In the complex landscape of enterprise resource management, seamless and efficient document printing is a critical component for organizations utilizing SAP solutions.
Enter the SAP Print service — a pivotal tool designed to streamline and enhance the printing process within the SAP ecosystem and connect print clients, offering a range of features that help organizations optimize their core print workflows and ensure consistency in document output.
This article discusses the key components of using SAP Print service, how it empowers organizations to achieve greater operational efficiency, and where our team of SAP consultants can come in to help.
What is the SAP Print Service?
The SAP Print service offers intelligent printing functionality that enables users to monitor print status, manage print queues, and connect print clients across complicated enterprise landscapes.
With the SAP Print service, users can send and print documents more effectively across business applications based on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and other cloud products across the SAP Intelligent Enterprise Suite.
SAP Print service functionality consists of the following features:
- An administrative user interface (UI) for managing print queue items
- Built-in connectivity with the SAP Cloud Print Manager
- An intelligent backend service that exposes a public API for consumer applications
Key Features of the SAP Cloud Print Manager (CPM)
Here’s a closer look at a few critical capabilities of the SAP Printing platform:
Manage Print Queues
With the Manage Print Queues feature, users can support the creation, change, pause, restart, or deletion of individual print queue items, ensuring proper output management and reducing costs associated with printing redundancies or errors.
Manage Print Queues Items
The Manage Print Queue Items feature enables users to stop and restart print queues as needed and reassign specific print queue items to another queue in the SAP Output Management system.
Connect SAP Cloud Print Manager
If users have the SAP Cloud Print Manager installed on their local PC, they can connect it with the SAP Print Service to view a list of all available print queues and assign a physical printer to each queue.
This integration also enables users to regularly check for new documents and send them to the physical printing location, allowing for greater user control over their own printing data and business processes.
Intelligent Public APIs
By leveraging public APIs for consumer applications, companies can query print queues and create new print queue items as needed.
Understanding Attended vs. Unattended Printing
While printing in the cloud may not always require the SAP Print service, it’s important to distinguish the two main use cases for the SAP printer application and understand where each method can fit in your organization and improve your core printing processes.
Here are the main features and differences in each printing use case:
Attended Printing
Attending printing involves leveraging an underlying operating system, standard print dialog, and other built-in features to select from a list of available printers.
When users have access to such tools and can work directly in a browser-based application to configure, edit, and print business documents, the SAP Print service is not needed.
Unattended Printing
The SAP Print service is necessary for unattended printing sessions where:
- Printing processes are completed without user interaction (i.e., background printing)
- Users need set error-handling guidelines for failed printouts
- Business documents must be sent to multiple printers at once
- Users must monitor the print status for each print item
- Many documents must be printed at once (i.e., triggered by a scheduled job)
Critical Use Cases for the SAP Print Service Platform
To print anything with the SAP Print service, users must create at least one print queue, serving as a temporary storage location for print requests and connecting a physical printer to the SAP Cloud Print Manager installed on the client.
Here are two common use cases for the SAP Print service for business users:
1) Building a Custom Extension Application
A custom extension application is typically used to extend the standard functionality of SAP’s Intelligent Enterprise Suite to handle all critical business requirements.
In this scenario, the SAP Printing solution is used to connect a single custom application to the existing SAP landscape, including checkpoints in the customer tenant, SAP Cloud Platform, and customer IT network.
2) Building a Multi-Tenant SaaS Application
Typically used for business partners that want to either build a specific application for printing or add a new printing feature to their existing SAP applications, the SAP Print service is used in a multi-tenant SaaS application for improved connectivity between multiple customers.
The SAP Printing application offers basic printing capabilities that enable users to reduce their overall development efforts and enhance efficiency for critical business processes.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help integrating a complex output device landscape of multiple desktop printers and malfunctioning devices or just an extra hand getting started with your SAP journey, Surety Systems can help.
Our US-based, senior-level SAP consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and experience to handle all your critical project needs and help you maximize success in the long run.
Partnering with the Best
Interested in learning how to use Print from SAP to manage individual print queue items and significantly reduce total development effort? Ready to get started on a project with our team of experienced SAP consultants?
Contact us today for more information!
