important to know that Mopria is an accepted standard across hardware and software providers, with each providing input to meet the changing ecosystem of both print and mobile devices. As the market continues to change, Lexmark can quickly add new functionality and have a single cohesive solution focused on our users’ experience, and mobile productivity.
How is your company advancing mobile printing and educating mobile users?
Lexmark continues to focus on mobile development through partnerships and in-house development. Meeting the mobile standards for previous, current, and next-generation hardware is a key initiative for our product managers.
We also have custom solutions for Android and iOS to integrate into our secure print release solutions. Recently, we launched the Lexmark Mobile Assistant to provide easy device and wireless setup through the mobile device for our end-users.
What are the challenges users experience with printing and how can Mopria help solve those?
While users expect desktop and mobile printing to be equally convenient, IT managers know it can be challenging to provide seamless output from a mobile device due to mobile’s unique characteristics:
- Multiple mobile operating systems with varying native OS print capabilities
- Rapid and continual evolution of mobile OS platforms
- Varying connectivity over cell phone connections, Wi-Fi and corporate networks
- Usability and support challenges associated with finding and connecting to a printer
- Mobile security schemes that differ from traditional enterprise security standards
Mopria provides a consistent printing experience across all supported devices and an OS agnostic approach to printing that remains consistent through upgrades. This is a tremendous benefit of the alliance.
What Mopria Alliance accomplishment are you most proud of and why?
Lexmark is proud to be part of an alliance truly focused on the end-user experience of mobile printing. The Mopria organization combines the hardware and software components of the ecosystem and allows us all to integrate on a common basis for the betterment of the users.
