Education organizations have unique needs, and administrators know what a hurdle they can be, especially when it comes to printing. It's non-negotiable that students and staff need to print, but it can be a real challenge to print from multiple devices, different locations, and on different networks and environments. But nonetheless, the operation must run smoothly and administrators are pressured to keep costs lost. When it comes to a solution, there are four main challenges that enterprise print software must meet:
| 1. Flexibility |
A range of devices on multiple platforms |
| 2. BYOD |
Support a multitude of managed devices |
| 3. Security |
Sensitive documents must go to the right place |
| 4. Budget |
Stay within budget and offer high ROI |
Students, teachers, and other staff are always on the move. It can be difficult for admins to keep up with roaming employees, but it is especially difficult for admins in the education industry. As they roam from room to room, building to building, or campus to campus, not only do their needs change, but their devices, locations, and printers change. The key to effective management of print environments for these users is a solution that is flexible, and able to manage across multiple platforms, devices, and environments.
Tricerat's solutions for education are designed to fit the unique needs of education organizations. Regardless of who is printing, to where, or on what device, admins have granular or large-scale control over individual users or large groups of users. Printers can be assigned based on proximity, so students and faculty traveling from building to building or floor to have access to the right printers. Flexibility for both end users and administrators is key to solution success.
| Added challenge for administrators in the education field is the amount of devices that are unmanaged. Students and sometimes educators bring their own devices and still need to access printers. Admins then have to either set up each device manually, or rely on users to set up printers on their own, which often leads to significant issues. Both of these options are a drain on administrators time and productivity, as well as for students and staff. |
With a management solution like Tricerat, admins can enroll BYOD devices into a secure environment by just adding the devices to the WiFi. For provisioning printers, Tricerat's Simplify Printing software can adapt to different environment and give users easy access to printers. If users are connecting to managed applications, Simplify Printing can read the username and device information to publish to the correct printer to the user. For applications that are run on devices, the Simplify Printing agent can be installed on Windows, MacOS, or mobile endpoints to enable managed print queues on devices. Additionally, the software also gives user-controlled self-service so that they can add their own printer without having to know the IP or driver, or any other printer information.
Teachers and educators print all kinds of private documents, and students oftentimes print sensitive information as well. The concern for education organizations when it comes to printing security occurs in two places. The first is when the job is sent from a user's session to the printer, traveling in the network between computers. The second is once the document is printed, there are concerns that someone else could reach the printer first, or it could have been printed to the wrong printer entirely. Some printers offer a secure print or locked print features requiring printing users to enter a code to retrieve their document, preventing this security risk. However, these features are driver-specific and often print solutions don't support access.
| To address these problems, administrators need a solution that offers encryption and also allows users to access advanced print features. Tricerat's software Simplify Printing offers print job encryption to ensure all jobs are secure while they are transferred to the server, and allows encryption keys to be set at each print server. Simplify Printing also give users access to full advanced print feature functionality, without needing to install the printer manufacturer's driver on the desktop. With these built-in features, administrators can effectively ensure their users are printing efficiently and securely. |
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For Education organizations, it all comes down to budget. There's always something that needs to be improved, but for decision-makers, the bottom line is always ROI and staying within the budget. Oftentimes, solutions for things like printing fall by the wayside because the ROI is unclear, or there are more pressing concerns. But administrators that manage enterprise environments know that printing issues are frustrating, time-consuming, and inhibit productivity for both admins and users.
| These issues add up to dollar amounts. Education organizations need to keep a tight budget, and printing issues often go unchecked. It can be very taxing to a company's finances when print tickets are escalated through higher levels of support, for what should have been a simple issue. Studies show that on average 1 in 4 help desk tickets are print-related. Of those tickets, 15% are escalated beyond the first level of support, which can triple or even quadruple the cost per ticket. |
Tricerat's solutions provide not only a visible ROI but return valuable time back to employees, boosting productivity and reducing employee frustration day-to-day. With Tricerat's ROI Calculator, administrators can see exactly how much they could be saving on printing. By making printing seamless for admins and users, organizations will realize high-cost savings and greater employee productivity.
Learn more about gaining rapid ROI
Tricerat offers demos and free trials for all software. Whatever your organization's needs or unique environment, try it out and see how Tricerat software layers seamlessly into your education environment and meets your needs quickly and efficiently. Contact us if you have any questions about features, functionality and more, or review our case studies to see for yourself how we've helped others in the education industry and beyond.