Print rationalisation company Ingenica is headhunting UK resellers as it seeks to improve its European profile.

It is offering resellers the option to cut printing costs in mixed host systems which, it claims, create massive management problems for many corporates - where the niche skills required are so rare that IT managers are begging for someone to come and solve their problems.

This is a particular problem for end users of UNIX, AIX, AS/400, iSeries and Linux systems, especially when they are mixed with Windows environments, Ingenica said. UniPrint Host Edition helps all local and remote users on fat or thin clients to enjoy more flexible options for printing, claimed Arron Fu, Ingenica’s vice president of software development.

The time and money wasted on temperamental printing systems is one of the great unreported scandals of modern IT, claimed Fu. "Surveys show though cross-platform printing is a logical boon to productivity, users give up on the idea as it poses too many problems. The only available software and hardware solutions were far too expensive and hard to implement. Until now, that is."

Ingenica will debut its UniPrint Host Edition in the UK at the Citrix iForum 2008 in Edinburgh on 9 to 11 June.

The main savings come as organisations build a de facto information bridge between their Line Printer Remote (LPR)-based systems and their Windows-based systems, making it easy for users to access data stored on the host system, and print to a Windows-based printer.

Citrix resellers could be a particular target, as UniPrint Host Edition is especially useful for users accessing the host system through a Citrix/Terminal Server session, claimed Fu. The system enables a host to be accessed via a dumb terminal or even a mobile phone user.

Citrix vice president of business development, Barry Davis, enthused about the product to CRN. "Being Citrix Ready makes it easier for customers to select the best application delivery products for their specific needs from a large number of solutions developed by Citrix's extensive ecosystem of partners," he said. "The Citrix Ready logo testifies the high quality of this kit, and its suitability for a Citrix environment."