Innovative Technology

Epson Connect-It Interfaces: Full Compatibility Between Legacy and Forward Technology
It's a simple fact: Epson offers today's customers more connectivity choices than any other printer company. Our growing family of Connect-It interfaces makes Epson printers compatible with IBM, Fujitsu/Atrium, and other legacy systems. They're also compatible with today's leading PC component-based systems, and support Modem, USB, and Ethernet.

Epson Connect-It interfaces also support multiple printer emulations, such as DH, Axiohm, Ithaca, and Addmaster. A convenient "drop-in" solution has many advantages, including superior Epson print quality, features, and reliability, and lower maintenance costs. All without making modifications to existing POS application code — a major benefit for customers' systems and support teams. For management, it all adds up to better cost control.

A long list of additional advantages:

• Connect-It interfaces offer the ability to enable advanced features such as electronic journaling, capture and report maintenance counts, and quality graphics support.
• All Connect-It interfaces are based on an open system architecture to ensure full compatibility with any system a customer migrates to in the future.
• Modem, USB, and Ethernet interfaces are now available for many POS printers, allowing store system architectures to be designed around new technology, and to take advantage of speed and distributed printing.
• The Epson modem interface supports speeds of 33.6K and 56K V.90 Protocol. In one application, TM-T88II's were installed with modem interfaces in a kiosk.
• Epson's USB Interface supports data transfer of up to 12MB to as many as 127 devices. Two USB interface models are available — one with a single upstream interface, and one with one upstream and two downstream interfaces acting as a hub.
• Epson's Ethernet module is a 10Base-T, IP addressable unit that enables bi-directional communication, and has similar capabilities to a print server.

Service & Tech Support

"Thank you for calling Epson! How can I help you?"
From Kevin Mooney, Service Programs Director
Phone-based technical support is one of the most important services we provide to our Epson Acclaim partners. Online, Web-based, and printed documentation are vital, and we know you couldn't get by without them. But sometimes there is no substitute for picking up the phone and talking to a real, live person. That's where Advanced Product Support comes in.

Advanced Product Support's mission is to assist your support providers, handling second- and third-level support questions on Epson SD products, Epson Drivers, OPOS, and ESC/POS. According to Senior Technician, Paul Belikian, "Approximately 60 percent of the calls we get are related to software, the most common of which are, 'How do I kick my cash drawer?' and 'How do I get the auto cutter to cut the paper?'" The answers to these questions vary depending on whether you are programming in Windows or writing directly to the printer, but they can be found in the documentation.

Epson provides Technical Support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. During the week, from 7:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the Advanced Product Support (APS) team is on duty. In addition to supporting Authorized Servicers with repairs or other questions, APS solves technical issues with Epson SD products — even if it means involving the design engineers. Although APS has extensive company-wide resources available, the team does not pass around a customer's call like a baseball at spring training.

"We have an internal escalation process that enables us to communicate questions clearly back to Japan, if necessary," says Kevin Mooney, Manager of APS. "That's an extremely rare case, thanks to mature software and hardware standards, but it's important to know that we have the internal level of commitment to achieving resolution."

Although we encourage our Acclaim partners to take advantage of the world-class documentation we've worked so hard to make easily accessible, APS is also there to help — whether you need the name of the nearest Authorized Servicer or the location of the latest Windows driver. As the ultimate source for technical support, APS takes pride in researching the most complex questions and making your support and development efforts that much easier.

Letter From Bud Weist

Dear Valued Partner,

As we enter the new millennium, I'd like to extend Epson's sincere gratitude for your business during the past year. Although the Y2K transition slowed the purchase of new POS systems in the latter part of the year, retailers are once again looking for system upgrades and new installations, and we anticipate that our resellers will see greater demand for Epson products in the coming months.

In the new fiscal year, we intend to focus on solution selling and solution-based products. We will enhance our IBM Connect-It technology line and use it to compete with IBM in the high-end printer market, and our legacy support for IBM systems will be a key focus as we move forward. Our ability to solve customer problems on existing and new POS systems is driving relationships with many large retailers, and will help us sell more products in the future.

We are now planning our first annual Strategic Business Partner Conference, June 6-9, 2000. Our goal is to provide a forum for high-level communication with Epson executives from the U.S. and Japan. The conference will include a state-of-the-business update, industry guest speakers, roundtables, and breakout sessions on a range of vital industry topics, as we seek to strengthen our partnerships with our valued VARs. We'll also help you analyze your company's progress relative to where the channel is going. Finally, you'll take away plenty of ideas about sustaining a healthy business, channel trends, and opportunities. Stay tuned for more information.

Once again, I thank you for your excellent results last year, and look forward to even greater success in the year 2000.

Bud Weist
Director, Sales and Marketing
Systems Device Division

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