ARCHIVED: Completed project: IU Print

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Primary UITS contact: Pete Bucklin

Completed: December 17, 2012

Purpose: The IU Print project will extend the breadth of knowledge about our current investments and practices as they relate to print release on the IUB campus. Indiana University Bloomington has implemented several unique solutions for print management, especially regarding secure print release. However, it is unclear which requirements each deployment attempts to fulfill. Print release is considered to be a necessary component of the campus printing architecture, especially when a large group of users shares devices.

The Student Technology Centers first implemented print release stations in the Information Commons of the Wells Library in 2004 and immediately realized a ten to fifteen percent drop in unclaimed printer output. Over the next two years, print release stations were introduced into the remainder of the STCs, starting with the highest volume locations and finally extending to all Residential Technology Centers. Since that time, most academic departments running the IU build have incorporated print release stations into their facilities.

This project is intended to demonstrate the benefits of print release technology in an administrative setting. To do so, UITS will fully implement a production print release station model in the Cyberinfrastructure Building. Our long-term goal is to realize similar savings in all units of Indiana University.

Benefits:

  • Cost savings: Saves money by reducing print volumes, allowing confidential documents to be printed safely on cost-effective network printers
  • Green printing: Significantly reduces printing waste by allowing users to release only the jobs they need, while unreleased jobs are eventually deleted by the system
  • Document security: Holds print jobs until users arrive at the printer and release them
  • Device security: Ensures that only authorized users can operate your devices
  • Flexibility: Gives users the ability to release their print jobs at any print-release-enabled device
  • Virtualized Solution: Print release software typically manages the drivers that would be difficult to control in a virtualized client.

Concurrent with these efforts was an IU Purchasing initiative which assembled a Managed Print Services team to determine how IU can optimize the way printing is managed. Additionally, a UITS Computer and OCS SWAT team put forth the goal to implement the current Bloomington STC model to manage printing in the CIB. The IU Print project attempts to leverage the current print management dialogue, as well as sustainability requirements and technological innovations, to determine whether a print release model could be extended on the Bloomington campus.

This joint effort began with the identification of major stakeholders in UITS and on the edge. The focus would be primarily on accessing the viability of using Pharos in three categories: student, administrative, and academic. Phase I will be a use-case analysis and discovery period, followed by targeted deployments as learning opportunities. Targeted departmental deployments on the Bloomington campus, such as the CIB, will be implemented during Phase I. These deployments will be implemented with the newest version of Pharos and will analyze other Pharos features to determine the optimal setup of the product. Additionally, a discussion of the operations between IUB and IUPUI will be conducted. The goal of Phase I is to extend the breadth of knowledge about our current investments and practices. When enough information from targeted use cases is acquired, Phase I will be considered completed.

Milestones and status:

  • May 2011: CIB identified as an acceptable use case for PRO
  • June-July 2011: IU Print infrastructure (Pharos 8.2) built and tested on hardware at WCC/Franklin/Poplars
  • August 2011: Hardware moved to the CIB for further testing and analysis. CIB print release stations model goes into production.
  • September 2011: Review of initial CIB results with CIB staff
  • December 2011: Collaboration with IU Purchasing's Managed Print Services team
  • December 2011: Collaboration with IKON to identify process for use case implementation
  • January 2012: IU Print displayed at the CIB Technology Showcase
  • February-March 2012: IKON printing analysis with School of Education (BL), School of Music (BL), and SPEA (BL)
  • February-March 2012: Integrate IU Print solution into Client Virtualization Offering
  • April 2012: Financial analysis of STC print services completed
  • May 2012: Leveraged Services named Universal Print Service Owner

Comment process: Email UITS Leveraged Services.

Primary client: UITS; potentially IUB administrative and academic units interested in exploring centrally managed print release operations

Project team:

  • Duane Schau, Director, Client Services
  • Pete Bucklin, Manager, Leveraged Services
  • Doug Grover, Manager, STC
  • Mark Niswander, Enterprise Operations Planner
  • Catherine Zappia, STC Printing
  • Mat Decker, STC Printing
  • Tim Spears, Assistant Manager, STC

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Last modified on 2021-03-10 17:37:41.