Controlling print costs in schools is a constant battle. The general rule is: the easier you make printing, the more pages students will print, which is great from a usability perspective, but terrible for saving money.
We’re going to teach you how to avoid the Unmonitored Print Environment, AKA The Money Pit: where students and staff can print from anywhere, with no controls, limits, or oversight, and the only metric for how much you’re printing is the bill at the end of the semester.
Print management software can help schools save money by controlling who prints what and how much of it, as well as helping make your print environment smarter and faster.
What is school print management software?
Print management simply refers to the tools, processes, and strategies we use to control print activity.
At its most basic level, print management software lets IT staff track who’s printing, how much they’re printing, and how efficient your school’s print environment really is.
It lets you control stuff like print quotas (i.e. set limits on how much a user can print), default print settings, driver deployment across campuses, print job routing, authentication, and security.
CRUNCH THE NUMBERS WITH OUR PRINT ROI CALCULATORHow to enforce print policies and reduce waste
Wasted pages = wasted money.
Schools only want printing to occur when necessary, and even then, efficiency is key. With print management software, you can enforce rules like duplex printing (double-sided) or black-and-white printing as default.
For occasional color printing, administrators can charge additionally or restrict access to specific users or groups. Something as simple as automatic duplex printing literally halves your paper use overnight.
Anecdotally, many of PaperCut’s educational partners have managed to reduce their printing costs by up to 70% through a combination of quotas and print charging.
Tracking and limiting student and teacher printing
The real value-add of print management software is that it gives your IT department granular, centralized control over your entire print environment, with real-time information on how everyone is printing.
You can monitor print usage by department, user, printer, or group and assign print quotas to limit excessive printing. By quickly identifying high-volume users or departments, you can tailor your print management strategy to minimize your spend.
One K-12 school saved thousands on paper costs by implementing quotas and monitoring tools. Their IT Manager said:
“Back in 2018, we started the “War on Paper” at the school. We had a teacher in particular who consumed over 120,000 sheets in a semester which set off our alarms.
We showed them the raw cost of printing each time they printed. People realized it was coming off their virtual allowance, so they began adopting a real ‘think before you print’ mentality.”
Optimize for cost-efficiency
Print management software for schools allows you to automatically redirect jobs to the most cost-efficient devices – an absolute game-changer.
With Find-Me Printing , students and staff can securely release print jobs at the MFD that makes the most sense – either the closest or the most secure.
Don’t forget about energy efficiency, either. Upgrading your legacy fleet to new, energy-efficient MFDs is an upfront cost, but these machines can save you 30% on your printer energy bill, which adds up over time.
Authentication and security
Schools (quite rightly) put a lot of emphasis on print security.
With so many users, permission levels, departments, and documents, it’s all too easy for confidential information to end up in the wrong hands (or the wrong print tray). This is where user authentication can help.
Which authentication method you choose will depend on a few factors, but Single Sign-On (SSO) is generally the simplest, and most popular. Of course, if you want an added layer of security, we always recommend Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) which is basically the gold standard of print security.
It reduces the risk of data breaches, and you can combine it with school-issued ID cards or badges (RFID, NFC, or smart card) which interface directly with the printer.
Reduce uncollected print jobs (aka wasted ink + paper!)
One of the hidden features of print management is secure print release , which means users must authenticate themselves at the MFD to release the print job.
This is much more secure: only authorized users can physically print documents on the network. Plus, it saves money! Pull printing, as it’s known, reduces waste from forgotten or abandoned print jobs, especially in shared print environments like K-12 schools.
Short version: students only end up printing what they actually need.
The stats back this up. 15% of print jobs in the hold/release queue are never actually printed. That’s a 15% ROI on paper, ink, and toner consumption right off the bat!
Cost insights and reporting
Before you can reduce spending, you first need to figure out how much you’re spending. And that means print tracking, reporting, and audits.
With print management software for schools, you can generate reports to analyze printing costs across different departments and quickly identify areas for improvement.
It’s a smarter way to print. It also means you can eliminate redundant printers that no one’s using, cutting down on maintenance and streamlining your printer fleet. Always a good thing.
What print management software should I choose for my school?
Ah, the most important question, and one we can help you answer!
We’ve discussed a lot of different benefits in this blog, so odds are you’re now onboard with how print management software can help your school save money – the next step is choosing the right one for you.
That’s where we can help – chat to our friendly team and they’ll learn more about your needs, current setup, and help you choose the right PaperCut solution for your school.
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