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Education
How new printing rules are helping Queen Elizabeth’s School in
Hertfordshire cut costs and improve printing efficiency
School rules
Founded in 1573, the
Queen Elizabeth’s School in
Hertfordshire has 1,200 pupils
and 130 staff. While mindful
of its long-held traditions, the
Grammar School for boys aged
between 11 and 18 actively
embraces new technology.
The school has several
computer rooms; classrooms
and laboratories have electronic
whiteboards and projectors; the
new 6th Form Café has wireless
internet access; and, for secure
printing and cost recovery, the
school uses Equitrac Office from
Nuance Communications.
The Equitrac Office print
management solution was
originally deployed in the
school library, before being
rolled out across the school in
conjunction with a fleet of Canon
multifunctional devices (MFPs).
The wider deployment has
brought a consistent user
experience throughout the
school and enabled the print
department to reduce print
volumes and control print costs
through improved management
and control of printing by staff
and pupils.
Print rules applied by
Equitrac Office mean that
MFPs automatically default to
mono printing on both sides of
the page. Large print jobs are
diverted to the school’s central
reprographics department to
reduce print costs and energy
consumption.
A particular benefit is the
ability to integrate Equitrac
with the ParentPay income
management and catering
administration application.
The system, which allows
parents to add credit online, was
already being used for payment
in the school canteen and shop
and is now used to pay for
copies and prints as well. Queen
Elizabeth’s is a cashless school,
so Equitrac’s compatibility with
this system was essential.
The cost of each print or
copy made is deducted from
the student or staff member’s
online account, facilitating
cost recovery, print control and
detailed reporting about print
patterns and usage.
Biometric technology is
used to authenticate users
at a device. This ensures that
print or copy costs are always
attributed to the right user or
department and deducted from
the appropriate account; that
documents sent to a print device
are only released to those
authorised to retrieve them;
and that the school can monitor
printer usage and continue
to make improvements to the
printer fleet and further drive
down costs.
The reporting function’s
ease of use has saved the
school Print Room hours of data
gathering and enables more
timely and regular analysis of
printing and copying habits –
information that it is using to
gradually rationalise the use of
desktop printers around the site,
bringing further cost savings.
Mobile printing
Another benefit highlighted by
Emi Aghdiran, Assistant Head
(Business Manager), is greater
flexibility for students.
“The new configuration
has the potential for mobile
print functionality, which
will enable users to print
from mobile devices, like
smartphones, tablets and
laptops. Furthermore, students
will be able to send homework
from their home PCs to print at
school, so the print job can be
released and collected at the
chosen device the following
day. In a school like ours with
a very broad socio-economic
mix of students, this is another
equaliser,” she said.
Mrs Aghdiran also highlights
Equitrac’s ease of use, which
enabled a seamless transition to
the new system and has already
led to fewer print-related calls to
the IT support department.
“The training was very
straightforward and the
devices are intuitive to use,”
she said. “It was important the
transition appeared seamless
and immediately effective, as
change in any organisation is
difficult, especially if it impacts
the students during their time
with us. ”
She added: “Equitrac has
definitely made an obvious
improvement to Queen
Elizabeth’s printing efficiency.
We are much better off now we
have this solution.”
PaperCut
TM
Online
and offline
tracking
A popular alternative to
Equitrac in the education
sector is PaperCut print
management software.
Launched in 1998 and now
used by more than 50,000
customers in 116 countries,
PaperCut accurately tracks,
charges and bills for print,
copy, scan and fax jobs.
The new release of
PaperCut, version 14.2,
boasts a new offline mode
that enables it to track copy
jobs even if a connection to
the primary server is lost.
Kyocera Document
Solutions, the largest
PaperCut reseller in EMEA,
has announced that this
feature will also be supported
in the Kyocera embedded
version of PaperCut – and
that it is currently the only
manufacturer to offer this
enhancement.
Anup Rai, Kyocera
Document Solutions product
marketing manager, said:
“We are delighted that
PaperCut’s new Version 14.2
has an offline mode unique
to Kyocera. Should your
connection to the primary
server be lost you can still
print, which means there
really is no downtime when
you have PaperCut loaded on
a Kyocera device.”
Version 14.2 also supports
Microsoft Word, Excel and
Powerpoint file attachments,
making it easier for
smartphone and tablet users
to print attachments.
Existing Kyocera customers
with a valid maintenance
agreement will be able to
upgrade to the new version of
PaperCut.
kyoceradocumentsolutions.
co.uk
