Posted by Jarrett Taylor
Secure Printing is increasingly becoming a requirement for many companies. Regardless of whether you’re dealing with HR, Accounting, Medical or other sensitive data, your organization’s print jobs need to stay secure until someone is physically at the printer to collect the document. This helps prevent sensitive information from sitting on the printer tray for everyone to read.
Did you know that every year, hundreds of thousands of documents are printed and then left unclaimed on printers in the enterprise? Think about it—we’ve all done it. We’ve all had moments where we hit print on an important document, only to be distracted by an important meeting or a conversation with a co-worker, leaving that printed material to sit out in the open on the printer tray.
Over 10 percent of all print jobs are forgotten at the printer, accounting for millions of dollars of waste per year in terms of wasted paper and toner. The larger the organization, the larger the financial impact of this waste becomes. And beyond the financial loss, there are also significant environmental ramifications to consider, too. It is estimated that each employee wastes 1,400 sheets of paper per year—that’s a lot of trees.
But there’s another huge consideration for enterprise users when it comes to unclaimed documents—security. When these unclaimed documents contain sensitive or confidential information, that creates a huge security risk. Imagine that one of your employees in HR prints a document with another employee’s personal information on it, and then accidentally leaves it on the printer for anyone to find. And that’s just one of many cringe-worthy scenarios.
And that is exactly why it was so important for us to bring Release Printing to our customers. PrinterLogic’s Release Printing Module secures the print environment by enabling users to send print jobs without releasing them until they are physically at the printer to receive the documents.
The available print job release mechanisms include:
Printer Console Release:
- The PrinterLogic app can be installed directly on a printer, enabling users to log in and release their print jobs directly from the LCD of the device. This method does not require any additional hardware for supported devices. For supported devices, the badge/card readers can authenticate directly to the PrinterLogic application.
Release Station:
- A dedicated terminal (desktop PC, tablet device, etc.) can be set up at a printer for users to release print jobs. Users will only be able to release print jobs to nearby printers, ensuring the physical security of the documents.
Browser-Based Release:
- Any device with a browser—including PC, Mac, Chromebook, and any mobile device—can access PrinterLogic’s web-based app and release print jobs securely.
Badge/Card Reader Release:
- 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 with the badge.
As a result, PrinterLogic’s Release Printing Module enables both Pull Printing and Secure Printing capabilities for organizations looking to secure their print environment by eliminating the risk of sensitive or confidential documents being printed and left unclaimed for someone else to discover.
Pull Printing
Pull Printing (also known as Follow Printing) enables users to create print jobs via a universal print driver, giving them the ability to release the print job at any printer of their discretion. Pull Printing works in all of the following environments: PC/Mac, Mobile and Chromebook.
Secure Printing
Secure Printing allows users to create a print job via a specific printer driver to a single printer, while enabling the user to release the job at the designated printer when they are physically there to receive the print job. By using the printer’s actual driver, all original printer functionality is maintained. Secure Printing is currently available in PC/Mac environments.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. If you’ve read our previous posts, you know that we’re all about Eliminating Print Servers here at PrinterLogic. But most organizations still believe they need to use a print server in order to roll out Release Printing functionality.
I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case. With PrinterLogic, you can now enable Pull Printing and Secure Printing with or without print servers.
I know this sounds too good to be true, and I don’t blame you for any skepticism. So let us prove it to you. Go ahead and sign up for a quick demo, and we’ll show you how this works in real time. We can also give you real-life examples of the customers who are already using PrinterLogic to eliminate their print servers AND deploy Release Printing.
As always, if you have any questions for us before signing up for a demo, just leave them in the comments below and we’ll get back to you quickly.