Replacing existing printers with managed printing solution

[Guest Guest]

Looking at replacing our existing printers with a managed printing solution very soon. We have quite a lot of consumables in stock. I'd like recommendations on how to approach the changeover in terms of what to do with the hardware and consumables. Use up or sell it all together? TIA.

[timbo343]

We did this at Easter. We bought in 9 MFDs with Papercut MF. Originally had about 60 ad hoc printers either networked or locally installed connected to a papercut NG installation.

 

We have decided to move our IT printers over to Papercut MF where these will be charged to use and consumables will still be bought and used. If the printer is departmental such as admin/finance/english etc they will have paid for the toners themselves so they get to be kept on the old server as free vend until the cartridge(s) are used up then we review if the printer is to be kept (moved over to Papercut MF) or pull out and moved into storage. The department/member of staff have to put a good case forward fof keeping their little printer.

[Edu-IT]

We did this a couple of years ago, and had a refresh last summer.

 

We used up as many of the consumables we could - after all, they'd already been paid for - and then removed any old printers and went totally managed. We decided not to let departments keep any of their little printers, else it defeated the object of a managed print system. There's a monthly cost to lease the printers and that has to be paid regardless of whether the printers are used or not so it made no financial sense to keep supplying little printers while paying for the managed ones too.

 

I think it's one of the best things we've done. We've got some good printers and if they do go wrong, the engineer(s) are great.

 

Everything is logged through PaperCut MF and departments are charged. There's no question on who did what, as PaperCut reporting is spot on.

 

Given you have a lot of stock left you could keep a few running and run as many big jobs through them as possible, such as letters home, newsletters if you still print them etc. That will use up the supplies and save you a few £ on the cost per page for the managed system, in the beginning.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Edu-IT

[Guest Guest]

So would you say get the managed printing solution in now and run the existing printers alongside until we've used up the supplies? What did you do with the printers once the supplies had gone?

[timbo343]

I would say if you are going to do it, then yes, get it in before you start spending more on cartridges for the ad-hoc printers, you need to work to a date and stick to it.

 

Staff here know that once their printer runs out of ink/toner it wil be removed unless they see the bursar with a valid reason for keeping their printer. To be honest, most staff are using the MFDs over their department printers.

 

The printers we have removed are stacked in the server room, unsure what we are going to do with them. We found that we have more of one particular make/model so we are putting these back out around the school so we have a couple of printers with the same cartridge but these are on Papercut MF and staff and students are charged for prints.

[Edu-IT]

So would you say get the managed printing solution in now and run the existing printers alongside until we've used up the supplies? What did you do with the printers once the supplies had gone?

I'd use up what you have, yes, else it's a waste?

 

A lot of our printers were ready for the scrap yard, so we sent them away for recycling.

 

If you don't need them then you could see if any local schools could make use of them?

[campusgeek]

I would make sure you set a good foundation for management For example, If you have multiple departments will each staff member in their lab manage the printers. Do you have open labs where guest patrons come in. Are you going to charge these users and so look at the different payment options you can offer. We've been using GoPrint for years and they allow use to use PayPal for charging students and guest patrons. We have Active Directory and could offer students a certain level of free prints but for our management goal we allow users to create their own account and purchase print funds with their credit card. We also have this coin/bill payment device that they can optionally use if they don't have a credit card. GoPrint allows use to create different admin permissions to allow staff members to only manage printers in their lab. Hope this helps

[Guest WMITTech]

Hi

 

If you're printing in bulk then I can definitely recommend Ricoh printers. You only pay for hiring/buying out right, and they replace parts and toner free, excellent service!