Managed Print Service

[theengel]

I'm an independent tech and I'm thinking of offering MPS. But I don't know a whole lot about it. Is there a preferred open source software that can track print services? Is there a place to learn more about it?

[Judd]

Re: Managed Print Service

Several vendors offer the service. Supplies Network offers a range of services such as page count monitoring, help desk, etc. Westpoint also has a program.

The nice thing is they just charge per device with no minimum

I doubt you'll find any free or open source software

[blackcat4866]

Re: Managed Print Service

As an independent, you'll need an in-office person to sort through the extraneous traffic. For example, every time a machine runs low on toner, out of toner, paper jams, or error codes an email is generated. For me that meant 500 to 600 emails per day in my email box. 90% of these were customer resolved without any interaction from us.

Within a short period of time my email became so bogged down with extraneous traffic that it was impossible to find the important stuff. Fortunately for me, we got an office person during that time period to sort out all the chaff from the wheat.

The worst were low volume machines that generated low toner indications for a week or more before they got low enough to require toner installation. After a while we developed a criterion: If a machine remained in error or jam condition for over 24hours, the office person would call about it. We definitely did not blindly send out a tech every time an error popped up. =^..^=

[Gift]

Re: Managed Print Service

With a proper configuration you can filter just specific events to be sent. Still it might be a lot of mails depending on how much machines you're going to hook up.

[Judd]

Re: Managed Print Service

With fm audit you can set certain criteria such as alert when there are so many jams in a set time period

[sikandar]

Re: Managed Print Service

You can check with print audit for MPS

I have attached a view of the FM

[allan]

Re: Managed Print Service

HP jetadmin. Works with SNMP and MIB agent some machines needs plugins on jetadmin. I use Pcounter.

[allan]

Re: Managed Print Service

Burned by the boss! I agree we don't always think things thru before we post stuff. I end up deleting my own post realizing I don't really know anything about the topic but still stay eager to try and help. There is a reason we are copier techs and not software developers.

Because software developers would really suck at our job

[TheOwl]

Re: Managed Print Service

I would like to formly apologise for my misleading comments and would like to retract those comments.

I have asked for my post regarding this statement to be removed.

[ZOOTECH]

Re: Managed Print Service

I would like to formly apologise for my misleading comments and would like to retract those comments.

I have asked for my post regarding this statement to be removed.

It takes a person of great standing to admit a mistake, kudos to you!

[habik]

Re: Managed Print Service

Stay away from Ferrari Owl they are expensive!

Thanks for your input.

[leonardob]

Re: Managed Print Service

As an independent, you'll need an in-office person to sort through the extraneous traffic. For example, every time a machine runs low on toner, out of toner, paper jams, or error codes an email is generated. For me that meant 500 to 600 emails per day in my email box. 90% of these were customer resolved without any interaction from us.

Within a short period of time my email became so bogged down with extraneous traffic that it was impossible to find the important stuff. Fortunately for me, we got an office person during that time period to sort out all the chaff from the wheat.

The worst were low volume machines that generated low toner indications for a week or more before they got low enough to require toner installation. After a while we developed a criterion: If a machine remained in error or jam condition for over 24hours, the office person would call about it. We definitely did not blindly send out a tech every time an error popped up. =^..^=

Try FM (facilities Manager) form Print Audit , is very easy to install and run ... Note with the simpler version you'll only be able to trance network connect devices (there is a other version to track the local connected (USB/Etc)). You can configure the alerts in many ways to minimise the amount of emails you getting. Print Audit provides a full test version on trial for a period (mostly 2 months) ... Since I have it , I can't live without it.