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Macro 4, a division of UNICOM® Global, is introducing a new business intelligence (BI) framework that will help users of its Columbus software to achieve cost savings and continuous service improvements in enterprise printing and digital information delivery.

Columbus Accounting, the latest addition to Macro 4’s Columbus suite of information delivery software, provides a comprehensive reporting facility. The new product enables Columbus customers to generate detailed statistics on every aspect of their printing and electronic document delivery environment to support service level reporting, capacity planning and usage-based billing.

“Our Columbus software manages the safe and timely delivery of a huge volume of information that drives important business processes – such as dispatch documentation, electronic invoices and sales orders,” explained Michelle Harris,  Manager, Customer and Product Services, at Macro 4. “This is essential information that needs to be delivered on time and often in line with service level agreements.

“Columbus Accounting helps customers keep both printing and electronic delivery running smoothly by providing a range of performance statistics such as print completion times, printer downtime and peaks in online document access. This means problem areas or potential bottlenecks can be identified and addressed promptly, to ensure that high service levels are maintained.”

Columbus Accounting gathers operational data from the Columbus suite and provides reports to help Columbus customers in a number of important ways, including:

Cost analysis and billing - accurate measurement of printed and paperless document delivery volumes by user name, document type, department or company, allowing cross charging, customer invoicing and improved cost control

Print infrastructure optimization - assessing reliability, running costs and actual use versus capacity for different printers in order to identify potential savings, for example by removing costly, error-prone or underused devices

Forecasting and capacity planning - reporting on trends, such as growth in print volumes over time, or peaks in online document access, to determine when hardware upgrades will be required

Service level reporting - measuring performance against key targets such as time to print, or identifying problems, such as failing to meet minimum thresholds for printer availability

Columbus Accounting comes complete with JasperReports Server, a leading reporting engine that allows users to manage reporting centrally and schedule reports.

Sample reports are included to help users get started, and additional reports can be created quickly using the Jaspersoft Studio report designer, and published in a wide range of output formats, including PDF, XLS and XML

The Columbus Accounting datamart also allows data to be accessed easily by any industry standard reporting software in addition to, or in place of, JasperReports.

Columbus is a market-leading information delivery software suite that drives document-intensive processes such as multi-channel communications, order to cash automation (sales order processing, eInvoicing, credit management and cash allocation) and business-critical output management. Columbus makes it easier for organizations to reliably deliver business content using multiple channels, including print, email, mobile technology and the Web.