VendPrint K-12

The perfect choice for the K12 education market, K12 VendPrint allows administrators to create a database of users/students with a preset balance which can be used to automatically pay for print jobs. Jobs sent to a network print queue by a user/student are examined and the cost of the job is calculated based on administrator defined pricing. The senders username is then used to lookup an account balance on file in the K12 VendPrint users/student database. If the user has a sufficient balance to pay for the print job, the job will automatically be released to the actual printer. If not the job will be held until released by an administrator or the senders account balance is updated. Additionally, the K12 VendPrint print monitor allows for the implementation of release stations with vending units allowing the users/students to use cash and/or debit cards to pay for jobs when they have no balance left, or add to their balance via cash and/or debit cards.

K12 VendPrint provides a variety of methods to control printing in K12 environments. From passively tracking print activity to allowing print quota’s for each student or faculty member, to requiring payment for each print job, we have a configuration option for you. Please call to discuss your preferred method of print management.

Three popular methods to control print in K12 education environments

Configuration option #1-Print Savant
Print Savant is targeted at organizations that have a need to manage and control their printing costs, but do not need or wish to provide a mechanism to pay for jobs prior to their printing. Print Savant automatically monitors and controls print queues on a Windows XP, 2000 or 2003 operating system. Jobs submitted to the identified queues will be costed and the information about the job written to a log file, prior to their automatic release. The result is a file that details all of the jobs printed, identifies who printed the job, the document name of the job printed, the number of pages and paper stock selection, and the cost of the job as printed. This log file can be used for analysis and or charge back purposes.
Print Savant works with any network connected PostScript or PCL printer that has line of sight to the network. Print Savant's log file can be manipulated to display the information in a number of predefined reports such as:
1. Jobs printed by printer
2. Jobs printed by sender
3. Jobs printed by department
4. Jobs printed by account number
Print Savant can reside on any PC throughout your network, and does not require a dedicated PC. Minimum requirements for Print Savant should be Pentium II 500Mhz Processor, 128MB System RAM, 9GB disk drive, CD-ROM and floppy disk drives, 10/100MB Ethernet network connection. The software can also reside on any existing Windows based server.

Configuration option #2-K12 VendPrint
K-12 VendPrint allows administrators to create a database of users/students with a preset balance which can be used to automatically pay for print jobs. Jobs sent to a network print queue by a user/student are examined and the cost of the job is calculated based on administrator defined pricing. The senders’ username is then used to lookup an account balance on file in the K12 VendPrint users/student database. If the user has a sufficient balance to pay for the print job, the job will automatically be released to the actual printer. If not the job will be held until released by an administrator or the sender can optionally be allowed to print into a negative balance. Additionally, K12 VendPrint allows for the implementation of release stations with vending units allowing the users/students to use cash and/or debit cards to pay for jobs when they have no balance left, or add to their balance via cash and/or debit cards.

Configuration option #3-K12 Print Monitor
K-12 Print Monitor insures that all jobs that have been printed to network attached printers have been released for print by a person who has been given the role of monitoring and printing jobs that are appropriate and necessary, as well as collecting funds when appropriate. K-12 Print Monitor intercepts the print jobs that are submitted by students connected together through a LAN/WAN connection. Each student’s print job is spooled to a designated print queue. The student will be notified how many pages are in the job, and if appropriate, how much they will be charged. Students will also be given the choice to rename their print job for easier identification. Thereafter a designated monitor, by accessing a VendPrint Release Station, can select a student’s job to be printed and indicate to which printer the job will be printed. The result is an environment where only appropriate and non-wasteful print jobs are printed by the students, and all jobs are tracked for cost analysis and review as needed.

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows: 2000 Workstation, 2000 Server, XP, 2003 Server and Terminal Servers.
• Novell: 4.1 and newer. NDPS and non NDPS printing.
• Unix: All
• Apple: All
• Citrix servers: On the supported Windows servers.