Microsofts new 'Universal Print' option on 365

[JayPaul]

No the customer hasn’t got in touch with us to push it yet and I’ve been too busy since January to even dive into this problem. I would hope that by now most bugs would have been fixed and it’s ready to start trying.
in fairness to get this done requires probably 95% of the work to be done by an IT person and from your perspective just putting in some copiers with latest firmware and setup all network details correctly.
it wouldn’t really be a dealers job to actually set this up, unless the sales guy has absolutely stitched you up.
Good luck with it though, let us know how it goes.

[Jason Peterson]

RICOH SUPPORT UPDATE ON THIS NOW.

For the time being, our devices do not directly work with MS Universal Print. If the customer wants to use Universal Print, there is a helper app that goes on a computer in the network that publishes the Ricoh devices as printers to Universal Print. They could also use PaperCut to interface with Universal Print.

This is the same situation as when Google Cloud Print first launched. Our devices were not directly compatible, but needed the helper app to publish the printers to Google. Eventually, Ricoh launched an app that gave the devices a link directly to the Google Cloud.

We believe that Ricoh will, at some point, create an application that resides on the MFP to connect directly to MS Universal Print. But we have no time frame at all to even guess when that will happen.

No the customer hasn’t got in touch with us to push it yet and I’ve been too busy since January to even dive into this problem. I would hope that by now most bugs would have been fixed and it’s ready to start trying.
in fairness to get this done requires probably 95% of the work to be done by an IT person and from your perspective just putting in some copiers with latest firmware and setup all network details correctly.
it wouldn’t really be a dealers job to actually set this up, unless the sales guy has absolutely stitched you up.
Good luck with it though, let us know how it goes.

[JayPaul]

What is this ‘helper app’
Hope that isn’t linked to Ricoh Smart Integration because god do I hate setting that up with people. It’s so slow at loading anything.
looks like I’ll be putting this off for another couple of months then if they aren’t even compatible yet. Rather not go in half assed with it.

[SalesServiceGuy]

I doubt if Microsoft engineers are going to go out and purchase or even rent every make and model printer in existence just to test them for function with 365 cloud printing. Most likely Ricoh is not on their "list" is because no user has installed one there. They want you to subscribe to 365 and install one. Ricoh is not gong to do that unless there is sufficient demand for it. Contact Ricoh sales support team or install one from your own office to test/demo.

If Ricoh wants to be a certified Microsoft Universal print provider, it is up to Ricoh to invest their time, money and resources to develop a solution that will meet and pass Microsoft's quality control test procedures.

I think widespread adoption of MS Universal Print is years away and that OEM's will not be particularly thrilled at the idea of giving away control of their print drivers to Microsoft.

Certainly, it would be a mistake to assume that any future Ricoh solution would be at No charge.

If this customer wants to implement MS Universal Print on a wide scale they will quickly learn that there is likely a lot of pain to be first had with any new evolving technology.

Microsoft can publish a fancy website and make lots of promises but the reality is not the same. Should the customer want to pursue this technology, they need to know that it is outside the current feature set that Ricoh can offer at no charge and will be considered billable labour.

Customer's often send service techs on fanciful tasks until the mention of a pending invoice suddenly changes their priorities.

[slimslob]

If Ricoh wants to be a certified Microsoft Universal print provider, it is up to Ricoh to invest their time, money and resources to develop a solution that will meet and pass Microsoft's quality control test procedures.

I think widespread adoption of MS Universal Print is years away and that OEM's will not be particularly thrilled at the idea of giving away control of their print drivers to Microsoft.

Certainly, it would be a mistake to assume that any future Ricoh solution would be at No charge.

If this customer wants to implement MS Universal Print on a wide scale they will quickly learn that there is likely a lot of pain to be first had with any new evolving technology.

Microsoft can publish a fancy website and make lots of promises but the reality is not the same. Should the customer want to pursue this technology, they need to know that it is outside the current feature set that Ricoh can offer at no charge and will be considered billable labour.

Customer's often send service techs on fanciful tasks until the mention of a pending invoice suddenly changes their priorities.

And considering Microsoft's recent major update snafus, it would appear that it is Microsoft that needs to invest in some decent quality control.

[Jason Peterson]

Used the Connector and got it working, see link for info. It does not support Mac though of course. I got the deal to stick so that's good!

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/connector-updates

No the customer hasn’t got in touch with us to push it yet and I’ve been too busy since January to even dive into this problem. I would hope that by now most bugs would have been fixed and it’s ready to start trying.
in fairness to get this done requires probably 95% of the work to be done by an IT person and from your perspective just putting in some copiers with latest firmware and setup all network details correctly.
it wouldn’t really be a dealers job to actually set this up, unless the sales guy has absolutely stitched you up.
Good luck with it though, let us know how it goes.

[JayPaul]

Nice one.
How long did it take to setup, did their IT do most of it and how long did it take him?
When you said about the app the other day I completly forgot they called it that, clicking on that link just reminded me straight away.

[luca72]

No this is nothing to do with using universal drivers, it just happens to use the same name. Microsoft released something this year that when people use cloud based solutions like 365, they have an Azure AD, you install the printers onto them, share it out in some overly complicated way that the IT guy does to each persons laptop in that company, so as long as they have an internet connection anywhere in the world they just login to their 365 account, then can print to any of the printers in that company that has been shared out on Azure. Because of coronavirus, a lot of people will start using this in the future to work from home rather than using terminal servers, remote desktop connections and VPNs.
They have a list of brands that are already compatible with this but Ricoh is not on there. Other brands will be releasing firmware updates to make their latest machines compatible with it too.

practically, if I understand correctly it does the same things as a google account, in a version for "rich" .. LOL

[JayPaul]

Has anyone else had to install this yet? My one customer that we are doing it for has got in touch and wants it done very soon. Annoyingly to get the deal we had to ask Ricoh when this would all work and they told us January/February but now it sounds like it will be months away at the very earliest. The only way to do it is via the 'Universal Print Connector' which Jason Peterson said he had success with.
My biggest qualm with that is I had to go through a painstaking process to create a Ricoh PCL 6 based driver that has a pop up so whenever anyone clicks print, it pops up asking for their user code. This was so that any person can walk around and use any PC, click print, type in code, then get that print job later by typing the code into the copier. I couldn't just input their user code into the print driver because if someone else uses it 10 minutes later, it still has the same code in it.
So what I'm trying to say is... can they still use those drivers I made while also using the whole MS universal print connector app?? Feels like I'm about to jump from one problem straight into another with no answers waiting for me on the other side.

[slimslob]

My biggest qualm with that is I had to go through a painstaking process to create a Ricoh PCL 6 based driver that has a pop up so whenever anyone clicks print, it pops up asking for their user code. This was so that any person can walk around and use any PC, click print, type in code, then get that print job later by typing the code into the copier. I couldn't just input their user code into the print driver because if someone else uses it 10 minutes later, it still has the same code in it.

Ricoh's old Print Driver Editor will allow you to enable a pop up for User Code. Ricoh no longer provides it but it is available from Softpedia. It also works on Window 10. Download Ricoh Printer Driver Editor 1.0.1.2 for Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7