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PRINT.IT
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www.binfo.co.uk
of student surveys. “Student
surveys are one of the greatest
drivers to encourage a change
in behaviour. People always
complain about print but what if
20,000 people are complaining
about print?,” he said.
Printing on the move
Canon’s Bob Pickles adds that
for today’s students quality of
service is inextricably linked with
follow me and mobile printing.
“Printing is one of the many
areas where universities are
having to provide much better
value to students,” he said.
“We’ve recently won a large
contract with a university in
Birmingham that includes
uniflow, so a student can
pick up a print anywhere, and
mobile printing so if they are
working on an iPad they can
print from an iPad. These are
the capabilities that add value
to the student experience.
“Universities look at
students as if they are
customers. My local council
sees me as a rate payer, but
in universities there is a move
to see students as customers.
Loughborough University uses EFI’s Digital StoreFront to provide
a simple web-based workflow for submitting large print jobs to the
Design and Print Services department’s Canon production presses.
Equitrac embraces mobility
Nuance has enhanced its
Equitrac print management
solution to meet the
challenges posed by
greater user mobility, BYOD
initiatives, complex and non-
standard hardware fleets
and growing demands on
the IT infrastructure.
In particular, Equitrac
Office and Equitrac Express
5 reduce costs associated
with unnecessary printing
and print infrastructures;
improve document security;
and give IT departments
new solutions for deploying
serverless and mixed-fleet
print environments.
Versions 5 include two new
features that allow users to
print how they want and where
they want, while removing IT
dependencies on print servers
and management of print
drivers. These are:
n
Equitrac I-Queue, which
moves the processing of print
jobs from the print server to
individual user desktops. This
eliminates server costs and
cuts network print traffic by
50%; and
n
Equitrac driver store, a
repository of print drivers for
every output device on the
network. Instead of having
to manage individual print
drivers for each desktop
client, IT departments now
only need to keep the driver
store up-to-date. Because
the driver store automatically
selects the right print driver
for a user, based on the client
location and device, users
can print documents without
having to worry whether or
not a particular print driver
has been loaded on their
computer.
To meet the needs of
mobile device users, Nuance
has extended Equitrac Web
release so that users can
securely release documents
using a web browser on a PC
next to the printer or, with
Mobile Web release, from a
mobile device. This feature
enables organisations to
provide secure print access to
guests and removes the need
to invest in authentication
hardware at a print device.
Instead, users follow the
Follow-You Printing workflow
on their mobile device.
This lets them release
their jobs, charge them to
the appropriate account
and select the printer they
want to print to from a list.
Alternatively, they can scan a
QR Code associated with the
printer.
Other new features include:
n
Equitrac Capture & Send,
an add-on that allows print
and scan workflows to be
executed from a single
application;
n
Nuance ID Controller
hardware (with card reader)
that allows a single-function
printer to be incorporated into
a secure printing network with
swipe card release; and
n
bundled Print Assistant
licences – previously only
available as an add-on to
Equitrac Express – which
provide features such as
job cost preview, account
balances, job re-naming and
online authentication.
www.nuance.co.uk
They are saying ‘For about
£9,000 a year we need to
make students feel they are
getting good value’.”
For this reason, a print
optimisation programme
for student printing may not
necessarily involve a reduction
in the number of printers, which
is almost always the case with
staff printing optimisation. In
a bid to improve the service it
provides students, Middlesex
University has actually increased
the number of printers available
to them (see caption on previous
page).
Whether the primary drive
is to cut costs or improve
service quality, any student
printing solution will involve full
accounting and cost control,
normally with a solution like
Pcounter or Equitrac; some
mechanism for students (or
their parents) to add money to
an account; and the ability to
print from any device from any
location on- or off-campus.
As students use an array of
mobile devices – smartphones,
tablets, notebooks and
Chromebooks – it is essential
Equitrac Version 5 offers
greater ease of use and
management.
to provide simple, device- and
operating system-agnostic
mobile printing.
“The younger generation are
far more tech-savvy,” explained
Simon Hill. “They are a digital
generation: they are used to
using mobile devices and iPads.
They want to walk in anywhere
and access information and
scan and print to and from
that device. We find university
students require a greater level
of mobility that lets them use
electronic mobile devices to
download information and pick
up information whenever they
want.”
Increasingly, this is a
requirement that universities
must provide staff and
lecturers too.