One of the biggest reasons printing is dying out in schools is the associated costs of paper and other consumables.
However, printing is still necessary for many learning activities that are best done with physical worksheets. However, if your print environment is poorly managed, you could be overspending on consumables like printer and toner.
If you're tasked with finding more economical and eco-friendly solutions for your school's print environment, you likely aim to reduce waste. Waste is often created by:
Because of the financial and environmental impact of print waste, schools are moving to cloud printing to increase efficiency and manage costs.
If you're looking to mitigate these issues to save money and trees, here's an overview of the top five ways cloud printing software can elevate your print environment.
Cloud printing software refers to programs designed to require active user intervention to retrieve print jobs. This innovative technology helps mitigate costs for schools in several ways.
Cloud printing can help you save money and paper in several ways. It can help you reduce or eliminate wasted copies, track print jobs and supplies, and manage your print environment effectively.
Tools like uniFLOW are great solutions for forgotten prints left to go to waste in printer trays. This tool, along with others such as Papercut, requires active user intervention to retrieve print jobs.
This means users must physically walk up to a machine and instruct it to print their materials to retrieve them. Not only does this reduce waste, but it also helps protect sensitive data such as documents containing student information or grades.
Learn more about how the cloud changes the game for data security and print efficiency in our blog: 5 Benefits of Moving to the Cloud With Your Business Tools
Purchasing or leasing even the best printers for teachers still doesn't eliminate the challenge of expensive paper and toner.
Although upgrading to a good printer for schools is beneficial for consumable use, you should be able to track it for optimal management. uniFLOW and other cloud-based print servers allow you to track which teachers, or departments print the most and least, for example.
This can help you regulate or limit print counts by department. This oversight could be a good motivator for teachers to look over print previews carefully or do test pages to ensure they don't waste pages.
Knowledge is power, and when it comes to printing, it can mean saving money, too. Print analytics are a unique feature in tools like uniFLOW, which allow for administrators to track costs for accounting purposes.
This tool allows you to allocate costs to certain projects or purposes, which is helpful in conserving prints. These allocations can be assigned per-user or group as you see fit.
This means, for example, you can allocate a certain print cost limit to each teacher per semester or school year. With this capability, you can also identify the most costly time periods for printing during the school year and plan accordingly.
Print fleet management is crucial in controlling costs. Often, schools don't optimize the types and number of devices in their fleet to accommodate demand and cost-effectiveness.
Cloud printing programs can help you figure out what your staff needs and to what degree. It does this by providing analytics for the types of prints and number of copies teachers need on average. This can inform what devices may suit your school best, and if you need to scale up or down.
Does your school need color printers or black and white printing capabilities? How do the costs of each compare to your staff's actual needs? A good printer for teachers should satisfy needs for:
Cloud printing is available for most print devices. uniFLOW is a Canon solution, while Papercut is more universally compatible with different brands of printers and copiers. Learn more about these solutions in our blog: Comparing PaperCut and uniFLOW–What’s Best for You?
One frustrating aspect of printing in schools is the hassle of print jobs not uploading correctly from desktop to printer. Teachers don't have much downtime to run back and forth, so ensuring their prints are ready for retrieval upon getting to the printer is essential.
Cloud printing solutions simplify this process. Teachers and staff will each have their own account credentials for the cloud print tool set up with the device. This offers simplicity for both your users and IT department, since it only requires one driver to deploy instead of several for traditional printing.
From there, they have full control over when prints are sent and retrieved. This can help reduce the stress of printing and lesson prep.
Education is a rewarding and often challenging line of work, so your print environment should foster ease and enhanced capabilities for busy staff.
Read more about cloud printing and its many benefits in our blog: What is Cloud Printing?
If you're curious about how cloud printing can transform your school's print strategy or if you're looking for the best printer for schools, click the button below to speak to a managed print expert.