Jan 20, 2021
Although COVID-19 vaccines have finally made their way to the U.S., it could be months (or even years) until workers feel unimpeded by concerns of risk exposure in their personal and professional environments. And whether you’ve remained in your office space all along or are expected to return soon, eventually you will find yourself needing to use printers with surfaces that have been used by several people on a daily basis. Printers and print rooms are overflowing with touchpoints for users and administrators and now, more than ever, harm minimization is key. It’s crucial to reduce the number of surfaces you need to come into contact with, and one precautionary measure you can take is to introduce contactless printing into your workplace.
Enter PaperCut MF. PaperCut MF enables user, device level management, and control for all your printers and multifunctional devices (i.e. MFDs - copy, print, fax and scan). With this remarkable product, you can create a touch-free environment right within your print network — plus it works with just about any printer or operating system! No matter your environment or technology setup, PaperCut’s MF products offer different touch-free printing methods that can be set up within mere minutes.
Check out our list of favorites below:
If you’re already using a PaperCut MF card reader to authenticate with swipe cards or fobs, you can implement a touch-free solution for your Find-Me print users by enabling the ‘automatically release jobs upon login’ option via the Admin web interface of PaperCut MF. Once selected, print jobs will automatically release after users swipe their card at the printer.
Something to note with this method: While this solution creates a touch-free printing experience, it also removes the ability for you to delete unwanted print jobs before they’re released, which may impact your environmental targets and cost saving measures.
This print solution is ideal for any printer or MFP that does not support embedded applications. Fast release terminals leverage commodity off-the-shelf card readers available from multiple manufacturers. They are connected to the print network, not the printer, which allows them to be used with any printer on the market. Similar to the swipe card method above, you use your swipe card (or fob) on the fast release terminal, where your held print jobs will be automatically released for you at the printer.
This is a very convenient option that allows you to authenticate and release held print jobs securely to any printer within your print environment – directly from your mobile device. Once you’ve converted your mobile device into your own personal “release station”, you simply send your print to the queue, walk up to the device, and then scan a QR code (for the truest touch-free option) with your mobile device’s camera, tap on the link to login to PaperCut, and tap release. It’s that simple!
If the above options don’t apply to your printing environment, this may be the right option for you. Using a web browser, you can access your print queue using PaperCut credentials and view your job(s) right from your own device. Once logged in, you can choose to either delete or print those jobs and select which printer they want the job to be released to.
If you want to cut back on the number of people at the printer entirely, you can utilize this method that authorizes certain users to release print jobs on behalf of others. These designated print collectors can then access and release jobs from the queues of any user or group that you specify, lessening the number of people heading in and out of the shared printing space. As a bonus, you can combine this method with the user web interface to make it a completely touch-free experience!
Similar to the delegated print release option above, a release station is a computer situated near a printer and used specifically to provide visibility and control of the held print jobs, and to release those jobs to the printer. Once set up, designated release managers are provided with exclusive access to the release station interface to either release or delete the print jobs.
Whether it’s for safety concerns during the pandemic or just for peace of mind, you can transform your print network to be a completely touch-free experience for everyone using any of the solutions from Papercut above. And here at Milner, we offer an extensive selection of PaperCut products, along with experts to guide you through your contactless printing experience.
