MPS Monitor has announced the immediate availability of its new Data Collection Agent (DCA) version 4. The new version brings a wealth of innovative and revolutionary features that are, in most cases, first to the market. Dealers and managed print services providers can now benefit from instant, real-time access to devices, further integration with other market-leading solutions, and increased support and security.

DCA 4 is a complete redesign and rework of the MPS Monitor DCA, which, over the last 12 years, has been installed in more than half-a-million customer networks and is currently used by thousands of dealers to manage more than 1.2 million printing devices across 60 countries. To remain at the forefront of technology and to provide further advanced and unique features to its customers, MPS Monitor decided on a clean-sheet redesign, using the latest IoT protocols and development environments. The development of the new DCA, which took more than three years, involved a full-time and dedicated core development team.

As a result of this substantial effort, DCA 4 provides new and extremely powerful features and functionalities, which are designed to revolutionize the way dealers and MPS providers remotely manage their print fleet:

Real-time connection: By using MQTT, one of the most modern IoT messaging protocols, DCA 4 allows a direct, real-time communication between the user, the agent and the devices. The agent also uses HTTP/2 – GRPC for traffic optimization and SSH for remote device access.

Device Web Access: Dealers, MPS providers and fleet managers can access and navigate the devices' web pages from their browsers, while being located anywhere on the internet, without the need for a remote connection to the customer's network. The printer's web server pages will appear in the MPS Monitor Portal's device page in a matter of seconds, simply by clicking on a button. This feature is active on all printer brands and models. It does not require any additional access or software, and it has been thoroughly tested and certified to ensure it is extremely secure.

Multi-platform: DCA 4 uses a single code base for all main platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux and Raspberry), providing the same feature set and functions, regardless of the platform's OS. Device Web Access and all other new features are available on all platforms without any difference.

Granular data collection: It is now possible to define, for each different type of data (meters, consumable levels, alerts, messages, etc.), how often each type has to be updated. Only changed data are sent to the cloud to increase the system's efficiency and to ensure real-time data management.

Optimized network discovery: A complete redesign of the discovery process allows improved stability and efficiency, while greatly simplifying the troubleshooting process in critical network environments.

Improved security: DCA 4 is built with a strict "security-by-design" approach, further mitigating the risk that the DCA could be used as an attack vector to the customer's network. It also fully supports SNMP v3 and device authentication, to ensure maximum device security.

Better supportability: In scenarios where problems with a device's data have been identified, MPS Monitor's support team already has available in the system all the information needed to troubleshoot reading issues like wrong meters or levels. There's no need any more to contact the customer and ask for remote sessions or manual data extraction for troubleshooting purposes, bringing added convenience, and speeding up problem resolution.

PaperCut integration: As previously announced, customers where a DCA 4 and a PaperCut MF/NG instance are present, can enjoy a full business intelligence experience on their PaperCut data from within the MPS Monitor cloud portal, without any additional software installation nor any additional license costs.

All the above features are available immediately to all MPS Monitor users, by simply installing the new DCA 4 on the network where printers are connected. DCA 4 can coexist with the previous version 3 of the DCA — even on the same system — and all the advanced features present in version 3 are supported in DCA 4 as well. This includes the exclusive DCA Clustering feature which minimizes downtime and ensures data collection continuity.

"The release of DCA 4 is another landmark achievement in our journey to bring the highest level of innovation, integration and security to the print industry," said Nicola De Blasi, CEO, MPS Monitor. "I couldn't be more proud of the MPS Monitor team that has been working incredibly hard in the last three years to reach this goal. I strongly encourage all dealers and MPS providers to try and implement this amazing piece of the latest technology, and to experience hands-on the increase in the level of operational efficiency and process improvement it can bring to your managed print services business."

Current MPS Monitor users can download DCA 4 using their MPS Monitor cloud portal accounts, while dealers and MPS providers interested in adopting MPS Monitor and testing DCA 4 can get a free trial of the platform from www.mpsmonitor.com.