I'm after a print manager program...

[mrbios]

...With these specific requirements:

 

The ability to use a proximity cards/authentication system

A Client piece of software that works ok on windows 7 and just displays the users credits and warnings. (without extra cost for paying for the client software!)

The ability to redirect printing of certain sizes/page numbers to reprographics

Email notification for departments so we can charge each department and give them a details report as to what they were charged for.

 

As well as all the other usual gubbins included in a print management system, those though are the most needed requirements.

 

Currently we use Print manager plus but from experience is slow and pretty basic

 

I've looked around the papercut website today, looks like it does most things we want but i need some opinions/other recommendations before i decide on anything

[Soulfish]

Well I was going to recommend papercut, but noticed you're already looking at it

[jamesreedersmith]

Safecom?

[jamiesev]

I would highly recommend Papercut. We have been using it here for 4 years now and it's never let us down

[mrbios]

I would highly recommend Papercut. We have been using it here for 4 years now and it's never let us down

 

Anything you can point out in particular you like about it?

 

Also has anyone here got any experience with staff and proximity cards?

[fiona_b]

...With these specific requirements:

 

The ability to use a proximity cards/authentication system

A Client piece of software that works ok on windows 7 and just displays the users credits and warnings. (without extra cost for paying for the client software!)

The ability to redirect printing of certain sizes/page numbers to reprographics

Email notification for departments so we can charge each department and give them a details report as to what they were charged for.

 

As well as all the other usual gubbins included in a print management system, those though are the most needed requirements.

 

Currently we use Print manager plus but from experience is slow and pretty basic

 

I've looked around the papercut website today, looks like it does most things we want but i need some opinions/other recommendations before i decide on anything

 

Hello, Where will you use these cards to authenticate? If you wish to authenticate at a MFD and were looking at papercut then you need to look at papercut MF. If you are UK based then google for a local MF dealer such as:

Papercut NG and Paperut MF Print and Copy Control from Portrayal Ltd

PaperCut MF

PaperCut MF Select Technology – Custom MFD Solutions – Call us on (0) 1256 246970

etc.

From my understanding the type of cards you have will limit to what type of system you can have but.

 

papercut does everything you have said above, but automatic printer redirection is not that easy due to different drivers etc have a read of this PaperCut KB | Does PaperCut support printer redirection based on rules? or look at "find me/follow me" printing.

 

I have used papercut before (at home in a test setup and at a local lawyers office) got to say it is pretty good.

But as always evaluate pcounter and equitrac but i expect you will find papercut easist to use and probably the cheapest options as well.

i suggest you google papercut mf and give some of the companies a call.

Edited February 24, 2010 by fiona_b

[Danlewis3]

pcounter is a very good option.

[mrbios]

opinions on uniflow please? and any idea on how much it costs?

[fiona_b]

opinions on uniflow please? and any idea on how much it costs?

 

Uniflow seem's pretty good but it did used to cost a silly amount of money no idea on costs now.You are are also locked into canon copiers instead of having the freedom to change copiers or add different makes/models as time goes on (for example perhaps a Sharp or KM machine will better suit the repographics dept.)

[mrbios]

Uniflow seem's pretty good but it did used to cost a silly amount of money no idea on costs now.You are are also locked into canon copiers instead of having the freedom to change copiers or add different makes/models as time goes on (for example perhaps a Sharp or KM machine will better suit the repographics dept.)

 

Seems i might not have a choice in the matter, i personally believe that papercut is the solution we need, papercut without a doubt covers all the issues and would allow us the most scope on what we can do with the system but sadly im not the ultimate decision maker and it seems the ultimate decision maker has been brain washed by a canon partner company and appears to firmly believe it is the best option without even accepting that there are other options out there! /rant

 

GOD IM STRESSED RIGHT NOW

[alunmjones]

were going to go for papercut in the near future, there is a 40 day trial on the its website ITS - Info Technology Supply Ltd, free trials, essential IT solutions for your organisation, Mirtrak, PaperCut NG, PaperCut MF, PaperCut ChargeBack, Faronics Power Save, Faronics Deep Freeze, LanSchool , need a new server first, our print server is an old beast.

[jack0w]

Anything you can point out in particular you like about it?

 

Also has anyone here got any experience with staff and proximity cards?

 

We've got experience of both, we're currently using Papercut MF - started with NG but upgraded when we wanted to start using proximity cards.

 

We had a little bother getting one variety of proximity card reader to work with the others as one read the cards in decimal and the others read in hexadecimal. We were able to overcome this though with an upgrade of the software on the reader.

 

Other than that though we've been very happy with our setup.

 

Also worth mentioning that we trialled Pcounter and Equitrack but found Papercut to be best for our needs.

[fiona_b]

were going to go for papercut in the near future, there is a 40 day trial on the its website ITS - Info Technology Supply Ltd, free trials, essential IT solutions for your organisation, Mirtrak, PaperCut NG, PaperCut MF, PaperCut ChargeBack, Faronics Power Save, Faronics Deep Freeze, LanSchool , need a new server first, our print server is an old beast.

You should check out of papercut can be dual language (welsh/english). Also it seems you can get more downloads about MF from the UK distributor here

[glennda]

Print Manager Plus is Papercut but a few versions behind or something like that

[fiona_b]

Seems i might not have a choice in the matter, i personally believe that papercut is the solution we need, papercut without a doubt covers all the issues and would allow us the most scope on what we can do with the system but sadly im not the ultimate decision maker and it seems the ultimate decision maker has been brain washed by a canon partner company and appears to firmly believe it is the best option without even accepting that there are other options out there! /rant

 

GOD IM STRESSED RIGHT NOW

 

That is the job of copier sales people and wondering how much profit to make on a deal.

Canon machines are good solid machines with (normally) very high quality prints.

did you get quotes for canon machines and its software and compare against other options? if the savings are that big i expect the decision maker couldnt ignore the saving.

 

You mention card authentication in the first post, make sure you check what cards the canon will use. Some cards cost lots of money and then consider the future perhaps you want to use these cards for catering or access systems? can you easily do that using the canon system or vise versa?

Another thing is you dont want to be paying £5-10 for a new card for staff or student when they lose it or at the start of a new school year..beware of teh hidden costs and traps.

[fiona_b]

...With these specific requirements:

The ability to redirect printing of certain sizes/page numbers to reprographics

 

Don't know if you are still interested but you should look at the advanced scripting option in the new papercut release:

Chapter 17. Advanced Scripting

 

The functionality made possible by scripting is varied and is constantly being extended based on customer demand. Some common uses include:

 

•Displaying a popup message if a user forgets to select duplex on large jobs.

 

•Showing a dialog displaying environmental impact statistics about their job such as the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases produced.

 

•Prompting the user to confirm large jobs before printing.

 

•Automatically routing large jobs to more efficient high volume printers.

[dave.81]

We have been using Papercut NG for a few years and now have a range of MFD's and was looking at moving to something that could monitor the copiers as well. I'd got pricing from out Copier supplier for 2 differnent software packages both would have cost over £115 per month. Now i see there is a Papercut MF i hope to move to this instead as our pupils/staff are used to the desktop version.

 

Anyone had any problems with the MF version?

[glennda]

I havn't used Papercut MF, but the way we do it with the ricoh copiers is use NG for the printing to the photocopies then use the built in charge system by inputting codes to charge for the photocopying. it was alot less money!

[dave.81]

I havn't used Papercut MF, but the way we do it with the ricoh copiers is use NG for the printing to the photocopies then use the built in charge system by inputting codes to charge for the photocopying. it was alot less money!

 

Thats the way we do it now, but i'm in charge of sorting out the recharges and to have it all under one package would make my life easier, also staff might have a better idea how what they spend on the copier.

[glennda]

Thats the way we do it now, but i'm in charge of sorting out the recharges and to have it all under one package would make my life easier, also staff might have a better idea how what they spend on the copier.

 

o right is worth spending the extra money then. i don't have to do the recharges hence why i don't complain!!

[localzuk]

We use Papercut MF here on our Ricoh MF7001 and MFC2800 machines. Only issue we've had with it is where the Papercut agent on the machines fails to wake up from standby and leaves the user with a blank screen, which leads to a full restart of the copier usually.

 

Other than that, it works beautifully.

[dave.81]

Only issue we've had with it is where the Papercut agent on the machines fails to wake up from standby and leaves the user with a blank screen, which leads to a full restart of the copier usually.

 

That worried me as we have Ricoh's but the latest release claims to have fixed that issue, what version are you using?

[localzuk]

That worried me as we have Ricoh's but the latest release claims to have fixed that issue, what version are you using?

 

We're using the latest 10.0.9546 versions.

[fiona_b]

the release notes for the newest version state:

•Ricoh ESA: new embedded application versions for both SDKv2 an SDKv4 devices. Changes include:

•Fixed a problem that could cause a white screen to appear, requiring the embedded application to be restarted.

•Modified the account search by code to be more consistent with other account code searches (e.g. in the user client and on other devices).

•Fix a problem that could occur when the device is configured as a release station only (i.e. no copy tracking enabled).

•SDKv4 devices:

•Fixed problems with card readers and copying that can occur after device awakes from sleep/offline state.

•Improved support for Mifare cards encoded with hexadecimal card numbers.

•SDKv2 devices: improved copy count detection.

 

No idea what a SDKv2 and SDKv4 device is...

[localzuk]

the release notes for the newest version state:

 

 

No idea what a SDKv2 and SDKv4 device is...

 

Doesn't seem to have made any difference to us - if anything, it is happening *more* often since the update.

 

SDKv2 is older copiers (MF7000 for example), SDKv4 is newer copiers (the MF7001 and MFC2800 are both SDKv4).