Print Solution - Follow Me/You?

[Zoom7000]

We have recently become a multi academy trust and I am looking at the cost of reducing the cost of printing down across the 2 sites that I manage. I'm looking at consolidating the type of printer we have and the huge range of different toner cartridges needed for all the different models. I am inclined towards a Follow Me/You Print solution, as this would vastly reduce wasted pages that get printed, but never get picked up and then just get printed again.

 

Can anyone recommend a good solution to look at? Am I going in the wrong direction and should I think of doing something totally different?

[bald_pig]

We use equitrac here, and each department is charged for there printing, cuts waste right down!

[ITBadger]

Equitrac here too. Has been solid for the last five years and made considerable savings. We have bolted on a piece of software called Presto to allow us to print from shared iPads and Chromebooks using the follow me queues too.

[StevieM]

We've used Equitrac to manage print accounts for a good few years, but it's only when we upgraded our MFPs a few years ago and incorporated Follow Me that has really made a difference to our printing costs.

 

I thought I'd get it in the neck from staff because they would have to log-in to the MFP to release prints, but they took to it straight away. No more abandoned prints lying around for days and they love the fact they can just press Print and collect it from either of the connected machines.

 

Happy days.

[Rob_D]

Hi,

 

We use Papercut Follow Me Printing (which they now seem to call Find Me) With kyocera printers/copier release stations - the "release station software runs on the MFPs (Kyocera are Papercut partners so they play well together).

To add an extra layer of fun, we have Biostore readers on each printer so users can use biometrics or RFID badges to log into the printers.

 

It shouldn't matter about slight mismatching of printers as long as they can use the same universal print driver.

 

This works really well for us, and has gone some way to reducing printing costs as well as making it easier much easier to manage.

 

Find Me Printing

https://www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.eu/index/products/product/taskalfa3551ci.html

Identity Management - BioStore

[MatthewL]

PaperCut MF without a doubt, works very well with the new Presto (From Collobos) the two companies working together to get the products to talk nicely. Biometrics personally are an expensive cost that isn't necessary, needing extra power and network, stick a proximity reader in (most schools have these for doors now) and away you go.

 

Weather you call it follow me printing, find me, print and collect its all the same. You can view the PaperCut demo site here.

 

Personally I would choose Sharp hardware, you get a lot of function out of the box compared to the others, but both Sharp and Kyocera are the first manufactures to integrate the PaperCut scanning with their devices where as others haven't yet and this is a standard feature with PaperCut.

[mdrabble]

I would recommend sharp with paper cut - it just works!

 

Used both biometrics and proximity readers - and would recommend proximity readers, less hassle and also cheaper.

[Rob_D]

I'd agree with the others that unless you're already using biometrics for something else (like we were) then it's probably more hassle/cost than it's worth.

[nadeem]

We use Equitrac - and it was a great idea!

[ninjapirate]

We use Papercut MF and Konica MFDs, staff can use either their ID badge or a code to login and can charge their copying or printing to seperate departments (for those who teach different subjects). Students have restrictions on page counts and copy counts using the same system but without any logging in - its based on their AD login.

 

...saved us a fortune!

[psydii]

PaperCut. Everyone has an ID card (safeguarding), these are proximity cards and managed from the cashless catering system, which writes the tag back to AD. PaperCut on the MFDs read the Card ID and matches on data sync'd from AD.

 

Previously we have had equitraq and before that uniflow. Changing system has not had any impact on volumes printed. There is very little waste compared the volume of actual 'work'. However changing systems has given greater control and flexibility - Papercut has a much shallower learning curv, more accessible public documentation and peer support which invites post-install customisations/configuration to better meet business needs by the IT team.

[mikkydoos]

I would recommend sharp with paper cut - it just works!

 

Used both biometrics and proximity readers - and would recommend proximity readers, less hassle and also cheaper.

 

+1 for that.

 

Although HP MFD's and PCut isnt great.

Edited November 29, 2016 by mikkydoos