Posted by Jordan Lindsey
Pull Printing (also known as Follow Printing) is an extremely valuable feature for enterprises looking to secure their printing environments. Each hundreds of millions of documents are printed and left unclaimed in the enterprise. Not only does this create a huge amount of waste (and wasted cost), but this can also create a significant security risk if those unclaimed documents contain sensitive or confidential information.
Luckily, Pull/Follow Printing enables enterprises to address this situation by enabling users to print and then release a print job directly from the printer, ensuring that the person is at the printer before the document prints.
Let’s take a look at how this works in PrinterLogic’s Pull Printing solution.
Pull/Follow Printing allows your users to print to a holding queue until they go to a Pull Printing-enabled printer of their choice. The print job then follows them to that printer, where the user can directly release it. One problem with many of the Pull Printing products out there is that you need a print server, and if that print server is down, then this functionality (and all other print functionality) won’t work. PrinterLogic’s single integrated platform enables enterprises to eliminate all print servers while maintaining all the functionality of their previous print environment, and adding many additional features.
PrinterLogic allows you to do everything that a print server environment does without any server dependencies. When your current users print with Pull Printing, they usually send the print job onto the print server (which must be available), then they go to a destination printer and release it with an interface to the printer. PrinterLogic gets rid of that server and goes a step further to allow the release from any electronic device that has a browser.
You create a virtual print queue called Pull Printing and have it automatically installed through PrinterLogic, or you can allow your end users to install it on their own with the self-service portal page that has floor plan maps. Now when anyone wants to print something to an unknown destination printer—even if they want to print to a destination that is10 floors up next to a conference room they’re headed to—they can rest assured that the print job will not be laying around for anyone to see while they make their way to that printer.
When the user prints to the Pull Printing queue, that places their print job into a holding queue. They can now walk to their destination printer, see the name of it and release the print job using any of the following:
1) Release Station—A PC or tablet (Android or iOS) is setup next to the printer. The device is set to kiosk mode and allows the end user to see and release their print jobs via the PrinterLogic web-based app.
2) Mobile Device—Any device with a browser can be used to select and release the stored print jobs via PrinterLogic.
3) Badge/Card Reader—A badge reader is placed at the printer or is native to the printing device. The badge reader integrates with the existing badge system to release the print jobs to the printer associated to the badge reader.
As you can see, Pull Printing enables users to simply hit print without sending that job to any particular printer. That print job instead goes into the PrinterLogic Pull Printing queue, and end users can then release the print job at any Pull Printing enabled printer on the network. This eliminates the danger of sensitive materials being sent to a printer and left unclaimed.