Skip to content

Choose your language

  • No results

Choose your login

  • No results
Support
Search

Higher education|

A prestigious UK school used PaperCut to make printing and controlling costs much easier

St Marys Menston Morse

Cutting to the chase

Problem

The academy needed easy-to-use print management that tracked usage

Solution

PaperCut MF gave management the visibility they require

Outcome

Lower usage and less waste meant big budget savings

St. Mary’s Menston is an 11-18 mixed secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Menston, West Yorkshire, England. Established in 1964, the school currently has around 1,200 students and 150 staff. It’s spread over 17 acres in a semi-rural location on the edge of the village of Menston. Among its former students are Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films, and three members of the band, the Kaiser Chiefs.

David Garwood, an IT Technician at the school, has only recently joined. Although he wasn’t working at St. Mary’s when the PaperCut MF system was installed, he has had extensive experience with PaperCut at some of his previous jobs. “I’ve been involved with PaperCut at various stages in my IT career, from initial setup to troubleshooting and upgrades. In the six years I’ve used it, I’ve never had negative feedback from users on PaperCut itself – I only hear about what goes wrong with the printers!”

Would I recommend PaperCut? Definitely – with no hesitation. Easy to implement, easy to use, easy to support… It’s just so easy"

- David Garwood,

IT Technician, St. Mary's Menston Academy, Yorkshire, UK

Problem

David explains the issues that St. Mary’s was having before moving to PaperCut. “I wasn’t here at the time, but my understanding is that [the academy] wanted to better manage printing and its associated costs.

“Printing can quickly spiral out of control in a school, so there was a need to track printing, apply quotas to students, and be more transparent to the finance and department heads.”

Of course, PaperCut MF offers a host of features in addition to its comprehensive reporting. It allows users to print from a huge range of devices, including Chromebooks, Android, macOS, iOS, and Windows machines. Automated print queues ensure users have the drivers they need and access to the appropriate printers wherever they are. And Find-Me printing means users can release the document they’ve put in the queue at whichever printer is most convenient.

Solution

PaperCut’s built-in reports gave the school’s management and accounts department the visibility they needed. “In the past, Finance would get huge bills without knowing where the spend was coming from… There was a lot we couldn’t answer for," David reveals.

“Now, we show them PaperCut MF’s automated reports, and it answers their questions before they’ve even asked them. They’re invaluable to department faculty heads.”

It’s also led to changes in user behavior, with a corresponding reduction in paper use and increase in savings. “Users are aware their printing’s being logged now, so they take more of a cautious approach.”

And, best of all, PaperCut is just a breeze to use for students and staff. “I like that it’s simple to use," says David. “For the copiers, users log in with their ID cards, then scan, copy, release prints, whatever else – it’s all really quick and easy.” He also appreciates PaperCut’s secure printing. “The school’s quite big, so users can print flexibly across different departments, which is great. It’s also beneficial in terms of confidentiality – uncollected documents don’t just sit around on the printer anymore.”

Outcome

David is thrilled with how PaperCut makes his job easier. “It all works very well. The fact that it’s web-based means we don’t have to load any software… Each user has their own PaperCut MF client account, so it’s easy to manage from an IT perspective.”

And he appreciates the flexibility that the system offers. “Being able to give different levels of access is extremely useful. No one likes change, but with PaperCut MF, the IT team can choose how deep they want their control to go."

He even calls out PaperCut’s support department. “I’ve called to confirm upgrade details or get copies of the manuals – which are excellent, by the way – and the service is great… Things either get done at the time of the call, or a ticket gets logged and resolved quickly.”

It seems like David puts PaperCut at the top of the class.

 

 

St Mary’s Menston Catholic Voluntary Academy. (2023, December 4). In Wikipedia.

Create your own success story with PaperCut!

BOOK A DEMO

Recommended for you