Building on a good reputation
 
South Cheshire College now has a modern printing strategy that pays for itself – thanks to IT provider XMA.
 

There is no doubt South Cheshire College has a reputation to protect. A few years ago, the Further Education College was awarded the highest inspection marks ever.
 

Consequently, director of Curriculum support, Nigel Peet, was keen to find even more ways to improve the College’s services. And there was one key area where he knew there was a weakness – the College’s printing strategy.
 

Nigel explains: “Someone brought a CD to me and said, ‘I think you need to watch this.’ It was an example of a printing management solution with network printers where students could manage their own printing accounts.”
 

“At the time we were using an antiquated system, running a range of laser printers which required a lot of technical time to keep them operating smoothly. We wanted something new.”
 

South Cheshire chose to work with IT provider XMA, one of the suppliers listed on one of its purchasing consortiums. By a happy coincidence, Nigel soon discovered XMA was a leading reseller of this type of system with an excellent reputation in the education market.
 

The solution implemented was one that combined Safecom software with HP multifunction printers – one for each of South Cheshire’s six open areas. Under the system, the 3,000 full-time and 6,000 part-time students at the College are automatically registered and awarded 300 credits for printing. Then, once those credits are spent, students must pay to replace them.
 

As a pull-printing solution, the system also requires the student to authorise the print job at a printer. If, after 24 hours this is not done, the document sent to print is automatically deleted. The usual wastage associated with unwanted print-outs is therefore eliminated.
 

What’s more, students can also use the same system, and the same ID card, to access photocopying.