uniFLOW: One-Stop-Shop for Print & Scan Management

Karsten Huster, Founder & CEO
In today’s print management landscape, the disrupting innovation in the market has forced companies to utilize many different brands and models of printers, according to their requirements. Managing all of the printer drivers supporting different operating systems and coordinating services with multiple vendors is a challenging proposition. Besides, each company has disparate solutions for printing, scanning, and printing management, making the print workflow more complicated. To simplify and streamline the output and print environment, Karsten Huster, established NT-ware, with a unique vision to provide a one-stop-shop platform for all the printing, scanning and copying needs. “With this approach, we rarely have to say no to customer demands as long as it is regarding documents,” says Huster, founder and CEO of NT-ware (developer of uniFLOW).

uniFLOW is specifically designed to manage and control the end-to-end functionalities of multi-functional printers. The ingenious platform assists customers to enhance document security, increase operational productivity and reduce unnecessary costs. “No matter how a document arrives, be it through e-mail, mobile apps or fax, the uniFLOW platform can authenticate and process the vast amount of print jobs,” says Huster.

The modular architecture of the platform helps uniFLOW to support additional modules such as capturing documents directly into Microsoft SharePoint, enabling secure printing via mobile devices, routing print jobs and more. The uniFLOW platform is designed to be scalable and can be customized to any specific customer requirements.

uniFLOW Online is a SaaS based solution launched in 2016 globally which is a secure printing solution without the need of any print servers and all management is performed in the cloud.

The uniFLOW Online platform leverages two powerful technologies that help businesses to manage printer fleets with fewer servers—Universal Printer Driver and uniFLOW SmartClient. With the help of uniFLOW Universal Printer Driver, users can choose any printer on the network to print the document, regardless of model or manufacturer. The Universal Printer Driver is a generic variant of postscript driver that provides a simple user interface with advanced printing features.


No matter how a document arrives, be it through e-mail, mobile apps or fax, the uniFLOW platform can authenticate and process the vast amount of print jobs


uniFLOW SmartClient, on the other hand, is deployed in each of the user’s desktop allowing customers to print securely and track the cost without deploying local print servers on-site in different locations, while significantly reducing the network traffic.

Built for the cloud, uniFLOW Online platform is regionally hosted at Microsoft Azure datacenters and is available as SaaS. With the help of uniFLOW Online, users can print jobs from their smartphones or tablets by sending the file to be printed through an email. In the regional datacenter, once the document is encrypted the original document is deleted and the data remains safe until the user selects it for printing.

Huster cites a real-world example, where uniFLOW helped a customer in the banking sector who was concerned about document security. They wanted to manage and control the access to print certain confidential documents. By leveraging the uniFLOW platform, the banking firm was able to capture an image of every single document going through the printing device and was able to successfully monitor all the documents. When a document is printed, uniFLOW software analyzes the text and with the help of keyword search or OCR technology, uniFLOW’s custom workflow can notify IT administrators immediately in case of any discrepancy.

Along the path of innovation, the company is planning to develop new features that meet industry-wide requirements and improve managed print services. In terms of market expansion, Huster says, “We will continue to promote the uniFLOW and uniFLOW Online platform across the globe via canon groups.”

Company
uniFLOW

Headquarters
Bad Iburg, Germany

Management
Karsten Huster, Founder & CEO

Description
Provides one platform, to manage and control all printing and copying needs

UniFLOW