Print Management Project

What is Print Management?

Print Management is a system whereby printing and photocopying across various hardware can be monitored, controlled and reported on.

New version of Equitrac for Staff and Student print accounting

The University of Adelaide has over 20,000 students and 2,800 staff across 4 campuses with over 600 networked printers. Printing in the staff and student environments currently lacks functionality, generates large amounts of waste and suffers technical limitations which degrades the user experience and adds to administrative overheads. There are a number of disparate print accounting solutions in place which also adds complexity for users.

Additionally the current version of Equitrac (2.5), used to monitor centrally supported printers in the student environment, and some printers in the staff environment, is out of support.

Information Technology Services have recommended Equitrac Express 4.1 be adopted as a centrally managed solution to print management, which is flexible enough to cater for differing business and technical requirements and can therefore be deployed across all areas of the University.

The benefits of Equitrac

• Follow-you printing: print jobs released through pagecounters on enabled printers will provide:
  • Security: print jobs are released by the user who submitted the job, at the time and place of their choice
  • Flexibility: able to collect the print from any enabled location, avoid bottlenecks, use the most appropriate printer
  • Environmental benefits: prints not released (collected) can be deleted from the print server automatically. These are called "avoided prints", and can be used as carbon offsets. Reduces paper and toner wastage.
• User education: notification of print costs and other options can be displayed on user workstations. Increases awareness of the costs associated with printing and can help 'steer' users towards better practices
• Quota management: able to apply monitoring and quotering on a per user basis. Access to reporting tools for business areas
• Reduced administrative overhead: in the student environment, current technical limitations necessitate frequent quota refunds. In staff areas administrators must get page counts from individual devices. Equitrac overcomes these limitations.
• Financial: reductions in paper, toner and power usage and therefore costs through the application of follow-you printing, quota management and user education
• Fault tolerance: reduces likelihood of major services outages.

The Project

The Print Management (Phase 1) Project has delivered a print accounting solution for staff and Postgraduates (Research) within the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. Six MFDs (Multi-Function Devices) are monitored by the Equitrac system.

The project has installed entirely new infrastructure to host this service, with the aim of providing a solid basis for further implementations across the University. 

Further Information for School of Agriculture, Food and Wine Staff

Specific additional information for School of Agriculture, Food and Wine Staff and postgraduates can be found here.

Who to Contact

Further information regarding Print Management can be obtained from the Project Manager, David Stoward, on extension 38392, or by email at david.stoward@adelaide.edu.au