PaperCut Hive helps a school reduce waste and increase efficiency

Cutting to the chase

Problem

A variety of devices require access to printers

Solution

PaperCut Hive provides easy access to everyone through the cloud

Outcome

A simplified process that reduces waste and cuts the final cord to onsite servers

Redwoodtown School in Blenheim, New Zealand, is a full primary school with around 350 Year 1 to Year 8 students. Located among the vineyards of Marlborough at the top of the South Island, the school provides a quality educational environment with an extensive range of extracurricular activities.

Aaron Vercoe has been principal of the school for about seven years. With printed teaching material still key for classroom activities, he recalls the difficulties of working with the previous system, “We had multiple operating systems, multiple user interfaces, multiple single sign-on solutions, which didn’t necessarily work with each other, all trying to talk to our central server. Then you had to spend time installing drivers onto each device individually, and they’d quickly become out of date and obsolete.”

“What’s more, our library system and our student management system had already been moved into the cloud, so printing was the last thing using our old server. It was clear there had to be a better solution.”

PaperCut Hive has simplified printing for everyone, reduced waste, and saved us space."

- Aaron Vercoe,

Principal, Redwoodtown Primary School, Blenheim, New Zealand

Problem

A variety of devices require access to printers

The printing needs of Redwoodtown School are many and varied. With around 20 teachers, 20 support and administration staff, and 20 more people who come in as learning support coordinators or in other capacities, there are plenty of users who need access to printers. And that’s on top of the 350 students.

Prior to moving to PaperCut Hive, security and privacy issues meant different departments of the school required their own dedicated printers. The admin/finance and HR team, for example, didn’t want confidential documents printed in public areas. In addition, Monday mornings would see long waits for teaching staff to use the machines as everyone needed to print the teaching materials they’d prepared over the weekend.

Solution

PaperCut Hive provides easy access to everyone through the cloud

PaperCut Hive solves all these issues. It enables staff and students to easily print documents, regardless of what brand, operating system, or device they’re using. It’s made it simple to onboard new or temporary staff as needed. “As soon as they’re added to our staff accounts, they get sent an email and they’re automatically added to the system. It’s a real advantage,” says Aaron. Plus, it allows the school to clearly measure the amount of printing any individual is doing. As Aaron explains, “We may have someone who isn’t on our staff come in, perhaps a speech and language therapist, and we know exactly what printing they’re doing and can assign the cost to them.”

It’s enabled the school to greatly reduce the number of printers they have and place them in common areas while maintaining privacy, because PaperCut Hive allows for the documents to be released when the appropriate staff member is there to collect them.

Additionally, as Aaron points out, “The print release function on the phones is really handy for our teachers because we have quite a large campus with buildings far apart, and it allows them to release the printing while they’re in the classroom and arrange for someone else pick it up way over the other side.”

It also allows teaching staff to prepare their worksheets and teaching materials at home and print them out quickly before the school day starts, eliminating the Monday morning photocopier traffic jams.

Outcome

A simplified process that reduces waste and cuts the final cord to onsite servers

The school has made savings through a significant reduction in total printing because of less paper wastage as well as the lower energy use achieved by eliminating the server entirely.

What’s more, by reducing the number of printers and photocopiers, as well as the server, Redwoodtown school has actually gained valuable teaching space. Aaron reports that they’ve turned former printer and photocopier rooms into student support spaces for children with special needs.

And Aaron’s happy to explain how the new system improves their actual ability to teach. “I’ve just been teaching in a class where there’s a highly autistic young man, and the teacher’s aide who is supporting him is taking photos of him doing his work. With PaperCut she can immediately print those out from her phone and put them on the wall to remind him and show him how well he’s doing. It’s just great.”