From the smallest schools to the largest multi-campus universities, education institutions often have unique printing issues and challenges making printing easy. There is typically more than one network, hundreds of users to manage, and print devices are spread across these different networks, depending on whether students have access to them as well as faculty. In order for IT staff to be able to properly manage their print networks, particularly without added stress or headaches, a print management solution for education is going to be crucial.
Printing can quickly spiral out of control in a school. Print management software for education simplifies printing school and campus-wide, all while protecting student information, empowering printing from any device, cutting costs, and reducing waste.
Below are 9 vital reasons why schools and universities need print management software for education.
1. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Printing
The working world has undergone a radical upheaval as a result of modern technology. For schools, it’s often 10 times worse. Schools need to accommodate users on two distinct networks in addition to practically every electronic device type and operating system that’s in use. Printers don’t operate the way computers do. They usually need some assistance since they have limited computing capacity themselves and must accommodate all “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD) machine types. However, with a good print management software for education, users are able to print to devices whichever device they’re using — whether it be Windows, Mac, Chrome, Apple or Android.
2. Full Printing Visibility
Print management software for education gives IT administrators full printing visibility and instant access to data about their print environment so they can make informed decisions about where improvements and changes need to be made. What’s more, by utilizing print management in education, IT administrators can manage and monitor their print environments from one, centralized dashboard. This is especially useful for institutions with several campuses and devices.
3. Simple Printing
Schools have multiple printers. Let’s say a teacher needs to print a lesson plan or notes but there are just too many printers to choose from. Some of them are meant only for specific groups within the school. This teacher is now frustrated — they just wanted to find the nearest printer and get the right thing printed right now.
Print management software for education makes printing simple with as little assistance from IT as possible, the way users expect it to be and the way IT teams love it to be. One of the key features that deliver this seamless and simple printing experience for users is called follow me printing (also referred to sometimes as push printing or pull printing). With follow printing, users print jobs are sent to a single print queue and subsequently printed on the nearest printer. This enables staff, students, and teachers to print wherever and whenever they’re ready. And no matter what print devices are being used, users all get the same consistent printing experience thanks to consistent MFD-embedded software.
4. Cost Savings
If printing is unmanaged and unregulated, it can consume all of your print supplies, quickly. Uncollected print jobs, unwarranted color prints, and lack of double-sided printing can all cost your school unnecessary paper and toner. And while this waste is usually unintentionally, simple mistakes made without much thought, this waste adds up and it costs real money. With the help of print management software for education, your school will be able to establish print guidelines that can serve as a protective barrier between users and unintended waste. You can configure parameters like mandatory double-sided (duplex) and black-and-white (greyscale) printing. Student print quotas can stop gung-ho printing, ensuring that youngsters appreciate what they’re able to print and don’t overdo things by printing documents that remain digital.
5. Recover Costs
In addition to saving money, schools also don’t want to lose money when it comes to spend related to print use, including electricity and all other printing-related consumables. Print management software for education can integrate with payment gateway and kiosk providers so that users are covering the costs associated with the printing and copying activity directly. Print management print charging and cost allocation tools mean your printing costs are directly paid for, rather than constantly bleeding your operational budgets dry.
6. Secure Data and Documents
A lot of private information is kept in schools. Education staff need to safeguard both themselves and their students when it comes to what’s being printed. Print management software for education protects schools against data hacking and identity theft, even if printer security is a minor component of your overall attack vulnerability area.
Good print management software for education gives you secure print release to avoid data loss and is one of the largest and easiest security wins for a school’s printing environment. Take for example, PaperCut’s Secure Print Release feature. With Secure Print Release, documents don’t print out automatically. Instead, they awaitconfirmation and approval from the user when they are at the multifunction device or printer. This eliminates the possibility of lost or duplicate papers that can lead to serious security issues. Print management software for education also offers a comprehensive set of features and technologies that safeguards data and document security throughout all three phases of the printing lifecycle: before, during, and after printing.
7. School and Student Safety
Although it sounds like security (see the above benefit), school and student safety are actually very different. The recent COVID-19 pandemic shed light on procedures for ensuring personal safety at schools. In fact, maintaining the physical and emotional health of your students, teachers, and staff requires careful consideration of your print environment. Print management software enables contactless printing, so users at your school can grab their printed materials without having to touch printers or various other surfaces. Users can confirm or approve their jobs with a swipe badge that configures security measures, such as secure print release, or user-friendliness features, such as follow printing.
8. Reduce Waste
There is no question that sustainability is a top initiative for many schools and universities. Printers are potentially extremely wasteful devices that can have a huge impact on the environment. By implementing responsible and thoughtful print policies and print fees, you can have a positive impact on sustainability and eliminate waste in your printing environment. Print management software for education ensures your print jobs aren’t wasteful, thus helping you to reduce costs and waste.
9. Lessen the Burden on IT
Students, teachers, and staff often expect autonomous, instantaneous printing. The unsung heroes of today’s academic workplaces — system administrators and IT managers — can save themselves time by providing this. Utilizing print management software for education will automate many of the time-consuming components of managing a print environment, making printing simpler and more stress-free, which also makes IT’s life much easier.
For example, deploying drivers and print queues is one of those manual jobs that system admis are endlessly wishing to automate. With PaperCut’s Print Deploy feature, admin can now automatically and instantly push print queues and drivers to every user in any location for Mac, Windows, Chromebooks, and Linux, among a long list of platforms.
Add Benefit to Your School with Print Management Software for Education
If printing is troublesome at your school or university, it may be time to consider how print management software can benefit you. Print management software is a cost-effective and simple way to cut waste, control printing and save money for the smallest of schools to the largest multi-campus university. Check out this deep dive for a more in-depth look at some of PaperCut’s best features and the benefits to schools like yours.
If you’re ready for the next step and want to see if print management software is the right fit for your school, let us help! As a premier Managed Print Services provider and PaperCut partner, we can get you’re the information you need or schedule a complimentary demo to help you start your evaluation. Give us a call at 800-727-6383, send us an email to info@parmetech.com or connect with us online.
(From the editor: Parts of this blog were originally published on PaperCut.)
