As soon as you start talking about printing, people tend to switch off. It doesn’t seem like the sexiest of topics, and unlike most other technologies, it hasn’t really changed that much in the last 20 years. But one Berlin startup is working to change the printing industry, and update it on to the cloud and into the new century.
Having only just come out of stealth mode, ezeep CEO and co-founder Sascha Kellert invited Silicon Allee to take a sneak peek preview of the new printing platform which is set to be released later this month.
“Printing is still stuck in the 80s, and it’s skipped most of the trends that are around in most other markets – it’s not mobile ready or cloud ready. And in a time where design dominates everything, printers still has the same dialogue box they’ve always had,” Sascha said. “We want to change printing, so it will have less of an impact on peoples time, companies’ bottom lines, and the environment.”
The company is introducing those changes by providing the first simple to use, cross-platform printing service that allows users to print from any device in any location: “What we have now is the best way to print from PC, iOS and Android operating systems, with Blackberry and WinPhone apps on the way,” Sascha added.
“For us it’s about striping away all the technical complexities, all the stuff that no one understands. Spooler error and print processor error – a lot of the time printing is like a language no one understands. With ezeep, we reduce all the technical complexities to the simplest form.”
And simple it is. After downloading and installing the client and creating a user account (which can be accessed from any device), the app, which has almost the same user interface across all devices, automatically identifies any printer to which you have access. Then users simply select their preferred printer, be it nearby or even in your office or home while you’re out, and print – all with just a few clicks (or taps).
Courtesy of facebook.com/ezeeplive
Another unique feature which will be especially useful to those in a co-working space or printing sensitive information is the option to time when your printing will occur – meaning that you can send your job through to the printer, and wait to manually trigger the printing from your phone when you’re actually standing right in front of the machine.
As well as being user friendly, Sascha explained that ezeep will also help reduce the impact on the bottom line for businesses: “We see that people don’t really care enough to go that extra step to find where to click to make sure to print two pages one one to reduce both paper use, so we’ve changed that to make it really simple – one click and it’s done. It saves money, and it’s being eco-friendly.”
While there are a few similar services already doing printing from mobiles, there is yet to be a reliable cross-platform approach. “A lot only focus on iOS, or have certain hardware installed, or have to send emails to a server – none of them provide a service as simple as ezeep,” said the startup’s head of communications David Andersen.
Currently ezeep is being tested in educational institutions and the hotel sector, with a major hotel chain already on board, and many more set to come.
Sascha said: “It’s just the beginning of the path for us. We’re slowly starting to open up and you’ll see a lot more features in the future. We want to become the industry standard for printing, but for now it’s about giving users the best printing solution possible. It’s the first step for us towards changing printing.”
Update: Now you can also check out ezeep’s cool video.