Posted by Jordan Pusey
Most organizations that are currently considering implementing pull printing in their print environments are doing so for reasons of security. And make no mistake: Given the serious risk that privacy breaches pose, security is as good a reason as any.
As these organizations have come to understand, pull printing helps to ensure secure printing in enterprise environments because it has the ability to turn standard one-click print jobs into a deliberate but straightforward two-step process. In PrinterLogic’s Pull Printing feature, the secure printing process looks like this:
- Print job initiation: This is exactly what you and your end users already do—simply click “Print” in whatever operating system or software platform you’re using. At this point, the print job enters the queue at the destination printer as usual. What’s different about secure pull printing is that the job held there until the next step is completed.
- Print job authorization: This is the pull printing step that actually executes the job and requires the initiating user to be physically present at the printer. At that point the end user has three possible methods of executing, or “releasing,” the print job:
- By swiping a badge or ID card. This can be carried out with either a card reader that is already integrated into the printer or a standalone card reader that is associated with the destination printer.
- Through PrinterLogic’s browser-based release. Using any mobile device, even an inexpensive tablet, end users can select and release their print jobs securely through its built-in web browser.
- Via the embedded control panel. On printers that have an integrated LCD panel, end users can log in and execute their secure pull printing jobs once the PrinterLogic app has been installed.
How this creates a secure printing environment should be pretty clear: With end users present to retrieve their print jobs, the risk of those documents lying in the output tray and being read or taken by someone else is drastically reduced. Furthermore, because the user who initiated the print job is the only one authorized to print it, there’s almost zero risk of another user accessing the pull printing queue and printing another user’s documents.
But how exactly does secure pull printing enable your organization to tackle and eliminate waste?
The answer lies in the same two-step process that makes pull printing what it is. Because the authorization step requires the user to be physically present, the number of pull printing documents that go unretrieved—specifically, print jobs that have been forgotten or abandoned—drops precipitously. It also cuts down on re-prints, such as the color documents that were mistakenly printed out in black and white (or vice versa), or the documents that were printed, quickly corrected for a typo or two, and then printed again.
Some estimates put the amount of wasted print jobs like these at around 20% of your organization’s total print output. Therefore the potential is huge for pull printing to not only introduce secure printing but also to reduce waste throughout your organization. When that waste is avoided through pull printing, you end up saving money on toner, paper, plus wear and tear on machines.
And that’s just one way that PrinterLogic can help you with secure printing or in eliminating print-related waste. Our enterprise print management solution gives you greater oversight and control over your entire print environment, allowing you to easily customize individual printer profiles that default to black and white, for example, or identify which printers are most heavily utilized. That’s how companies like Kimberley Training Institute reduced their print consumables usage by more than 50% (TVID: D72-E54-472) after implementing PrinterLogic.