Category: News

BluPrints smart thermal printers have facilitated revenue collection for Municipal Departments across India by developing an efficient way of bill collection and thus reducing loss. When a municipal department implements a mobile payment initiative, it not only becomes convenient for the customers to pay utility bills but also allows the department to better address the issues in that locality. Following are the ways in which BluPrints smart thermal printers have proved to be a boon for the municipal departments:

• On the spot billing streamlines real-time billing system – BluPrints mobile POS printer support all kinds of billing applications being used in India for recording the data, generating the bill and enabling instant update of company’s record by the application. This process has not only financially benefited the utilities to increase their collections but also ensure timely payment, reduced fraudulent procedures, and miscommunication regarding late payments. 

• Reduced losses due to nonpayment of utility bills – The offline billing process has been revamped and made easy and reliable to enable fast transactions and provide adequate protection to customer’s money. 
• Increase in customer base – The cut down in losses has, in turn, encouraged Power Distribution companies to supply to more customers and enhance their reach. 
• Rise in revenue collection – When the paying customer base increases it automatically increases the revenue.
• Reducing billing errors – As the process is completely automatic and computerized it eliminates errors.
• Reducing fraud risks – Risk of fraud is not there as the whole system is automatic eliminating manual billing completely.
• Reducing billing cycle – Spot billing has reduced billing cycle significantly as it saves the time taken between meter reading and bill generation.
• Cost saving in the operation and maintenance of collection centers
• More customer-centric process- As the customer is not required to go anywhere it is more customer centric.
• Transparent- As a result of all the above factors the whole process of bill generation and collection has become a much transparent function.

What is a POS Printer?

Point of Sale hardware includes many types of receipt printers. These are portable printers mostly used in retail for printing customer receipts. A thermal printer is the most basic type of POS printer. It is a very high speed printer most suitable for large volume receipt printing and does not require any additional media for printing.

Technology and Advancement

Thermal printing is a digital printing process where a printed image is produced by selective heating of coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper when the paper passes over the thermal print head. A thermal paper roll is placed in a container provided in the machine, with the end of the roll fed into a slot. As the sheet reacts to the heat of the printer head, the pigments on the heat-sensitive paper form the letters and images as transmitted through the thermal printer. Thermal printers don’t use ink cartridges and so they are economical and low maintenance.  

Need for a Thermal Printer

Thermal printers ensure an efficient point of sale experience not just for customers but also for the service providers. They are a cost effective and convenient choice for a POS transaction and other functions like printing receipts, ID badges, shipping labels, price tags etc. They are useful for businesses because of their increased printing speed, low cost, easy maintenance, better print quality, and improved functionality.

BluPrints: No 1 Manufacturers of POS Thermal Mobile Printers in India

BluPrints is creating world class electronic products keeping in mind innovations at the grass root level. Our vision is to empower Indian society with world class technology. Our hardware platforms are customized for Indian markets developing products most suited to the market requirements. BluPrints boasts of 400 customers across 10 plus industries. We have been successfully providing solutions for e-governance projects such as e challan, electricity/water/municipal bills, Financial Inclusion, smart parking, health care centers/camps, Field Sales Automation, Banks/NBFC for collection processes, queue management, token generation to name a few. We are a fast growing technology firm in the designing & manufacturing of thermal printers in India.

Why BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers?

• Solid, Robust and Dust Resistant-BluPrints smart thermal printers can sustain a drop from a height of 1 meter.
• Plug N Play – These printers suit various markets and budgets.
• Universally Operable – They are compatible with all leading operating systems like Linux, Windows, iOS, Android, Standard ESC-POS compliance.
• Cost Effective – Immune to USD fluctuations, Global quality product at India Prices.
• Ever-Evolving – Bluprints has an ongoing R&D which focuses on Obsolescence management.
• Field Ready – BluPrints smart thermal printers are robust and suitable for outdoor usage.
• Best in Class and Affordable – BIS certified, ISO certified, Made in India.
• Customized Solutions – Customized as per Indian requirements. It has features like RFID, Magnetic Swipe Card Reader, and Multilingual.
• High Speed, Quick Setup and Highly Compatible – Easy to port in with existing Application.
• Customized support to the customer as per their application.

Aadharshila has added a new 2 Inch Printer Model with 48 Characters per line. Ideally suited for cost effective applications that require more fields printed in a single row- such as grocery bills, AadharCard no. etc, Portable Printer BluPrints “AEM2BT-48” lends immense value for space, by printing in a smaller font. Usually, 48 characters per line are printed on a three inch wide paper. However, with AEM2BT-48, users can now print more text on a two-inch paper roll itself.

Rajasthan DigiFest is a 2-day mega-event organized for startups by the Department of IT&C, Government of Rajasthan, attracting thousands of emerging entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, and aspiring student entrepreneurs.In addition to high-quality panel discussions, a showcase of curated tech innovations, workshops and mentoring clinics, DigiFest in Udaipur had  major highlights:

• Investor Connect: Showcase of 6 Qrated startups to investor partners of the GoR’s iStart program

The 6 startups that presented were selected from the 1st batch of the Government of Rajasthan’s Qrate program for startups.

Managed by Applyifi, Qrate is a unique program that assists startups to sharpen their business plans and investor pitch decks and then connects them to potential investors and customers. Under the program, startups are first assessed on various parameters of business and provided with the Applyifi scorecard and assessment report on their strengths and weaknesses. Based on the scorecard, startups undergo a comprehensive 1-month skill-building program with customized mentoring and expert advice. Once the startups are ready, they are presented to relevant investors and/or customers.

Participating startups get the iStart and QRate cards, which provide them access to several benefits and offers from the Department of IT&C, Government of Rajasthan and partners. All startups start with the basis iStart card but will move up the ladder – bronze, silver, gold and signature card – as their scores improve. Depending on their QRate score, Startups will be eligible for a tiered structure of online and offline benefits, including via partners.

From over 200 applications received since the recent launch of the Qrate program, startups are being shortlisted for the first batch of the skill building program starting on the 22nd of Dec, 2017. The 6 startups that were invited to pitch to investors at the Rajasthan DigiFest are from those shortlisted for the 1st batch of the Qrate skill-building program.

The presenting startups went through a comprehensive workshop to sharpen their pitch decks and rehearse their presentations to investors.

Investors were genuinely impressed with the startups, and the quality of their presentations. Anil Joshi remarked “I was pleasantly surprised. We typically don’t see such high-quality pitches at startup events.”.

While the presenting startups have yet to go through the skill-building program, 4 out of the 6 startups are now engaged with the investors for further evaluation.

Vasundhara Raje, the Honourable Chief Minister of Rajasthan is an ardent supporter of entrepreneurship and innovation and has made time to attend all the previous editions of the hackathon, DigiFest and other major startup events organized by the Government of Rajasthan. At the Udaipur DigiFest, she gave the first set of Qrate cards to select startups.

Startups that presented to investors during Rajasthan DigiFest – Udaipur 2nd-3rd Dec, 2017

‘BluPrints provides innovative mobility solutions for the governments and businesses.’

Their range of 20 highly software and design-intensive intelligent hardware products currently serve over 400 customers across 7 market verticals including BFSI, retail, logistics, healthcare, and parking.

Unlike off-the-shelf products, Blueprint products are custom-created for Indian conditions and requirements. For example, their e-challan reader for Government traffic departments has the ability to read the driver license, accept payments as well as print challans. And they were able to offer those at 1/3rd the price of competing brands.

BluPrints is led by Kavita Aggarwal, an electronics graduate from Delhi University. She also has an MBA from University of Leeds (UK) and has experienced in core R&D in embedded systems.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-6-qrated-startups-presented-2nd-edition-rajasthan-prajakt-raut/

BluPrints deals with wireless hand-held billing solutions. Its main objective is to improve the speed, reliability, and accountability of Mobile point of sale, and billing/receipt generation transactions. BluPrints has been successful in providing an alternative to massive hand-held receipt terminals, which can be used on smartphones. Its printing range can be used in any industry that requires bill generation like electricity, water, cable TV bill payments; and home-delivery businesses like groceries, food, laundry services, online shopping portals, paid parking lots, post-paid mobile billing, and toll-tax, among others.

With massive emphasis by the Government of India towards digitalization and the changing customer behavior towards acceptance and shift towards a digital economy, BluPrints thermal printers provide a customized solution to the complete process. As we are a Make in India company and it is our own IP it helps us provide our customer with world-class, reliable, and upgraded product to enhance their solution. More and more businesses are turning to the BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers to bring a better experience and last mile connectivity to the customers.

Why BluPrints thermal printers?

The specialized feature of these printers is that they are not only efficient but also reliable and affordable for your on spot receipt generation process which makes it ideal for various sectors that want to print bills quickly. The most useful printer features are simple configuration, quick print speed, better compatibility, durable battery, lightweight and ultra-compactness. We provide our customer support right from the initial stage – from the application development, SDK integration, pilot field testing, to deployment for a solution.

• The BluPrints range of POS printers is completely compliant with ESC/POS command set – a world standard of Portable POS Printing Commands. This feature makes it directly compatible with all standard POS Applications and offers flexibility for easy future upgrades. 
• These printers are designed to reduce the processing load on the host computer / mobile device in POS environments making the whole process fast and efficient.
• These printers are cost-effective as they can print up to 48 Characters per line on a 2 inch wide paper. They also provide value for space, by printing in a smaller font. 
• These printers are compatible with various devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablet, and even desktops with all operating systems Linux, Android, Window, iOS.
• These printers have a sturdy design, suitable for use in open and dusty conditions, and are able to withstand rough handling.

Uses of BluPrints Printers across Sectors

BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers provides customized solutions for on-spot billing across various sectors.

• Retail Industry: It has been the biggest consumer of these printers. Restaurants, retail outlets, supermarkets, departmental stores, retail POS Apps  are all using these printers to reduce operating costs and time for receipt generation.
• Utility Billing: These printers can be used in generating utility bills like electricity, water, municipal taxes, cable TV bill, newspaper bills; and home-delivery businesses like groceries, food, laundry services, online shopping portals. It is essential for door-to door collection and support real time bill generation
• E-challans: Traffic police record traffic offenses on the spot. Bluetooth enabled wireless Portable Thermal Printer provides the facility to read Smart Card based driving licenses and Vehicle Registration Certificates (RC) and transmit this information to traffic policeman’s mobile phone. This helps them in fetching accurate information regarding the offender and the vehicle, in addition to printing of e-challans.
• Healthcare: These printers enable on the spot printing of prescriptions and medical reports. Helpful in rural healthcare camps.
• Parking Management: Parking slips are generated using mobile apps and are printed on the spot with these printers which make it really easy and fast to manage huge parking spaces.
• Field Sales Management: Large FMGC companies are moving from the manual process to manage distributor-retailer order placement & fulfillment of order to a real-time ordering & fulfilment mechanism. This enables the companies for improved and efficient inventory planning, sales projection, enhance  sales and ease of doing business

These are just a few of the sectors using these BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers. This list of sectors and uses is increasing fast.

The Embedded Design Team at Aadharshila achieved a major milestone by releasing an upgraded design of its BluPrints series from ARM7 Processor Based on NXP2388 Microcontroller, to a state-of-the-art refurbished, highly optimized, futuristic, more reliable and faster Micro Controller architecture of Cortex Core M3. The new design drive was initiated at the end of previous FY, targetted for release at the end of the first quarter, in the company’s continuous efforts to optimize its hardware designs and tackle obsolescence. ​ The ARM Cortex-M3 processor is the industry-leading 32-bit processor for highly deterministic real-time applications, specifically for high-performance low-cost platforms for a broad range of devices including microcontrollers, automotive body systems, industrial control systems and wireless networking and sensors.  The new design of BluPrints series is deterministic with low latency, making it particularly applicable to real-time field applications such as Bluetooth / Handheld Thermal Portable Printers. Cortex M-3 has smaller basic core, reducing chances of failure and increasing speed. Integrated with the core are system peripherals, such as the interrupt controller, bus matrix, and an integrated sleep mode with the option of an integral eight-region Memory Protection Unit. ​ In comparison to the previous hardware base, the upgraded Electronic design offers a much superior alternative, enabling tomorrow’s embedded applications by delivering more features in the same cost range, increasing connectivity, better code reuse, and improved energy efficiency. The upgraded BluPrints hardware platform delivers outstanding computational performance and exceptional system response to events while meeting the challenges of low dynamic and static power constraints. The processor is highly configurable enabling a wide range of implementations from those requiring memory protection and powerful trace technology to cost sensitive devices requiring minimal area.  

BluPrints (Aadharshila Mobility Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) attended the Tie Global Summit 2018 in association with IStart  Rajasthan, as a Sponsor of the Large Scale Event, held in Mumbai at the JW Mariott (Sahar), on the 21^st and 22^nd of February, 2018.

IStart Rajasthan is a flagship initiative by the Government of Rajasthan that aims to facilitate innovation and help Startups in order to build an ecosystem for easy access to knowledge interchange and funding.

BluPrints was one of the 6 selected startups that got an opportunity to showcase their ideas to the investor partners of the Government of Rajasthan’s iStart programme. Our company was selected from the first batch of GoR’s Qrate programme, managed by Applyifi, and received our Qrate Card from Vasundhara Raje, the Honourable Chief Minister of Rajasthan in December 2017.

Following up on the same initiative, Istart Programme invited BluPrints to attend and present our Pitch Deck to several Potential Investors at the Tie Global Summit in Feb, 2018 in Mumbai.

Our Founder, Kavita Aggarwal attended the event and met not only several potential investors and partners but interacted and presented before several successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, leading investors (VCs, PE, Angels & Banks), senior corporate professionals and academia.

A highlight of the event was a talk by Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, who spoke to start-ups and Industry leaders about his company “Being Human” and his entrepreneurship journey; all the way from idea conceptualization, to pilot run, from collaborations, sales, distribution, to the donation of its profits towards charity.

In this era of technology, current news is available anywhere anytime, but the traditional newspaper is still the most preferred mode of news. In most Indian households, even today, a typical day starts with a cup of tea with newspaper. There are a whole process and system that works to ensure that you get your newspaper every morning with your morning tea. However, running this process smoothly is quite a challenge for newspaper distributors. 

The whole process includes delivery and bill collection which are done manually and requires a lot of time and sufficient manpower. Though delivery cannot be automated, bill collection can be automated to reduce time, effort, manual errors and to improve collection. BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers provide the best solution for automating the bill collection process, making the process simple and quick.

BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers for Newspaper Distributors in Bill Collection – How it works

Newspaper distributors add all customers’ details in the Android-based apps and the app generates a monthly bill as per customer’s subscription and usage. This feature eliminates manual calculation of bills and rules out any manual errors. These apps help the vendor in managing all their customer accounts from their mobile phones and generate bills at the end of every month. These bills are printed on the spot using BluPrints smart thermal printers which are able to fetch bill wirelessly from the mobile phones. The customer account is immediately updated, by the vendor, when the bill is generated and paid, thus reducing a lot of time as well as errors.

Some of the requirements for this automation are an internet-enabled mobile phone and BluPrints Bluetooth enabled thermal printer. The billing person carries an internet-enabled mobile phone instead of a calculator and this mobile phone is able to connect with a thermal printer through a Bluetooth interface.  One more feature of this app and thermal printer based billing system is that when the bill is generated, the customers receive an SMS with a link for online payment. Thus enabling customers to make payments through online modes leading to further digitization of the process.

Benefits of using BluPrints Smart Thermal Printers for Automation of Bill Collection

• These printers do not require any additional accessory and are compact and lightweight, so easy to carry around.
• BluPrints Printers have compatibility with various devices (Android, iOS, Windows, Linux) including, Desktop, Tablets, Laptops etc.
• Their low maintenance costs
• Long battery life

To know about the product and application areas write to us at [email protected]

Aadharshila Launched BluPrints-WIFI: A best in class Ethernet enabled Portable Wireless 2 inch Thermal Printer in August 2016, following large requirements of local-area receipt generation by the Hospitality and Fine-Dining Industry, especially in European Markets, where the primary requirement is connectivity to both ANDROID and APPLE devices. The printer connects to a local Wifi Network by configuring the Network Name and Pass Key (One Time) and adds tremendous value to restaurant billing for printing of Kitchen Order Tickets in a local area across a range if 40-60m. ​ Bluprints-WIFI works in both Client Mode as an Access Point as well as  Server Mode as a Station and is capable of connecting to up to 4 Clients simultaneously as a Server. BluPrints Ideal for Online Web Applications & Mobile Point of Sale Bill / Receipt Printing Applications. Designed for compatibility with IOS and Android mobile platforms, BluPrints adds immense value to compact hand held devices enabling their usage in mobile business applications.     

BluPrints-Wifi Printer follows the 802.11 b/g/n protocol and has built in TCP/IP protocol stack for Wi-Fi Direct (P2P) as well as soft-AP. It operates on 9100 port. Based on the powerful Cortex-M3 microcontroller architecture, SCRYBE has undergone extensive research and development at the facility of AEM labs to evolve into a robust, world-class technology tool. It also has a wired (USB) option for data transfer. BluPrints-WIFI is shipped with a one-time configuation application that can connect it to the local Wifi Network (as a station), or can pair it (point-to-point) on Wifi to a Mobile device (as a server).

BluPrints (Aadharshila Mobility Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) was one of the 6 selected startups chosen by Applify to present to Zonestartups during the Fintegrate Zone 2018- one of India’s biggest FinTech conclave on 1^st March 2018 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) office in Mumbai.

Part of the Ryerson Futures network, which operates accelerator programs across the globe, Zone Startups India network includes several large accelerators, corporate partners, investors, industry leaders, and mentors. They offer practical strategic and tactical guidance for startups for scale-up, and consulting services to large corporates to help them adopt new technologies and fresh ideas and innovations brought forth by startups.

The founder & CEO of BluPrints, Kavita Aggarwal was invited on 1^st March 2018 to Zonestartups in Mumbai, to present the company and her entrepreneurial journey in front of Mr. Ajay Ramasubramaniam (Director) and Mr. Gokul KS (Program Director) of Zonestartups India.

The presentation sessions were part of Fintegrate Zone 2018, a fin-tech Event, a series of conferences, exhibitions, and presentations, focusing on the future of technology in BFSI Sectors within India and the world.

Kavita presented BluPrints handheld thermal receipt printers as a key enabler of on-the-spot bill generation for cash collection services and debt recovery services offered by large banks and NBFCs in India. Adding immense value in the online and on-the-spot reconciliation of collected cash to financial institutions BluPrints’ Bluetooth Mobile printers find large-scale acceptance in this sector. The company and the founder were also lauded by Zonestartups for being a unique company offering hardware level innovations and designing and manufacturing devices tailor-made for India, and practicing Make In India.

The government initiative of Digital India aims to develop a smart healthcare system for the benefit of the rural Indian population. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is taking a number of e-governance initiatives for the digitization of the healthcare sector in India, and has thus started a division called e-Health India.

e-Health India includes initiatives like Mobile Health or m-health which uses mobile apps to educate people about preventive healthcare measures, disease management, disease surveillance and treatment support. Remote monitoring is another initiative which allows health service providers to monitor patient’s health outside health care center through telemonitoring, wearable biosensors  which track changes in a patient’s health, record data to his health records and print on spot prescriptions through BluPrints thermal printers.

Benefits of Digitization in Rural Healthcare

The new digital technologies are able to share many of the responsibilities performed by doctors. Biosensors and mobile apps help patients to get regular updates about their health. These devices increase the rural population’s access to healthcare services through point-of-care diagnostics, teleconsultation and e-prescription facilities, thus benefiting the rural healthcare in many ways:

• Saves time and help doctors to attend to more patients.
• Regular monitoring can help in early diagnosis of serious conditions and thus timely treatment can be provided.
• Provide real-time patient information and support symptom-based diagnosis 
• Reduces the cost for both healthcare service providers and patients.
• Sharing of patient records and medical history becomes simple thus making it easier and faster for doctors and insurance providers to understand medical history. 
• Medical consultations provided remotely brings healthcare to remote areas with no basic healthcare facilities.
• Help healthcare providers to take timely measures based on an analysis of vitals recorded remotely using wearable biosensors.

BluPrints thermal printers supporting rural healthcare digitization through on spot prescriptions and medical reports 

Mobile technology is helping to change the delivery of healthcare services in India because it is a powerful information transmission tool which connects the rural patients with healthcare provider. 

The healthcare delivery model consists of a phone/tablet/desktop,diagnostic devices and BluPrints smart thermal printers for printing on spot prescriptions, collection receipts, referral notes and medical reports that can be printed in local languages. 

These devices along with the healthcare app assist local healthcare representatives in collecting medical information, providing medical support and updating this information on a web based system which can be remotely accessed by the doctors to provide diagnosis and treatment. This model is also linked with financial services which provide micro insurance. 

This system resolves many issues like access, affordability and quality of healthcare. BluPrints has been an active participant of this healthcare delivery system with features like multilingual printing, customizable design, long battery life, low maintenance and high print quality. 

For more information on BluPrints products, contact at [email protected].