Another Way Of Authentication

Output Management As A Way To Curb Color Printer Consumable Cost And Address Security Issues
By Klaus Bollmann

If you use Color Multi-Function Workgroup Printers you most probably got a shock when you had to pay over $200 for the yellow toner cartridge or $230 for the black toner. If you have a thousand of the beasts, that is quickly a quarter to half a million in a quarter. The new multi-function network printers have good graphical and color output but at a cost. Workgroup printing has reduced the cost of support but the new capabilities have come at a significant toner cost.

If you are sharing a workgroup printer with others then you are well aware of the loss of your document privacy. When you were printing on your desktop, the documents remained confidential, now they can be seen by anyone scanning them at the printer.

If those issues sound familiar and are also your issues, you may consider a printer output management solution. Such solutions usually contain two elements, a central server software or an appliance, usually a PC / Server with the software pre-installed, and a device next to the printer to let the print queue know you are there, ready to pick up your print output.

Depending on the size of your operation you may immediately see the benefit in toner and paper saving and can make a quick decision to employ such technology, or you may want to first find out how big your problem is, and use an accounting and print cost survey software.

To use a survey software usually does not tell the whole story and cannot take into account issues like the losses in productivity for re-prints due to printed output thrown away by your colleagues or confidential documents being read by the party you didn’t want to see the documents.

Once you have decided you will converge or have converged to multi-function workgroup printer and copier devices, and you want to manage color printing, faxing, emailing or copying for certain users, an output management system that includes user authentication will be the best option.

There are many output management offerings in the market, almost any printer manufacturer has its own system and if you only have one or two printers of the same make and you generally keep them for 3 years or more, that is the most cost effective solution for those printer manufacturers where the software comes free with the printer. The printer supplied authentication systems usually only work with PIN codes and sometimes those are cumbersome to enter, depending on the device’s front panel capabilities, functionality and ergonomics.