Print managetment system

[mikeleahy]

hi

we sell MFD products and we are tendering for a contract with a university . They want a print mgt system that will enable students to submit print jobs using a web browser. the jobs will be picked up in the print room by the print operator and then printed etc. all jobs to be traceable by the print operators. does anyone know any software products that will do this??? thanks in advance

 

[mikeleahy]

sorry, not print jobs over the web browser. they want the management app to be a web based browser for looking at stats etc i.e. who sent what job, a receipt for the job etc

 

[Primis]

There's Papercut Quota:

http://www.papercut.biz/pcstandard_screen.htm

And O&K PrintWatch:

http://www.prnwatch.com/

Those are the two big ones I know of that support web-based tracking and reporting. We've been testing some of these out where I work. Papercut seems pretty slick and is a nice clean install. O&K was a bit of a messier install, but still seems like a nice product once you can get it going.

Neither are particularly cheap though.

 

[mikeleahy]

i have been talking to the customer again and what they want is weird

they want an employee to be able to attach their document for printing to a web based application and send it to the print room. The print room operators will then print the document .

is there any software that does this??

 

[Primis]

I really don't think so. They'd have to write their own middleware to do something like that, because it's needlessly complex. They want a print proxy that doesn't actual involve normal priting methods or spooling.

I'd ask them again what exactly they want, and why. Because it sounds like they don't entirely understand the concept of print spooling.

Either that or they're paranoid and want absolute 100% control over printing, in which case they're probably going to have to pay to have something written specifically for them, which won't be cheap. If this is the case and they're stuck on the idea, make sure you hamemr that point home that it won't be cheap or easy.

 

[mikeleahy]

thanks