Peter Holland, Regional Sales Manager Northern Europe at Jarltech, spoke to David Barnes, Head of EMEA Asset Tracking Solutions (ATS), Product Management and Business Development at Zebra Technologies about the disadvantages of operating old label printers.
Peter Holland: Hello David, I’m excited to discuss label printers with you! I believe security is a topic that is often overlooked, because many people aren’t aware of its importance or simply take it for granted and assume they are protected.
My first question is: In label printing, safety standards are constantly evolving, as is the case with most technical devices. Older label printers may not be optimally protected over time. To what extent do they pose a security risk for companies, and after how many years of use should a company consider acquiring a newer printer for security reasons?
David Barnes: What does security mean to you? Free from danger, sense of safety or maybe peace of mind? Security risks are real, and attacks are getting increasingly frequent and sophisticated. No matter the size of your organisation. Endpoints are becoming popular targets – including networked thermal printers. Successful network security requires layers of protection. Over the past few years we have now seen the change in purchasing behaviour to favour wireless connections and for customers to network connect their printers (wired or wireless). Many customers believe that these networked printers are protected by their firewall or network security – sadly, this is not always the case.
Peter Holland: What would be the worst-case scenario for my company if I have an insecure label printer?
David Barnes: Not to scare you, but according to the Ponemon Institute the global average cost of a data breach in 2019 was $3.92m. According to a study »printer security has been identified by IDC as a particular blind spot in the consideration of enterprise security« (IDC Government Procurement Device Security Study, 2018). Fortunately, enterprises can apply best practices to strike a balance between thermal printer security and workforce productivity. Powered by Zebra’s LinkOS, PrintSecure gives you the tools to easily configure your printers to use secure connections, assess potential vulnerabilities, block unauthorised access and control your data exchanges. Uncover vulnerabilities and compare your printer settings against security best practices. With our Security Assessment Wizard, which is part of our free Printer Setup Utility for Android and iOS, so you can make informed changes to increase protection. Using Protected Mode you can ensure that only authenticated setting changes can be made, control access to 150 settings and block unintended printer OS updates.
In combination with our wider PrintDNA suite of tools, you can flexibly »lock down« the printer to your specific needs to ensure that your Zebra thermal printers can safely handle processing of your sensitive printed data.
Peter Holland: Let’s suppose you’re trying to sell me a new label printer, but I’m a tough negotiator, and I tell you that »No thanks, we’re fine, we don’t need new printers with additional features.
And my employees are well acquainted with our label printers and can operate them in their sleep. Introducing new devices with numerous new features would require them to adapt, which would impede productivity«. How would you respond to me?
David Barnes: You are not the only one asking those questions, Peter! And what I would say is: Did you know that there are a huge volume of thermal printers that are still in daily operation which are well beyond their end of service date and have never had a firmware update. Many of those could be in your organisation! Zebra printers are designed and built to last. However, while any thermal printer might be functioning perfectly, mechanically speaking, they could pose a hidden security risk for the users? Keep in mind that once a printer goes past it’s end of sale date it is unlikely to receive any firmware updates or security patches to protect against new threats and viruses.
Zebra’s modern thermal printers all have one thing in common – LinkOS. What is LinkOS? To me, LinkOS could be best described as the brain of the printer, it is Zebra’s operating system for printers. This »brain« has continued to get more and more advanced with each LinkOS release. These advancements are designed to get the most out of the suite of tools and applications, which we call PrintDNA, and runs on LinkOS printers. With PrintDNA you have a wealth of powerful solutions to help you integrate, secure, deploy, manage and optimise Zebra printers.
In LinkOS v6 we enhanced our PrintSecure offering. PrintSecure delivers the tools and resources to easily configure printers to use secure connections and block unauthorised access.
Upgrading your thermal printer is not scary. Our phenomenal in-house team of human factor industrial designers take into consideration the familiarity of older products and improves it, to drive the best user experience. While the physical design is very familiar, there are lots of changes inside our printers to make them easier to interact with, replace media, consumables and even repair.
One benefit that many customers appreciate is the colour touch screen, which is now on the majority of tabletop printers and our premium desktop printers.
Peter Holland: Other than security, what is the risk of me continuing to use the printer I have?
David Barnes: That is a fair question Peter, I see three risks. First and foremost is the risk of printer failure. Older printers can suddenly fail – potentially a costly impact to the companies using them, as mission critical processes can halt. Even if you do your best to maintain your printer estate there will come a point where it is more time consuming, costly and challenging to maintain the printers. The older the printer the harder it will be to procure spare parts, as we are unable to keep supplying these indefinitely.
With the increase in failures and the scarcity of spare parts this can increase your support cost. With a new printer you have the option and peace of mind to purchase service contracts to assist when things do go wrong, in addition to the standard warranty, which is between one to three years depending on the printer model.
And fundamentally for many organisations, you could, without realising it, be hindering productivity. Newer printers are more intuitive and easier to use at the point of use, day in, day out. As previously mentioned, our team of designers focusses on helping you improve worker productivity. They are also better able to work in conjunction with other devices and technologies within Zebra’s portfolio, and in doing so achieve some quite staggering benefits. For example Peter, we have a Packing Bench Solution, which simply pairs one of our advanced ZD621 Desktop Printers using linerless media, with one of our Fixed Industrial Scanners. With this solution we have seen productivity enhanced by up to 33%!
Peter Holland: Honestly, David, I’m attached to my old label printer. I’m reluctant to let it go. But perhaps you have a trump card and can offer me a great deal that seriously makes me consider purchasing a new Zebra label printer?
Peter, what happens if I say I have a special program to financially incentive you to upgrade your printer? Zebra’s Printer Trade-Up Program allows you to upgrade any thermal printer to a Zebra printer. Thats right, any thermal printer to a like-for-like Zebra printer. We have special discounts for trade-ups to industrial printers, desktop printers, mobile printers, and even our card printer range.
Peter Holland: Special discounts? That does sound great David, but I’m concerned that replacing my existing fleet of non-Zebra printers might just be a lot of work that I don’t have time for right now. Having to change print formats and languages to move over to Zebra sounds like a lot of work to me. Maybe you can help me with that?
David Barnes: Of course, Peter. In fact I don’t need to help you with that, as it already comes built-in to Zebra Printers. With Zebra’s Emulations, part of our PrintDNA ecosystem, you simply select the printer language that you are replacing, and then the Zebra Printer is intelligent enough to take care of the rest, interpreting the language of the devices you are trading-up from. It makes for a seamless drop-in with no need to change any label formats or back-end systems. Other than taking your shiny new Zebra printer out of the box and plugging it in, there’s very little work that you will need to do to help your organisation trade-up to smarter technology.
Peter Holland: Well, thank you David. I think I am finally sold. Where do I sign?
Zebra’s Printer Trade-Up programme will boost your business with printers! Talk to your customers, show them the many advantages of the innovative Zebra printers and offer them sensational conditions when buying a new Zebra printer: you benefit from up to 62% discount when you exchange old thermal transfer or direct thermal printers for new Zebra printers at your customers’ premises*.
* The program is only valid for authorised resellers within the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland, who are members of the PartnerConnect Program in EMEA. The discount cannot be combined with other special promotions, discounts or project prices. The Trade-Up Program only applies to thermal transfer and direct thermal printers in the same category. An old mobile printer can only be exchanged for a new Zebra mobile printer, but not for a desktop or industrial printer, for example. Zebra reserves the right to modify or terminate this promotion at any time without prior notice or reason.
