Overview

PaperCut NG/MF is a comprehensive print management system designed to seamlessly monitor and control your resources with easy to use administrative and user tools that can be securely accessed from anywhere on the network though a web browser.

Print management requirements vary from organization to organization, and often change dramatically within an organization over time. PaperCut NG/MF is designed for flexibility and scalability and can be configured to meet your print management needs now and in the future. It is used in a wide variety of environments ranging from universities with large printer fleets supporting over 100,000 users to smaller organizations that track printing for a fewer than 50 users on 3 or 4 printers. You can implement a basic system within a few minutes, or if you need more than simple monitoring and reporting, you can configure powerful features that include differential pricing, blocking filtersFilters allow you to control attributes of the print settings by either forcing a particular attribute or denying a a print job that does not meet specific criteria. There are two types of print filters: conversions and restrictions. and programmatic control via APIs and scripting. No matter where you start, you can easily adjust parameters to implement changes as gradually or quickly as you want.

Possible implementations can include:

• Silent activity monitoring

• Visible activity monitoring and expense tracking by work area, projects and departments

• Quota/allowance enforcement

• Charge per-print system

• Combinations of all of the above to accommodate various user / group profiles

In addition PaperCut NG/MF provides SysAdmins with a kit of tools to manage printers including:

• Detailed logging and reporting

• Notifications for printer errors and low toner

• Job blocking filters and re-direction

Benefits

Some of the key benefits of PaperCut NG/MF are:

• Transfers accountability to users or departments by individually tracking activity.

• Creates environmental awareness by drawing users' attention to the impact of their specific usage.

• Reduces overall printing cost through job filtering, enforcing flexible quotas, or direct cost recovery.

• Discourages overuse of IT resources by establishing a managed print environment.

• Improves efficiency by allowing administrators to create rules that can steer printing to designated printers for load balancingPrinter load balancing automatically distributes print jobs between two or more printers. Load balancing is generally used to equally distribute print jobs across a pool of printers saving valuable time in document output for the user and at the same time balancing the wear and tear among printer devices., to implement Find-Me printingFind-Me printing allows users to print to a single global print queue without selecting a printer, and then release the print job at any printer (via a Release Station)., or to redirect print jobs based on criteria defined using advanced scripting tools.

• Improves network reliability by implementing rules to prevent printer queue jams, queue hogging, and inappropriate printing types.

• Protect intellectual property and conform to audit objectives by enabling features such as print auditing and digital signatures.

Key features

Some of the key features of PaperCut NG/MF are:

• Track all printing activity by user, client account, printer and document metadata.

• Enforce per user quotas, or group account budgets

• Differential print cost/charging allowing costs to be assigned on a per printer basis with advanced options to charge different amounts based on document type (e.g. color, grayscale or duplex), page size, user or group.

• Hardware neutral solution supports all major printer types and operating systems. No hardware vendor lock-in!

• Both cross-platform and multi-platform support. Run a mix of Windows and/or Linux print servers and support clients ranging from Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix and Novell OES.

• User Web Tools allow end users to track usage, transfer funds, request refunds and upload documents from unauthenticated (wireless) laptops.

• Provides end users with advanced options to allocate print jobs to shared accounts, cost centers, faculties or departments.

• Single sign-on user authentication with native Active Directory integration or synchronization with LDAPThe Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a directory service protocol that runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack. It provides a mechanism used to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories. The LDAP directory service is based on a client-server model. user accounts. (no separate passwords to manage!)

• Flexible hold/release queue support with Release StationPrint Release Stations place a print job on hold and allow users to release it when required. Often a Release Station is a dedicated PC terminal located next to the printers, however, Release Stations can take other forms such as a web browser based interface. Some common examples where Release Stations can be used include secure printing, approved printing, and authentication. In a secure printing environment jobs are only printed when the user arrives at the print area and confirms his or her identity. This ensures the user is there to collect the job and other users can't "accidentally" collect the document. In some organizations it may be appropriate to hold jobs until they are approved by selected individuals. A good example would be a teacher approving printing on an expensive color printer. Hold/Release queues can be used as a form of authentication in an unauthenticated environment. Users must authenticate prior to releasing their jobs allowing PaperCut NG to confirm their identity. software allowing administrators to implement management approved or secure user release printing environments.

• Service Oriented Architecture utilizing the latest software design methods including, test driven development, XML Web Services and layered architecture. This ensures scalability and stability by design.

• Advanced reporting and charts available in standard formats including PDF, Excel, and HTML. All reports accessible from anywhere on the network via a standard web browser.

• Ability to run on top of leading 3rd party Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSA Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a program that lets you create, update, and administer a relational database. Most commercial RDBMS's use the Structured Query Language (SQL) to access the database, although SQL was invented after the development of the relational model and is not necessary for its use.) including Microsoft SQLStructured Query Language (SQL) is a special-purpose programming language designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). Server, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL Database.

• Enterprise level security and encryption based on SSLSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or both end of the transactions. To be able to create an SSL connection a web server requires an SSL certificate. When you choose to activate SSL on your web server you will be prompted to complete a number of questions about the identity of your website and your company. Your web server then creates two cryptographic keys - a Private Key and a Public Key..

• Open architecture with a powerful scripting language, source code access and APIApplication Programming Interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software and applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types, defining functionalities that are independent of their respective implementations, which allows definitions and implementations to vary without compromising the interface. documentation.