IBM and Konica Minolta Business Technologies have announced a joint initiative to introduce a management middleware system for printers.

The output management technology will integrate with existing enterprise IT infrastructures, and aims to provide security and cost optimisation capabilities, the firms said.

JScribe is designed to work with enterprises' entire output environments, including out-of-network printers, and can be deployed in devices such as servers, PCs and multifunctional peripherals provided they are JScribe enabled.

The middleware includes an offering to provide several security measures, including SSL connections and the authentication of authorised user IDs before the output pages are produced.

JScribe Enterprise Edition is for current JScribe applications used in data analysis. This will be extended to cover future applications such as document management, integrated form design, form management, script editing, debugging and real-time application testing.

JScribe Intelligence Server Solution operates with Windows and Linux, and allows cost allocation to individually defined cost centres, departments, users or other accounting groups.

The offering's Business Output Cost Analysis provides assessment and consulting tools, recording document output over a period of time as a snapshot.

It then provides an assessment of a client's IT and output environment, as well as their cost situation.