Large Printers / MFPs in corridors?

[PotNoodleTech]

I am in a position where I am looking at consolidating our 60 various old printers into 10-20 Printers/MFPs on a contract so that they will have engineer support and be kept fully inked.

 

The problem we have is that it is an old school and we do not have many store cuboards that can be used and the corridors are often not wide.

 

Any other schools successfuly installed their centralised printers/mfps in corridors? Did you bolt them down somehow?

 

Unsure if this is possible for me due to health&safety etc.

 

Cheers

[Edu-IT]

and the corridors are often not wide.

I think you answered your own question there. If you plonk a large MFP in the way too, they'll just get banged, knocked and tinkered with will they not?

[pcstru]

We site some MFD's in corridors. You need to make sure there is adequate space and the devices have an appropriate fire rating. We don't bolt them down - but we do cover some with CCTV cameras.

[Jamman960]

I'd look at the width of the machine as well as the location of its control panel, our Kyocera is a pain because its control panel sticks out from the machine itself so often gets knocked, that machine also isn't the slimmest anyway - the sharp it replaced fitted in nicely and its control panel was integrated into the main unit.

[HTCPCP]

all of our ones are in the corridors, - where possible we put them in lobby areas - so under stairs, in little bits to where doors used to be etc... How many students have you got, we have 1100, and have 4 colour and 5 mono, with one colour mfp having not even reached 200k prints in just over 30 months, and 1 mono that has only just reached 300k prints. All the rest are currently on about double or treble that. We use Sharp printers through a local company, and the support is far better than direct for about the same price, if not less, and they allow us to keep a sizeable stockpile of toners on site too. We even have the MD pop by for a coffee and chat regularly!

[PotNoodleTech]

Thanks for the replys all! Any more for any more???

 

I am desperate to get away from the "inkjet on my desk" printing system that everyone has got so very used to, though at the same time I really don't want to punish staff or make them walk 50+ metres just to pick up a sheet.

 

Still unsure how I can get away with this. If I can't put them in corridors due to corridor width and 'elfin safety then it looks like it's going to have to be a much lower number of devices in rooms/cuboards - spread out more than I'd like.

[highlanderdirect]

Hi

it sounds like you need more of a balanced deployment scenario. currently, i guess you have loads of smallish printers, cupboards of toner etc... and want to get away from that.. but it also sounds like reducing to just a few is going to cause you a headache and possibly bring user dissatisfaction. what you probably need is some larger devices for common use, and for harder to place areas - or where there is a disparate placing of people, you need some smaller devices to service them as well. (finance being a prime example. ) this can be done quite easily and still with a managed service to get away from where you are now, with them taking time and money from you.

hope that helps some ?

[mdench]

Look at the placement of your devices carefully. If you have some form of print log look through your logs and see where your highest useage is. Is it one department or area? If you dont have logging look at the free version of PaperCut.

 

We still have around 35 small printers but 11 copiers which have been placed in our high use areas. So ICT in between 5 class rooms business studies between 4 classroms. Our main admin office, finance office, staff room and library.

 

By covering a small high volume area with an MFP and removing the smaller classrooms pcs you will find your costs start to drop

[elsiegee40]

We considered doing this (putting the MFP in a corridor). We use an external H&S consultant who comes in one day a fortnight. In our case, he was prepared to let us do it, as long as there was no obstruction of fire exits (even partial) and as long as a fire sensor connected to our system was sited close to the copier.

 

It was the fire sensor that killed it for us. The corridor was plenty wide enough to maintain unhindered access to the fire exit, but we couldn't justify the cost of installing the sensor.

[HTCPCP]

We make all our staff walk, and if you do it with papercut, you get users to log in to the printer (we even bought a card reader that students can register canteen lunch cards to) to release their jobs with a per page cost charged to the departments (through a departmental selection box that pops up). As some departments bought their own toners and paper etc, we don't quite know how the price is compared, but when asked if they wanted the old system back earlier this year, the only ones who wanted it back are the ones who struggle to use a computer...