Controlling the Cost of Computer Printing PCOUNTER Cost

Controlling the Cost of Computer Printing PCOUNTER Cost Recovery for Network Printing Print Auditing, User Accounting & Printer Management

Print Accounting Why is there a need ? 1. Explosive network growth Greater access for all network computer users 2. Lack of Accountability Users rarely have to justify resource usage 3. Low cost of printer hardware Total cost of ownership not budgeted for

The Need for Print Accounting The True Cost of Ownership (Source: IBM) Hardware - 11% Service - 3% Supplies - 86% Consumables!

The Need for Print Accounting Two main reasons why people are often unaware of the print cost problem? • They have no idea what the cost is, usually because they have no means of accounting for it. • They have no responsibility for the budget, which pays for the consumable items.

PCOUNTER Feature List • Totally automated centralised tracking, control and accounting of all users’ printing • Audit trail of print jobs showing who printed what, where, when and how much • Accounting on a cost and page count basis for any PCL, Postscript, Epson ESC/P or ESC/P 2 device - HPGL devices costed by area used • Accounting by user (anyone with a network login) on a cost and page count basis • Optional assignment of print quotas (ideal for students in education)

PCOUNTER Feature List • Charge-back facilities to allow any user to cross charge to departments, bill to clients or allocate costs to projects • Re-direction or restriction of print jobs based on the page count or job size • Automatic rejection of unsupported job types and incorrect paper sizes • Optional workstation/parallel printer accounting for local devices on NT based networks

PCOUNTER Feature List • Supported on all versions of Net. Ware (including NDPS), NT server and Windows 2000 • Accounts for printing from any network PC • Easy implementation - no changes required to server, workstation or user configurations • No requirement for additional server or workstation resources • Discrete tracking: users need not be aware that their printing is being counted

PCOUNTER Network Print Accounting Set-up and administration • No user set up is required - users are automatically discretely tracked by their network login. and • Default queue/device settings can be defined to avoid repetitive set-ups of similar print devices. • Print credits can easily and quickly be assigned to individuals or groups of users • “Zero Administration” option is available by linking to a money loader machine which accepts coins/notes and updates students’ Pcounter quota balance automatically.

PCOUNTER - Printer/Queue Configuration

PCOUNTER - ‘Rules’ based control Pcounter allows “Rules” to be defined, based on page count and job size with the following options: - Delete the job - Put the job to the back of the print queue - Re-direct the job to another print queue - Put job on hold

PCOUNTER - “Charge back” accounting · Pcounter provides a number of configuration options to facilitate chargeback accounting. · 1 or 2 level charge codes · Force selection from a list of pre -defined codes · Associate selected codes with specific users · Exclude specified users from accounting

PCOUNTER - Centralised Queue Management · Viewing & modification of all print jobs. · Modification of Windows NT printer properties, Novell Net. Ware (Bindery & NDS) queue properties: Users, Operators. · Create/rename/delete printer queues. · Pause/resume/purge/restart/delete printers, queues & print jobs. · Cut & paste/view print documents, move jobs between printers and queues - even between Novell queues and Windows printers. · Drag & drop files onto printers/queues and drag documents from one printer/queue to another.

PCOUNTER - User Account Balances

PCOUNTER - User Account Balances When used for quota management, users can check their own Pcounter account balance at any time from any network PC.

PCOUNTER - Extensive Reporting Pcounter Print History All print jobs are logged showing document name, printer, date/time, workstation, Client code/sub-code, Paper size, features, size (Mb), page count, cost and balance. History can be displayed per user from Pcounter Administrator or per device from within Pcontrol.

PCOUNTER - Extensive Reporting Pcounter provides a number of reporting options - by User, Printer, Client codes, Groups and Deposits and relevant sub totalling. Reports can be output can be to screen, printer, text file, HTML file or email.

PCOUNTER - Extensive Reporting Preferences can be set for style and reporting viewing (default Pcounter Padmin, Web browser or Excel, CSV) Multiple logs can be selected and processed into single reports

PCOUNTER - Extensive Reporting Reports can be generated and displayed on screen, sent to a printer, saved as text or HTML, or emailed. Examples are shown here as screen output: - by user, showing jobs, pages and cost - by device showing jobs, pages and cost

PCOUNTER - Extensive Reporting This example shows print page count totals per printer, broken down by day over a selected week

For any queries please contact Foresight Software Solutions A division of Foresight Marketing Private Ltd Phone : 23367679 Fax : 23449935 Email: sales@foresightho. com URL: www. foresightho. com Bangalore: Mumbai: Delhi