Print Management Solution

[karan_jhr]

Hi

I am looking for a good print management solution for our organization.

Can you please share whats used in your organization or any good suggestions would be highly appreciated

 

thanks

[FragglePete]

PaperCut - no exceptions.

 

Pete

[mcrompton01]

+1 for PaperCut have tried both the NG and MF version and have nothing but good things to say.

[MatthewL]

PaperCut the way forward. Demo site can be accessed here to check it out.

[Dos_Box]

I think now would also be a good time to mention that Papercut is an Australian company to boot!

[NB9457]

Another for Papercut. Their education pricing is really good too.

[MatthewL]

Education pricing is a steal compared to corporate world.

[Falls]

Another for PaperCut here

[Kitkat]

Beware of some of the management solutions. Some of them are for large organisations, often used in global banks, oil industries etc. Which are rebranded for use in schools. The schools and colleges are unaware that when the sales staff explain that it works flawlessly and is easy to pull reports. The converse is true, hours are wasted creating new reports, and further hours spent trying to get it to work. Larger organisations can absorb the cost of this localised development, often as outsourced IT providers absorb the cost. However smaller organisations spend a disproportionate level of time for limited return. We have been down this road.

[Kitkat]

We recommend Konica Minolta hardware for both reprographics and MFD fleets. The service is excellent on rental and very cost effective, compared to both Canon and Xerox which have supplied us previously. Both Canon and Xerox hardware was very good, and the service also good. The rental cost of KonicaMinolta has been so much lower, without a diminishing of service quality, it has been an excellent move to reduce costs.

 

PCounter Administrator that handles credit for customers and ties into AD works quite well. However trying to gain quality reports for management from PCounter Web Reporting, for the last 10 years. Has resulted in us, like so many others, in abandoning it as near worthless. More accurate reports can be found by looking in the bottom of a tea cup and reading the tea leaves. Our frustration with Web Reporting is shared amongst all but one of the other college IT teams, that we know use it in our area.

 

Your money is better spent on software elsewhere. We have been to many print events over the years, and know other schools and colleges experiences. No system we have seen or know of seems to meet the exact requirements of education, and we have wasted much money on products that simply have not delivered. However our interest in Papercut is gaining momentum...

[MatthewL]

Having been sold PCounter several years ago I am now a big PaperCut user, product hasn't been developed and its accounting was shocking to say the least.

 

PaperCut was designed with education in mind, its the way forward I personally think.

[mrbios]

I was forced to use Uniflow for 4 years. It finally came to an end in November, now a MUCH MUCH MUCH happier papercut user. Highly recommend it.

[KevinB]

Can't praise Papercut highly enough. It works fantastically well.

[Kitkat]

Thanks for the feedback to MatthewL and KevinB. I feel encouraged by your advice. We will be going through the procurement process, beginning in a years time. I will make sure Papercut is in the running. We looked at it about five years ago, it looked very good then, unfortunately it was bundled as a deal with a brand of copiers and a sales pitch, and pricing at that moment in time that was not great. I am looking forward to seeing it again.

 

If I may ask, what brand of copiers and or reprographics hardware do you have, and what are your thoughts on your experience with it?

[KevinB]

We ended up moving from a mix of old Canon MFDs and Canon/HP printers to a fleet of new Sharp MFDs and printers, removing all desktop printers from offices and anywhere in curriculum areas that we could divert to MFDs. In repro we plumped for one of Sharp's higher end colour press machines and a powerhouse mono MFD. Bang for buck, including Papercut, biometrics and all ancilliaries, Sharp came in with a very good price. Not the cheapest, but definitely the best value.

 

In terms of experience, the purchasing and installation were easy. The delivery agents unpacked all of the equipment and positioned it where we wanted it, carried out basic setup and verified connectivity. The following day their installation engineers came in and carried out the Papercut and embedded software installation, spent a couple of days configuring it with us and then were onsite for a couple of days to help staff out with the new kit.

 

Overall I'd be churlish if I didn't give Sharp a 10/10 for the whole experience.

Edited January 4, 2018 by KevinB

[MatthewL]

Sharp for hardware, you get so much out of the box with their new range of kit. Bio-metrics I don't think are the cheapest as most you need an extra network and power socket too. By the time you have put extra in you can buy proximity cards if you don't already have them. Joys with PaperCut you can set pins as well as use AD centrally.

 

There are plenty of suppliers out there than can sell other kit cheaper than Sharp but you get what you pay for, Toshiba do some nice well built kit with features, few quirks to them I'm not keen on compared to Sharp and also Lexmark have some small desktop machines that can now have PaperCut on and you can add card readers to these too.

 

Install of 10 Sharp MFD's to a PaperCut solution can be done relatively quick if all is there, most settings can be cloned between machines. PaperCut config can take weeks to get it how you want.

 

I know some companies offer discounts on pricing if moving from one product to another so might be worth looking into.

[Bedders]

Back at the secondary school I used to support, we got rid of printers in each of the classrooms and most of the ones in offices. Replaced them with a centralised solution - MFP's from Sharp with biometrics linked to our canteen system (separate readers were required and attached to each of the printers, as MatthewL mentioned).

 

We used Biostore as our software. I don't recall any problems with it specifically, it did the job we used it for and that's what mattered.

[Kitkat]

Thanks for the insight into the MFP's. I have seen Sharp units at the old Danwood offices in Leeds some years back. Looked like good units. Pre-biometrics though. Every couple of years we consider biometrics, go through the cycle of how we can use and integrate it, copiers, vending, library services, canteen etc. Our senior management are not enthused sadly. Preferring magstipe cards and barcode technology. We live in hope...

[Bedders]

Thanks for the insight into the MFP's. I have seen Sharp units at the old Danwood offices in Leeds some years back. Looked like good units. Pre-biometrics though. Every couple of years we consider biometrics, go through the cycle of how we can use and integrate it, copiers, vending, library services, canteen etc. Our senior management are not enthused sadly. Preferring magstipe cards and barcode technology. We live in hope...

 

When we first took students' fingerprints it was for our canteen system, and was before it became an 'Opt-In' thing; parents (or students in Yr 11/6th form) had to actually write in to say they didn't want their fingerprint being taken. A couple of years after we'd move to biometrics it became an 'Opt-Out' system. Then we had to get consent from every student's parents. I think we combined it in the welcome packs for new year 7's, and were able to work with previous consent based on the fact that we already had existing staff/student's fingerprints for everyone else.

 

Just something to consider, especially with GDPR, if you do want to go down biometrics...

 

As an aside, Active Directory logins were enabled on the Sharp MFP's to allow those without fingerprints to log in. Staff gave their logins to students to collect work for them from the printers. Some were intelligent enough to change their password temporarily whilst they did so, give the changed password to the student, and 10 minutes later change it back. Still not acceptable but at least it showed a degree of common sense, rather than just "Oh I trust Little Johnny/Jane to not do anything with staff permissions".

[TomHD]

Papercut is bae

[ITGURU]

Only ever had papercut - works fairly well just odd times printers or the utility doesnt pull in, but discovered we arent the only ones who get this.

Was weary going centralised - single point of failure rather than directly printing to IPs but touch wood never had any downtime in 3 years.

[Kitkat]

Thanks for the feedback guys, your advice is invaluable. You know as well as we do, that the sales people will say anything to anybody to gain an order with a hint of commission attached. Real experiences from valued colleagues as yourselves, is highly prized information indeed.